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DateNight Babysitting is one of five semi-finalists in the Globe's Small Business Challenge contest

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About two years ago, Elize Shirdel launched DateNight Babysitting Inc. It’s an online platform that matches parents with babysitters who live in their area. Her company is one of five semi-finalists in The Globe and Mail’s Small Business Challenge contest. The company services Toronto and Ottawa so far.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail

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Ms. Shirdel was one of five contest semi-finalists pitching her business at an event in Toronto in June. The concept for DateNight Babysitting is simple: Families who register with DateNight get access to babysitters who have been interviewed via Skype and approved for listing by DateNight. “Then parents choose the babysitters that they want to interview, and from there they decide who they want to hire,” explains Ms. Shirdel.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail

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A screen grab from DateNight Babysitting’s website.

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Ms. Shirdel, who started her business while pregnant with her second child and shortly after finishing her doctorate in computational biology at the University of Toronto, says revenue doubled from 2014 to 2015. The service’s babysitters, who set their own rates, typically charge between $10 and $15 an hour, she says. On top of this, families also pay a membership fee ranging from $2.99 to $11.99 a month, depending on how many sitters they want to interview. DateNight takes care of collecting payments, which are made online.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail

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Over the coming year, she expects to cover more communities in the Greater Toronto Area and expand into Vancouver. To support this growth, DateNight needs to refine its online platform, invest in more marketing and hire at least two employees to manage its sitters and users. As part of her growth strategy, Ms. Shirdel also hopes to partner with a national company that provides products or services to a customer base similar to DateNight’s target market. This will jump-start the company’s entry into new markets, she says. “We want to be the technology that parents depend on when they need a break, to help them out in their relationships and to be there for them when they’re in a bind.”JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail

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