From accounting to childcare, with some darts thrown in: Mark Hudson’s journey with Caresies

Both in their mid-30s and busy working fulltime, Caresies co-founders Mark and Michelle wanted to find an easy, user-friendly, affordable and safe way to find nannies and babysitters.

Mark Hudson, co-founder of Caresies, talks to Tom Raynel about his transition from accounting to childcare, and how his family’s experience paved the way to start the business. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, which is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.

What is Caresies?

Caresies is a platform for parents to be able to find a nanny or a babysitter. I’ve been working in the childcare space, I suppose, for five or six years now. I run a somewhat related nanny payroll business. I’ve seen lots of nannies over the years, so that’s one part of it, being involved in the space and having an understanding.

What inspired you to start the business?

It was created by my wife Michelle and I. We’re both mid-30s, busy, both working fulltime and understand the challenges around finding childcare and being able to balance out work with life, with everything else that goes in between.

Some of the traditional ways to do it include using word of mouth, which comes with scepticism around who you’re actually meeting, and then agencies and more traditional routes, which tend to come with more costs. Caresies was a way to bridge that gap and find an easy, user-friendly, affordable and safe way to be able to find nannies and babysitters.

Caresies was co-founded by husband and wife duo Michelle and Mark. Both in working life, they understood the challenges around finding childcare with a busy schedule and wanted to do something about it.

How did you grow the platform, and how do you vet applicants?

In terms of like sourcing the nannies, it comes through traditional advertising routes. A lot have come now through word of mouth. It took a little while to grow that base because when we first started up, we focused just on the nannies, but it’s a two-sided platform. When the nannies go on, they’ve got to have something for them to do. When a parent signs up, there’s got to be nannies there to be able to market to, otherwise it kind of falls flat pretty quick.

On vetting, there’s been the goal to provide the structure, but then doing it in a way that’s balanced in the sense that if you go through a traditional recruitment process for a corporate role, you go through a lot longer and seek and interviews and that sort of thing. A nanny was always going to be slightly more casual, just in the way it’s a family hiring a nanny, but providing the tools that can create the professionalism around it and some of those safety features as well.

Everyone, to be able to use the platform, needs to be ID verified. So the person is who they say they are, and we use a third party to do all of that authentication. Then in addition to that we’ve got the option to do a right to work check, so have they got the right to work in New Zealand and then completing a full vet check as well, which is optional.

When you’re viewing a nanny’s profile, you can see whether or not they’ve done those checks as well. So if someone’s got all the green ticks next to their name, they’ve been properly gone through the whole process.

How have you found the transition from accounting, and darts?

I think my experience is quite broad compared to a traditional accountant. My core skills, background and qualifications as an accountant, I’ve done a lot outside of that general business and starting and building ideas. One example, which is very unrelated to childcare, is I ran a professional dart series across the country.

Not a natural segue through from darts to to childcare, but I think it’s just once you’ve gone through and you’re seeing all the moving pieces and how everything works, it’s a lot more broad than just a traditional stereotypical accountant, I suppose.

But it has been different. Caresies is a lot bigger challenge than other businesses, mostly because it’s bigger in nature and it’s dealing with more people and it’s creating demand as opposed to creating a service that people need when you need it if that makes sense.

Mark Hudson, co-founder of Caresies, originally comes from a background in accounting, but he also had a side project in which he ran a professional dart series across the country.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs wanting to start a business?

I think if you’ve got a really good idea and you think it works, by all means go for it, but don’t put all your risk in day one. Take your time to build it, take your time to know it works, take your time to the point where you can see it becoming a full-time job.

A lot of people will have a great idea and jump straight into it, and then suddenly they’ve got no cash because it takes one or two years to grow the business. I think it’s a case of by all means go for it, do it, but just de-risk yourself in terms of so you can actually forge your lifestyle along the way.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.