My name is Yossi Pinkas and I am CEO and Founder of TakeCare, a provider of online personality and risk assessments of Nannies, Au Pairs and Babysitters. TakeCare’s NannyTest helps parents assess potential caregivers by providing a better insight into their personality and traits, as well as an assessment of possible risk factors.I am 46 years old, married and a father to one girl (14) and 2 boys (10 and 2).

For the last 15 years I’ve been managing international sales and marketing activities for several communications systems and software vendors. I lately realized that I was not enjoying what I was doing any more, and decided that I want to do something different and more meaningful  than just making money for my employers and myself. During my last position I became acquainted with various pre-employment screening solutions and the extent such systems are used by corporate and government organisations. I felt such tools should become available also to parents when recruiting for the most important position of all – a caregiver for their kids, and founded TakeCare to develop and market assessment tools that can be used by all parents: accessible anywhere and any time, easy to use and affordable.

TakeCare was launched on mid-May 2010 as an online service and I am currently funding it myself.

The main task that TakeCare faces is gaining parents’ awareness and acceptance. This isn’t an easy task, as simply placing ads that promote the service won’t achieve much. One needs to “educate” the market in order to make parents understand that such a tool should be a standard component of the caregiver selection process, in the same manner as interviews and reference checks are today. In order to do so, TakeCare needs to gain the active support and involvement of professionals in this field, influential figures that will publicly express their views about the  importance of such a tool, in various media.

Another challenge is balancing between marketing costs and the desire to price the tests  to be affordable for all parents. Marketing to consumers, even through the internet, is very costly. As marketing expenses will have to be factored into the price of tests, TakeCare must minimize those expenses. This could hopefully be done through a strong reliance on social networks and the goodwill of community members who understand the importance of TakeCare’s service and will be willing to help and spread the news among their friends and followers.

http://www.take-care.me