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FIRM HELPS KIDS WHERE THEY LIVE
By H.J. Jackson Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
Release Date: Monday, October 3, 1988
Three years ago Sharon Graff canvassed friends, neighbors, friends of friends and neighbors of neighbors for a business idea that would suit her interests and the market.
''I've always been interested in women's issues,'' Graff said, noting that she had edited two women's magazines while attending a New England college.
''I found the most common need, as a barrier for mobility for women, was the need for child care,'' Graff said. ''It's difficult to find; it's difficult to screen; it's just spread out.''
She first limited her business to referring parents to day-care centers. That lasted only a few weeks.
''They told me that instead of consulting, for goodness sakes, find alternatives (other than day care) for them,'' Graff said.
So three years ago, she founded T.L.C. for Kids Inc. in a small, one-woman office in downtown University City. She kept the referral service but added components that meet the needs of working parents.
She provided child-care workers for sick children who had to stay home from school - and often kept their moms there with them.
As part of the service, she screened the workers with police checks, long interviews, psychological testing, reference checks - the gamut. Then she acquired liability insurance for her workers.
''It's expensive - 75 percent of the cost is screening - but we're dealing with people's babies,'' Graff said.
At first she hired the workers as employees, but providing regular paychecks nearly killed the company. So she began working as a fee-based referral service for the in-home child-care workers.
Parents pay $6.50 an hour, most to the child-care worker and part to T.L.C.
But as she provided the care for sick children, she heard of other needs that required a response.
Three years later, the company provides:
A nanny placement service. T.L.C. interviews women who wish to either live in or visit the homes of parents. Her clients are parents who would rather pay a nanny to keep their children at home than place their children in a child-care center. The same stringent checks go into the screening process, Graff said.
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