This post is by Fabiana Bacchini:
Looking for a safer life, she arrived in Toronto in the middle of the winter 14 years ago. Cindy Sacks and her husband Ronnie left South Africa with very little knowledge about the work opportunity in Canada. Our Brilliant Woman of the Week knew she could pursue her career as a kindergarten teacher. However, the school year had started in September and it was January so Cindy could not get a job right away.
“We needed money so I decided to start a home day care”, she says. She worked long hours with no help. The kids arrived at6.30amand she had them all day until7pm.
On the weekends, Cindy joined her husband in a store in downtown Toronto. “I don’t know how we were able to afford anything. We were making very little money”, she explains. “I don’t know how we made ends meet”.
Even though the times were tough for the young couple, Cindy remained positive. “Immigration can destroy your marriage or make it stronger”, she tells us. But they did not give up.
After one and a half years with the day care, Cindy decided to work with her sister selling promotional products. Shortly after, she got pregnant. As she couldn’t afford to stay home, she started to look for a nanny.
The new business
“When I started to look for a nanny I saw a possibility to have this as a business. It would give me flexible hours and I could be around. This could be my job”, she says.
Cindy drove all around Toronto to interview nannies, to learn the business and spent hours on the Internet researching the rules and regulations of the business. Her first client was happy and the business started to grow by word of mouth. She realized she could make money doing it. Nannies Inc. was born!
“I didn’t have any formal training for this business, there was no course to take. I learned from my mistakes”, she says.
In the beginning, Cindy said, it was frustrating because you deal with the government and you have no control over it. As the business grew, the nannies started to come from abroad, especially from the Philippines.
Working from home is challenging and for Cindy it wasn’t different. “I didn’t know the balance between work and time with the family. I learned to be very disciplined and divide the hours for the family and work”. This kind of work involves a lot of evenings as most clients work all day and the nannies are abroad.
The success
It took some time for Cindy to start to make money but she was patient. With a second child on the way, she knew that this business was a perfect fit for her.
When I asked her what was the secret of her success she didn’t hesitate to say that honesty and always telling people the truth are the best ingredients for any business to succeed.
Cindy does her best to match her clients with the nannies. “The nanny becomes an addition to the family and that’s great”.
But there is more to it, Cindy talks about her business with love and passion. She knows she is making a difference in many people’s lives not only of the families who are looking for extra help, but also on the nannies who dream of a better life in Canada.
“It’s rewarding to see these women making their dreams come true. They leave everything behind including families and their own children to seek more opportunities and reunite with them in the future here”.
Cindy Sacks is the owner of Nannies Inc. She lives in Thornhill, ON, with her husband Ronnie and her two kids Jordan and Emmaruby. For more information, visit her website: www.nanniesinc.ca or contact her at : nanniesinc@rogers.com