Do-it-all childcare service Aloha Nannies booms

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Lori Chaffin feels the twinge whenever a potential childcare client asks whether she has children of her own.

Krisann Raposa, 23, holds 5-month-old Justin Mosher under the watchful eye of Lori Chaffin, owner of Aloha Nannies. Chaffin said she developed the idea from her experience as a nanny after moving to Hawai'i in 1998. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I get asked that every day," Chaffin said. "You would think that someone who runs a nanny agency would have kids. The answer is, 'No.' It is kind of ironic."

The important thing is that Chaffin is healthy and so is her 4-year-old business, Aloha Nannies.

Other childcare services provide only full-time nannies, Chaffin said. Some hotels offer in-room baby-sitting. Another service has organized a daycare center for Japanese tourists.

But Chaffin said her company is the only one that does everything — from full-time care to part-time baby-sitting. In English and Japanese. In both homes and in hotel rooms.

The idea grew out of Chaffin's six-month experience as a nanny after she moved to Hawai'i in 1998 from her hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska.

She couldn't find work, even though she had applied for everything from promotions and marketing to being a receptionist at a gym.

"I thought that maybe I'll nanny for a year until I figure out what I want to do," Chaffin said. She earned $300 a week and had room and board in Hawai'i Kai, taking care of a 6-month-old boy and 2 1/2-year-old girl.

The job worked for both Chaffin and the children's mother, Diana Allen.

"I'd had a real hard time trying to find somebody who was good and reliable," said Allen, director of purchasing for a food service company. "It's one of the most nerve-racking things to find someone responsible. Lori would take them out on outings and not just have them sitting around watching the TV all day."

Aided by an outgoing personality, Chaffin met other parents who complained about a lack of quality childcare in Hawai'i. She began introducing the parents to women Chaffin met around town — from college students to retirees.

Chaffin decided she was good at putting parents together with baby sitters and nannies. So she invested $6,000 in savings and $8,000 from a credit card to launch Aloha Nannies.

From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Chaffin took care of Hawai'i Kai children. At night she met with potential nannies at coffee shops and visited parents at their homes or in their offices. She wrote templates for contracts, questionnaires for both clients and nannies, informational packets so parents didn't get in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, and put together lists of playgroups and free activities. She also set up a Web site, www.alohanannies.com.

Chaffin met with hotel officials to be listed as a referral for guests and promoted her new business at events such as the Baby Expo.

"I'd take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese and I have a big mouth so I'd meet families and preschool teachers and put them together," Chaffin said.

When she left Allen after six months, Chaffin had found her a new nanny who had undergone a criminal background check through a Mainland company. The background checks are now standard for Aloha Nannies. She also only uses U.S. citizens.

"She's very thorough," Allen said. "You want to make sure the applicant not only looks good on paper but is who they say they are."

Chaffin offers a contract that promises to provide nannies who are CPR certified and screened for diseases such as tuberculosis. Parents fill out forms specifying exactly what duties they want from the nanny — whether it's bathing the children, washing their clothes, organizing play dates or driving them around town.

The going rate for baby-sitting and nannies in Honolulu is somewhere between $8 and $12 per hour but Chaffin helps parents and nannies work out financial arrangements.

For her part, Aloha Nannies charges parents a one-time fee, which ranges from $50 for occasional baby-sitters to $750 for a full-time, permanent nanny. The total brings in about $2,000 per month in revenue.

Chaffin also earns income as a certified monitor through both the state and city to watch over children involved in custody disputes and transport them from one parent to the other for visitations. She also just published a directory of holistic and homeopathic services and products called the Hawaii Wellness directory.

Aloha Nannies is doing so well after hundreds of placements that Chaffin only has to work about 20 hours a week out of her home. But she's always looking for ways to put parents and nannies together.

Tina Wary and her husband, Ed, own the Auntie Pasto's chain of restaurants, Dixie Grill and Eddie's Burgers and Frozen Custard, and were looking to spend more time with each other after their daughter, Madeline, was born two years ago.

Tina placed a classified ad looking for a part-time baby sitter and Chaffin responded. She faxed information about Aloha Nannies and directed Wary to her Web site. She gave Wary a questionnaire to list the duties and asked Wary to outline her ideal baby sitter.

"I wanted someone who had a background in early education, who only wanted part-time work but had bigger career motives," Wary said. "I guess I wanted someone who was well-rounded."

Chaffin provided a list of a dozen women, all of them qualified, Wary said. She ended up picking a college student from Illinois named Kathleen Stolze who was moving to Hawai'i — but only after talking to Stolze's family, parents of Stolze's friends and her boss in Illinois.

"Oh my God," Wary said. "It's been such an unbelievable experience for the entire family. Madeline just absolutely adores her. My husband and I both adore her."

Last month they went on a ski trip to New Zealand where Stolze took care of Madeline.

"Lori was very professional, very organized," Wary said. "She showed a lot of professionalism and an entrepreneurial kind of attitude in responding to my ad."

Otherwise, Wary got a handful of other responses.

"I didn't even speak to them," Wary said. "I didn't even get past their résumés because I wasn't impressed."

Wary has since referred Aloha Nannies to her friends whenever they ask how she found a nanny worth gushing over.

"They ask, 'How did you find Kathleen?' " Wary said. "And then I do this whole sales pitch for Aloha Nannies."

Reach Dan Nakaso at 525-8085 or dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.