The Accidental Entrepreneur: How a Mom of 5 Built a Nanny Agency from the Ground Up featuring Sarah Kuchta, Owner of Nittany Nannies

Danny: You’re listening to engine hires, how to build a nanny agency podcast. I’m Danny Rosenthal, and I’m using my 20 years of professional childcare experience to ask the must know questions to the leaders shaping the nanny industry. So you can start, run, and build your

Today I’m joined by Sarah Kukta, the inspiring owner and founder of Nittany Nannies, a nanny and babysitting agency. Sarah’s journey is one of creativity and a lot of heart. With a background in education and as a mom of five, she saw a gap in her community and stepped up to fill it, launching her agency in just 10 weeks.

Yeah. I can’t wait for you to hear how she did that. In this episode, Sarah shares her strategies for balancing business and family. And her marketing approach, which I can’t wait for you to hear more about. Sarah’s story is that with passion, resourcefulness, and a bit of courage, it’s possible to meet a real need in a community while building a business.

Hey, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us on the, how to build a nanny agency podcast. It’s so nice to connect with you. How are you doing today? 

Sarah: I’m good. so much for having me, Danny. 

Danny: Oh my gosh. It’s such a pleasure. You have an amazing background in education that then brought you to The Nittany Nanny Agency.

How did you go from education to nanny agency owner? 

Sarah: Yeah. Like you said, I was a teacher for about 12 years. And then when I started having a family of my own, I was trying to figure out what the next thing was. So I have five kids myself and I. needed help. I needed child care help especially when my twins came home from the NICU and we had no service in this town, no babysitting service.

So I thought what better time than now than to start my own agency. So I did nanny a little bit between college and grad school, but that is literally the only type of nanny Background that I have so 

Danny: That’s awesome. So then do you have any there’s a lot of business aspects to it Was that anything that was hard to overcome or did that kind of come easier?

Where were you with that? 

Sarah: Yeah, it came pretty it came pretty easy, you know with the education I liked that creative outlet and I felt like I needed something like that And then this the idea just came about I live in state college pennsylvania. So we’re penn state is located, hence the name Nittany Nannies.

And there was a course offered at Penn State called the Happy Valley Launchbox Fast Accelerator Program. And it was a 10 week course. It really just helps you build your business from ground up. So I applied on a whim, and I got in, and I literally went from having a name and an idea to having a website, an LLC, contracts, clients, customers, all within 10 weeks.

I owe a lot to that program and that’s where, I got the idea. I did, I applied, I got in and Here I am now. 

Danny: That’s amazing. How did you even realize then just to apply to that program? 

Sarah: So I had the idea. Like I said, we didn’t have any services in this town and actually started with a couple of friends.

We had this idea and I just jumped in and with the idea and just did it. 

Danny: That’s awesome. So you have five kids. How are you like managing the business and family? It’s a heavy lift. 

Sarah: Yes, it is a lot and I never know how to answer that question because as moms we just just go. I I think I’m good at time management.

I make sure I have an idea of what I’m going to do that day. Our one year old twins still nap two hours a day. Literally that’s a lot. My working time and after all the kids go to bed at night, I have that couple hours in the evening to work. So I think time management is huge, but any moms listening to this, just know that we just do it.

We just have no choice. We just do what we can, hopefully you’re a little organized and good at time management, but. Yeah, we just go. 

Danny: I’m glad that your one year olds are, napping for two hours to let you work. But then you’re like, after everybody goes to sleep, I have time. Then I imagine that it’s really early wake up time too.

Like it’s, I’m still very impressed that you’re able to carve out any, I think, I’m thinking as a person with a child myself, that like, When you have two hours, there’s still like a ton of other things that are just like laundry maybe could be done, but you’re like business. 

Sarah: That stuff does not get done.

Thankfully, I have a really supportive husband that helps me with that kind of stuff. But yeah, it’s literally put them to bed and just, Just get the emails done, get on engine hire and just figure out I have time and I just gotta make it work. 

Danny: Now it’s really interesting that there was nothing else like this in your area.

So was it hard to get people on board? Because this would be like totally new to them, they’ve been like figuring it out themselves this whole time. Was that hard? Difficult or like an easier process. 

Sarah: So when we, when I first launched, I got the most amazing support from the community. So many people reaching out saying, where is this, where was this five years ago?

Where was this 10 years ago? A lot of my friends were gracious enough to be my first clients. I took advantage of the student population here at Penn state and got a small roster of sitters and just gave the sitters to my friends. And from there, my friends would, Tell, Facebook groups about, Oh my gosh, there’s this new business in town and they’d write amazing reviews.

And from there, the word of mouth just spiraled and it went basically overnight. Got so much support from the community and launch boxes is pretty big here where I did the course, they were talking about the business and I actually ended up winning 2, 000 to start the business. From that, just having that amount of money to start off the business was also really helpful.

super grateful for that. 

Danny: I really love that you were taking advantage of your friends and community offering and wanting to be a part of it. Maybe, and it’s just me, that people can naturally find that stuff embarrassing. Maybe like the transparency of that, was that like really You know helpful and getting everything going.

I 

Sarah: think so. Yeah, I think being out there putting my face on social media Just showing everyone, i’m a mom in the community too. Like I need help as well. You’ve seen me in the grocery store at our kids practices Like i’m one of you and I recognize the need and here we are. 

Danny: How are you going about the working with the nannies in caregiver, how are you like recruiting them?

Sarah: Great question. The sitters are no problem. It’s honestly word of mouth. I have every day I have an influx of sitters flying. I think because, a back story, I have a student intern and she goes around campus and passes out my flyers. The nanny t shirt stops and answers questions for people.

I told her to really hone in on education majors because we know that they have their clearances. They truly have a passion for working with kids. So honestly, the sitters, I have no problem getting sitters and reliable, great sitters. And not only just education majors, we have, med students and grad students.

And we also have high school students, but we also have retired nurses. So it isn’t just our, the college students, but I will say the biggest challenge right now is finding career nannies in town. We do have, I’d say we have about five or six that are placed with families, but. I think more families need those career nannies and we just don’t have as many as we need.

So I think that is probably the biggest challenge of trying to find actual nannies that are, nine to five that are going to be here around the holidays and available on the weekends, things like that. 

Danny: Yeah. That market makes sense of college students. That sounds like an awesome roster of medical students, educational students.

Seems like a really easy yeah, I’ll, yes, I need that babysitter. Bring them over. 

Sarah: It’s really impressive. And after I hire them, I actually have a lot of them babysit my own kids. So I can observe not only how they are, with children of all ages, cause my oldest is 10, my youngest are one.

And but also how they interact with parents. Are they. Friendly, are they asking questions and things like that. I’m their test, the tester. I guess I’d say my kids are 

Danny: genius. It’s so brilliant. And it’s given you probably like a date night too. Yeah, smart. You get to see them in so many ways.

And then also introducing that caregiver to a family. These like innate things and you have your little children spies to tell you what was awesome about them too. 

Sarah: It’s huge when families, are asking, especially families who’ve never used Sitter before I can vouch.

Oh, Grace is amazing. She did this with my kids and it’s just helpful all around. Yeah. We, since Penn State. Huge football town. Yeah. We have sitters go to tailgates and I know I have them sign, the families sign their life away because you know it’s a lot. Our tailgates here are intense but a lot of families have the sitters come stay with their children so you know the parents can have fun.

We actually had a family that bought a ticket for the sitter that came into the game with them and just so they could take the bathroom or to have them walk around when they’re getting bored. So that was huge in our town that, people heard, Oh, they offer tailgating as well.

And getting the out of town people too on board, has become really popular. Yeah. 

Danny: This is such an interesting like market that you have. I wouldn’t think college town area. would have these unique things like the tailgating party. Did that just come natural or was that something that you were like, oh, I think there’s a niche here that we could fill?

Sarah: Yes, in the very beginning planning stages, when two other moms and I were talking about this idea, that was where the idea started. We were, sitting on a tailgate. We’re like, Oh, we wish someone would watch our kids, while we’re having fun. And the light bulb went off and that’s where all the ideas kind of spiraled.

Yeah. Living in this college town, if anyone listening that, has this type of clientele, I do take advantage of the sitters and this tailgating, the launch box course, but also the young professionals in the town. So we have this is such a young town with, professors and other faculty of the university.

Danny: You sound so optimistic and like positive about this. Is there anything, I know you said finding like career nannies is difficult. Is there anything else that you’ve been like that was such a hurdle? 

Sarah: Yeah, of course, in the beginning, we’re coming up on a year in January, just trying to find the right Sitters for the families in the beginning trying to figure out pricing was really challenging for me.

Really? I based it super low. I got that advice in the course. I was only charging ten dollars for booking fees That’s it and the 35 application fee and I just wanted to make things affordable and get my name out there But I going back and forth with what people would pay especially for nanny placements I think people saw The amount that it costs to place a nanny and we’re like, oh and they’d run for the hills so trying to find A good cost for families is it’s still challenging, but I recently implemented memberships Which has been a game changer.

I wish I would have done that sooner. You know what your revenue is going to be that month Yeah, that’s been great. But definitely in the beginning just figuring out pricing was I 

Danny: feel like the memberships can be something that can be like, feel complicated to a family or like super easy. Did you find it tricky to be like, okay, we’re going to do this membership program?

Sarah: I had no complaints. I just threw it out there to families who have already, at first I did Booking packages, like five bookings, 10 bookings. So now we have the memberships are three bookings a month, 10 bookings a month, and then unlimited. And it carries over if they don’t use the bookings, but it forces three, the most are the three, the bronze membership, and it forces the parents, they don’t need us for, every day to day, but they use this for date nights, occasional care versus the parents, Oh, we have two other date nights.

It’s you need to use or, so it’s been really popular and most families just really jumped on board, which is really great. 

Danny: Now I’m wishing that you were in my area because my wife would really love that we’re doing date nights. We have we have this service to help get us out there.

And, between you, me, and everybody listening, I could do a much better job of doing the date nights. 

Sarah: No, we all could. We all could. As I mentioned, I have an intern that goes around campus. She does five or six hours a month and just puts my flyers on. Coffee shop bulletin boards or handsome professors and advisors and faculty and then wears the t shirt around campus.

But I also have been in a lot of our local magazines and newscasts. And I hired a marketing manager who did six weeks of social media content for me. She got me started and that’s something I wish I would have done. She was super helpful. I’d say most of it is word of mouth at this point.

Family, friends tagging me and Facebook posts or, sharing the articles that I’m in has been really helpful. 

Danny: How soon did you realize that like a marketing manager was something that like you should do? And why do you feel like you should have done that sooner? 

Sarah: Yeah. I have no background in business at all.

I’ve never. Millionaires would think that I would own a business and be an entrepreneur. I’m just not, I just feel like I’m just not a leader type. So having no background in business at all, I needed that help from someone that specializes in it. I followed her on Instagram. We’ve since become good friends.

She showed, would show, what the next six weeks would look like, it just showed that I’d be super beneficial. She helped me with flyers and brochures and business cards. I didn’t have any of that. At the beginning so yeah hiring her was great and it was just six weeks So she gave me a plan and I continue to follow it, you know since then but it was it’s was really great 

Danny: That’s awesome with I also love the intern and a t shirt like you got How many t shirts did you get you got one t shirt and an intern?

Sarah: So I ordered a lot of T shirts, but she’s, I’m sure she’s the only one wearing it around campus. But yeah, she’s one of our family babysitters and I’ve hired her on from Nittany Nannies. And yeah, she’s just floating around campus and telling people all about Nittany Nannies. And I can’t, I’m home with her.

My kids. So that makes it great. Makes it degree. How 

Danny: did you get, how did you get the intern? 

Sarah: She applied to nits and I hired her as a babysitter and she actually, she babysits 30 hours a week. Yeah. So she, she got, we got to know her, she got to know my kids and it’s you are on campus a lot seeing that you’re a student.

Would you like to help me? ’cause I can’t get on campus every day. Yeah she’s been great. 

Danny: That’s awesome. And then how did you get in magazines? What gave you the idea that you should do that? And then like, how did you actually start doing it? 

Sarah: Yeah. So I back to the course, happy Valley launch box.

We had to pitch our idea at the end of the 10 weeks. And someone was in the audience. It was the most nerve wracking thing of my life. It was just a bunch of people in the community ready to ask questions and someone raised their hand and said I’m the head of Happy Valley Business Bureau and gave me his card and they have publications all over the state.

And, I got an article in there and then from there, another article from another local magazine called Town and Gown, it was also like This is this my life? Like it was just, I was on the news and it was just yeah, I would just circle my around marketing. 

Danny: What did, what was it like being on the news?

What did they ask you? How did that all work out? 

Sarah: Yeah, that was really fun. It was called 814 studio and it’s like a morning type show. And because this is such a new idea in the community they wanted to interview me, so it was a, I was like, couple minutes segment. And I just shared, I think at that time we were doing a pop up I think for our local gym.

So I was there to advertise that. And, they just asked how I got started. And I just, I shared that there was a big void in our community and off I went. It was a really fun experience. 

Danny: That’s awesome. It seems like You have like truly a lot of natural marketing instincts because then you like mentioned like a pop up just now.

What was the pop up like? 

Sarah: Yeah, so we do so one of our services is events. So we, do pop up for gyms. So Pier Bar was one of the gyms we did a pop up with. It was during the summer, so we had a little space next to where the parents were working out and I had A bubble demonstrator come and we had tattoos for the kids and it was really fun.

And then we did another pop up for a mom stroller class. It was her one year anniversary. So she took the class to a place that had a parking lot playground, very simple. And the nannies and sitters watched the kids while the moms worked out. And yeah, that was a super fun pop up. So we focus on, I haven’t really talked about our services, but.

We on demand is our, definitely our most popular. Date nights, occasional care, and then we do, of course, the events. So the pop ups, the tailgating, we added overnight care, nanny placements as well. So those are the few that we’re focusing on. 

Danny: Pop ups. Isn’t that hard to get into? 

Sarah: Yeah. So it’s not difficult.

I just reached out to the businesses, I’m paying the sitters just to get my name out there. That’s a bit of a commitment, but I have. Five or six sitters. I personally pay them. So we offer, we advertising it. Nittany Nanny’s is offering free child care. And again, that’s another way that we get our name out there.

Then the family sign in and I make sure they get my card, make sure my babysitters are razzling them and impressing them. And yeah, so no, I, really just reached out, put myself out there and said, we’ll pay for the childcare, just put our name on, the advertisement and.

I also have been doing a lot of sponsorships. So like my kids school, like they do a fun run for their biggest fundraiser. So I made sure that I sponsored that. It was just little things, add up and you, people see your logo and, reach out and just get, again, get your name out there.

Danny: That’s awesome. Are you like tracking what is working? It really does seem like your fingers are on, like, all the pies. 

Sarah: Yeah I’m not tracking. I’m really just figuring out what’s working and what’s not. What’s worth my time and what, I should, focus on other things.

Danny: It sounds like you’re doing Amazing stuff just across the board. I know that you had mentioned that you didn’t feel like that you’d be in this situation, but it seems like this is a really natural fit for you. And it sounds like people are really loving your business. Kudos to you on that. And I think that’s just like very optimistic for anybody hearing this about the challenges, but you’re taking everything in stride and just moving along and trying to things. 

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. The community has just been so welcoming and, have really been sported supportive. And another thing is we actually got voted best in state college.

There’s a, another magazine that votes for the best there’s 100 different categories, but we were voted best new business silver in state college just the other day So that was amazing as well so we’ll get our little logo in the magazine And then we also another milestone that we just hit was we reached 100 families that were placed with either, demand or Nanny services.

So yeah, the milestones are coming in january will be one year. So it’s all good things 

Danny: Congratulations on all of that and So what is next for you? 

Sarah: I don’t, I’m not, I never know how to answer that, but I definitely want to add more services. I’ve had a lot of people reach out about tutoring services or pet sitting services right now.

It’s just me. I’m the only, it’s a one woman show over here. So I’d like in the future to be able to hire on some help, cause it, it is a lot for one person. But like I said, You gotta be good with time management, but yeah, it’s it’s all working 

Danny: as long as your one year olds play ball. It seems like You’re nailing this 

Sarah: I just have to keep napping 

Danny: Sarah has been such an amazing to talk to you Where should people go to learn more about Nittany Nanny?

Sarah: Thank you. Yes, our website is NittanyNannies. com and all of our socials are at Nittany Nannies. We try to post every day. We do a lot of sitter features and family features and tips and tricks. So yeah it’s fun to follow us over there. 

Danny: I can’t wait to read some of your tips and tricks.

Thanks so much. 

Sarah: Thank you so much. 

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