Meet Beth Heyer of Babysitting Connection

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Heyer.

Hi Beth, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Since becoming a mom in 2014, I discovered my passion: moms. I love helping moms, talking with moms, organizing parties for moms, and celebrating all things moms! In 2018, my family and I moved to Austin, 1000 miles from our closest friend or relative. In Ohio, we had an incredible support system and a little roster of sitters. But then we moved to Austin, and it was all gone! When it was time to start looking for babysitters, I struggled to find what I hoped for. It came time for me to hang up my Stay At Home Mom shoes in late 2019, and because of my own experience, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I combined my love for helping moms and filling a large gap in access to safe, reliable, and trustworthy babysitters. With that, Babysitting Connection launched in January 2020 in Austin!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I started this business, I thought we would be a date night and weekend sitting business. We originally had a three-sits-a-month package and a five-sits-a-month package, and I thought we were good to go. However, about two months after we launched, COVID-19 happened. It quickly became clear that we needed to figure out how to fill a huge gap. Suddenly, there were all these families working from home who didn’t feel comfortable sending their kids to daycare or school or whose schools or daycares were closed. We added our 10-sits-a-month package along with our unlimited sits package. We also started offering Consistent Care, where we match families with sitters who want a more consistent schedule each week! It was a lot of adjusting from the original business plan early on. However, this has set the tone for Babysitting Connection. We are constantly thinking of ways to do things better, to help more families find care, to make sure our sitters feel safe, and much more.

As you know, we’re big fans of Babysitting Connection. For our readers who might need to become more familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Babysitting Connection was founded on the idea that parents already have enough on their plate. Finding reliable and trustworthy babysitters can be a lot of work, and Babysitting Connection can help. Whether you need consistent, reliable care every week or a few date nights each month, we have you covered. Our service offers sitters every day of the year. We also understand that the “perfect sitter” for one family may not be an ideal fit for another family, so we give you choices. I founded Babysitting Connection in 2020 in Austin, TX, and began expanding to other Texas cities in 2021. We have booked over 40,000 sits, have more than 250 vetted sitters on our roster, and now have 5 amazing women working on our team! What sets us apart is our customer service and vetting process. We are not care.com or an app where parents and sitters are left alone. We are women working behind the scenes to ensure every sit is filled with a qualified sitter who meets the family’s requirements. Plus, if you need help and reach out, you will hear from one of our team members within minutes. We don’t have an automated system when you call. We have a fantastic team to walk you through whatever you need. If a sitter has an emergency and can’t reach your sit, we’ll even contact every available sitter on your behalf to get you someone else! Just like our customer service, we are diligent about our vetting process. We don’t allow just anyone to be added to our roster, and we hold anyone who comes onboard to a high standard. I imagined what I would want in a babysitter agency: well-qualified, certified, and background-checked sitters, and I created just that. All sitters on our roster have to meet the following qualifications: