Originally founded in Tulsa in 2004 by private investigator Adrienne Kallweit and her husband David Kallweit after struggling with their own needs, the nationwide childcare and nanny providers SeekingSitters & Nannies has a new franchise outlet in Westchester County.
Carrying the baton is franchisee Natanya Bertin, a mother of three, with a background in education and emergency services, whose business experience, as she recently told Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal, has given her “a front-row seat to the childcare juggling act that parents face daily – before school, after school and during unexpected closures.”
Bertin said that between her professional experience observing how families struggle with logistics and her personal experience as a mother, she recognized a persistent gap in accessible, reliable childcare options in the region.
“With my background in emergency management, I saw an opportunity to bring SeekingSitters’ proven model to Westchester — a service that prioritizes safety and reliability while making quality childcare accessible to all families.”
The catalyst was actually a crisis moment years ago. Her regular babysitter had to resign suddenly due to family issues and Bertin had no backup plan, ultimately having to leave her part-time job because she couldn’t find reliable care quickly enough.
After discovering SeekingSitters, Bertin said her research into whether there was a strong local market (in Westchester) started organically.
“People kept asking me for babysitter recommendations. I found this amusing because my children are now young adults, so I’m well past the stage of knowing current babysitters. But the fact that people kept asking told me something important. Parents are desperate for trusted referrals.”
She also looked at what it would take to start a service herself, as opposed to joining an established brand. The cost was one consideration, but the real differentiator, she said, was the background screening process.
“While most childcare services do basic online background checks, SeekingSitters is the only service I found that conducts comprehensive background screening through an in-house licensed private investigator, and they screen both the sitters and the member families. That dual screening was the biggest selling point for me.”
SeekingSitters has two revenue streams – membership fees and booking commissions. Families pay a modest one-time membership fee, which covers their background check, and then select a service plan, whereby you either pay per request or through an unlimited monthly or annual arrangement.
The booking revenue comes from commissions on services provided. When families book babysitting, pet sitting or tutoring, SeekingSitters earns a percentage per transaction. The model, Bertin said, is designed to generate revenue only when sitters are actually working and families are being served. “It aligns our incentives with quality placements rather than just collecting membership fees.”
The membership structure also creates some predictability in recurring revenue, while commission-based income scales with booking volume. As the sitter network and client base expand, both revenue streams “should increase in proportion.”
The other advantage, Bertin said, was scale. SeekingSitters has more than 100 locations nationwide, which means sitters can work at any location and members can use the service anywhere in the country. She said she could not have built such a comprehensive network independently.
Asked about the nuts and bolts of the franchise operation, Bertin was able to share that the initial investment, or buy-in, was $3,000 for the license fee from SeekingSitters, which gave her access to the company’s platform, brand and nationwide network. She said the upfront cost was significant but meant she didn’t have to build technology infrastructure from scratch or establish her own brand recognition.
Beyond that initial investment, Bertin has kept the operation lean. “There’s no office space, no employees. I handle all operations myself. The business model enables me to scale gradually based on actual demand, rather than making large upfront commitments for staff or inventory.”
Like many service businesses, she added, the real investment was in time – building the sitter network, establishing trust in the community and proving the value proposition to families. Or, as she put it compactly: “The financial barrier to entry was manageable, but the sweat equity is substantial.”
