PlanSummer 2014 Announcement
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our 2013 customers who took a chance and supported PlanSummer in our first season. We can’t thank you enough and everyone else should too since you ensured our survival. We have several big announcements. Let’s start with our biggest 2014 announcement – drum roll…Please.
PlanSummer will be FREE starting in 2014. You heard me..FREE for all.
How did we do it?
We have been very busy. As you know, we participated in One Spark and applied for Stache funding. If you haven’t already heard, we were not selected. We were up against some great ideas so I was proud to make it to the first round. Although on a personal note, I wish I could have met Shad Khan to hear his business suggestions. I digress. So we moved on and set a goal to find national partners to cover our application costs rather than charge users. We set our sights on finding complementary products and services that we could not provide last year. I am proud to announce our first three partners : Label Land LLC., Sittercity, and Care.com.
We will be posting specials from our partners in exchange for offering PlanSummer for Free. As a special thank you, we want to provide you with some discounts that you can use during our off-season. We look forward to sharing more exciting changes in the weeks to come.
One Spark 2013 Creator Experience
The One Spark event is over and I wanted to share my memories with you before the excitement fades away. First, I want you to know that I am a Creator. I can say that to people and now have them understand what that means. I thank the One Spark event for that understanding. This event has established the word “Creator” as a source of pride and a way to identify fellow “out of the box” risk takers in Jacksonville. I smile now knowing that I am not alone.
I have to admit that I was one of the last people to sign up for the event because I was not sure whether I could get time off from my full-time job to attend. Of course, it made it easier to join when I was suddenly laid off – time off was no longer a problem. I signed up with no expectations. Who will care about a company run by a 43 year old mom that helps working families? I expected about 10 votes from my friends probably totally $1.50 from the One Spark cash fund. I ended up getting so much more. So much more.
Being a type A person, I headed down early on Wednesday to set up. I was set up in under 10 minutes. I could have gone home, put my feet up and waited until the check in at 2:30 to return. The anticipation and excitement in the air prompted me to stay. My feet paid the price days later but it was worth it. I stayed and walked to other venues to meet my fellow Creators hoping that their stories were similar to mine. Most of them were. If they were not set up, I helped with their displays while hearing their story. If they were set up, I listened to their pitch, shared mine and wished them good luck. We were fellow Creators not competitors. I vowed to remember each story in my mind so if we crossed paths again, I would recognize them as a fellow inaugural One Spark Creator. I should have taken pictures because the names of the people and companies are slowly fading in my mind. I met my husband for lunch and I shared my excitement. I can get a little too intense for my laid back husband but that is how our marriage has worked for 15 years. Intensity and calm. He caught my enthusiasm.
Second day started with an unbelievable opportunity to meet with STACHE investment team. Sorry if you came by and my booth was unattended until 1:00 but what would you choose? Now almost every Creator watches the Shark Tank TV show so the night before consisted of running all of the Mr. Wonderful questions in my head. I barely slept. In the morning, I entered the stadium into a lobby that I would have never seen in my life. Even worse, I can’t remember the last Jaguar game I attended. I hoped that they wouldn’t hold that against me. In the lobby, I introduced myself to the other waiting presenters. Why not? Even if they only selected one company, I was going to be classy about it. Time stood still and more people began to appear. Low and behold a company that I knew walked in the door: Restroom Alert. I love these guys. I was happy that they were selected and even better Rod is veteran at this type of meeting. He has created and sold several businesses. He was very encouraging and going first. We were second.
Our turn arrived and out came the Sharks or so I thought. A quick handshake clearly communicated that there were not any Sharks at all. Just businessmen who care about Jacksonville. Yeah! My heart leaped and a friendly conversation about my company followed. The funniest part was seeing a person whose career I find interesting waiting inside: Jason Headsets.com. That is right Headsets.com. He actually follows me on twitter. I wondered whether he saw my tweet that I posted while in the lobby. It read: “Today is the big pitch to STACHE! I’ll say let me help families save money so they can buy Jaguar tickets. Win Win!”. Probably not. Our meeting ended with smiles and dreams of the future. After talking to other selected companies throughout the week, we all left with hope and felt well liked. I returned to my booth unable to control my thoughts of the future but it was time to present and start asking for votes.
For the next 3 long days, I met so many people that validated the need for my product that I wished I had recorded their testimonies. The Creator Isabelle Killian of Tada Language actually did. She is so smart. We became fast friends and found that our products reach the same target market. We joined forces and went out into the crowd together. She approached with her cute french accent and I would close the deal. What a team we were. We also talked about how much we love being businesswomen. We shared our frustration with people not understanding our passion and dedication to our products. We vowed to support each other. She was also selected by STACHE. We even dreamed about both of us being selected and sharing office space. We checked our email constantly and were told that a decision would not be announced on Sunday. So our One Spark journey is not completely over.
(Fellow Mom Creators – MomentStrong, PlanSummer, Tada Language and Nerdular)
I met so many Creators who continued to come by and visit me. I finally got to see a real demo from Profile Gorilla and decided quickly that my company will use their product. I can’t wait. Their product is not easy to quickly explain. You have to see a demo but trust me every small business needs it especially understaffed start up companies. During my time at the One Spark event, it also occurred to me that I have lived in Jacksonville a really, really long time. I watched Yovia present at the Main Street pitch deck and realized I knew her from somewhere. We figured out that we had danced at the same studio back in high school. She saw my children in the crowd and game them hats that said “Awesome”. They wanted to wear them to school today. Other people recognized me from my consulting days, past employment, college and children’s school. Most of them were impressed. They had no idea that I owned PlanSummer.
So many experiences I’m afraid this blog will go on forever. I have one last thing to say. THANK YOU One Spark organizers and especially One Spark volunteers. To the special One Spark volunteer who saw me fading fast and stood in a long line to get me a Diet Coke: What would I have done without you? I am sure that there are things that went wrong or could have been done better. I hope the One Spark team is enjoying this rainy day on a comfy couch. You did a great job! You accomplished more than bringing people to the downtown area, you turned the lights on in Jacksonville. Not any light but a gigantic spotlight on the Creators – Entrepreneurs of Jacksonville! Thanks to you a spark has turned into an active, thriving Creator community. We are now ready to be the next largest employers in Jacksonville and start a productive fire downtown. I truly believe small companies are the new fuel and Jacksonville is going to start getting really hot!
How to schedule summer childcare from relatives?
Summer childcare is more than scheduling summer camps. Are you one of the lucky families who have relatives living in the same town and willing to help with summer babysitting? If you answered yes, then the first part of your summer planning is probably not scheduling camps. You need to get together with your relatives to determine the exact dates and times that they can commit to being available. Chances are that your relatives may not commit to 8 hours a day for 10 to 12 weeks so you still may need some camps later. However, free help especially from the people you trust most with your children should always be your first priority. PlanSummer lets you mark which relative, when and what times on your schedule so you can visually see where you may need to fill in with summer camps.
Just some additional insight from a mother who is fortunate to live near her relatives. Time with grandparents is very special. In fact, I have heard a few stories about amazing granny camps where grandmothers planned exciting activities for every day of the week. The grandmas seem to enjoy it almost more than the kids. I hear it keeps grandparents young. Now every relative can’t be Mary Poppins so it may make sense to enroll your children in free half day camps like vacation bible schools to provide a little break from a full 8 hour day of babysitting. The nice part about a half day camp is that transportation to and from is being provided by your well, rested relatives. Whew! It is nice to have one less thing to coordinate and worry about.
At PlanSummer, we know that it takes a village so we created our program to help coordinate all of the people whom you trust with your children. PlanSummer makes it easy to organize relatives, half day camps and pick up times through our scheduling program. In addition, we even make it easy to share and remind family members by using our calendar export feature. Now your children can enjoy spending time with family over the summer while you continue to provide for your family.
Public Schools, Companies and People
I have been calling on a lot of public schools lately and I have discovered a few things that I feel I must share. When you call a school that has money, you notice that they neither care for your company nor do they feel the need to assist you in providing a contact to provide any services. When you call a school that does not have money, an interesting phenomenon occurs. Once you identify yourself as a company, you are immediately told in these exact words, “We are a Title 1 school”. Since my kids go to private school, I had no idea what that truly meant so I asked “What does that mean?”. The person whom I asked the question sounded shocked that I did not know but in a “matter of fact” kind of way she answered. “It means our school is poor”. She implied her parents cannot afford whatever I am selling.
Her answer reminded me of a time when I volunteered at a Group 1 home for mentally challenged adults. I took them to a movie theater. One of my adults said to the ticket booth attendant, “One ticket for a retarded person, please”. He paid for the ticket like any other patron and headed toward the movie theater. Do you think the attendant cared?
My reaction in both situations is the same, “What difference does it make?”
I own a company trying to reach out to working parents. I am prepared to help the schools by offering free giveaways, coupons or sponsorship for any of their events. Do I sell something? Yes, but I would say my product was not made for the wealthy. I would say that my target is really to help the average working parent trying to do their best for their children and employers. I can actually save people money. Yes, I do believe that statement with all my heart.
Back to my Title 1 story – Before I could hold my thoughts in, they came out of my mouth. “Oh (pause), why should I care? I think we need each other”, I said. I started telling her about my company and how I could maybe help increase PTA participation with a giveaway. I could tell she was smiling on the other end and a contact number was quickly provided.
I called the next school without knowing their financial status. The pattern continued. The funny thing about life is that one minute you can be rich and then just as quickly you can become poor. It rarely flows the other way. So be careful not to let financial status dictate the way you treat people, schools or companies. In the end, schools need companies and companies need schools.
In reference to my movie theater experience, a close friend of mine had an Uncle die this past year. He lived a long life despite his mental handicap and associated physical limitations. He was a loving, caring person and she never started out any sentence referring to him as “mentally challenged”. He was just her Uncle. Title 1 schools are just schools to me and like all schools they need help from companies. I really don’t care about their financial status.
Side note – The movie I saw that night was My Blue Heaven. I will never forget it since I watched it twice. I hated it the first time. The second time I took my new friends and their laughter made it so much better. They were just people. I really don’t care nor will I ever care about their mental status.
In Memory of a Loving Uncle
Louis Nowak
1955-2012
Optimizing camp discounts
Wasting time is not as bad as wasting money. Last year as I struggled to create the perfect summer childcare plan, I still waited too long and failed to take advantage of camp discounts. As I vowed to make my life easier this year, I also vowed to find all of the camp discounts.
Every camp is different in the way they choose to publicize their discounts. Some camps will post a discount on their ads but the majority of discounts are found on their websites. We have found that most of these discounts are listed in small print and are extremely hard to find. No worries. We are adding this discount information along with other vital information within the PlanSummer camp database. I can’t guarantee that you will qualify for every discount but at least you will know about them.
As I enter camps into the PlanSummer application, I do have some advice. I see a trend of early registration discounts. These discounts typically require a registration form with a deposit delivered to the camp before April to save up to $50.00 per week. Early registration discounts should never be missed by working parents because it only requires you to finish planning a little earlier.
The next most popular discount is for siblings. Most camps will reduce the registration fee or weekly camp fee if more than one family member attends the same week. I like this incentive since my boys are close in age. When you turn in your registration or fill it out on the web, be sure to make a note that a sibling discount should be applied.
In all, I have to say the hardest part about optimizing camp discounts is finding them. At PlanSummer, we want to help and that is why we find this information for you. Since this is our first year with our program, I don’t have the statistics to back this up. However, I think I can assume that our tool (cost $24.95) pays for itself if you just discover one discount ($50.00 off).
Stop wasting money because you didn’t know. Use PlanSummer because we want to save you money!
Last year’s painful process of finding the perfect camp
Last year, I spent from February until May searching for the perfect summer camps for my two boys. I talked to mothers on sidelines of soccer games, at work and at school. I collected all of the camp flyers that came home from school. I gathered every camp directory I could find. Needless to say, I ended up with a file folder full of paper. Let me say that again…during this technology age I ended up with a file folder full of paper. Unacceptable.
Oh but it gets worse. As I reviewed each piece of paper, I noticed that details like times, cost, age and discounts were missing. I don’t blame the camps. It would be hard to fit all of the camp details into a two-inch ad. Most camps were wise in opting for a small description, a website address and phone number. At this point, I am far away from deciding where my kids will be going because I don’t have all the information I need to make a decision. Now I don’t take a decision like choosing a summer camp lightly. I am trusting a summer camp to keep my kids safe and happy while I am working. How can I be a productive employee if I imagine my children being warehoused in a grey building?
Some moms suggested that I avoid selecting a camp all together. “Leave them at home, they will be fine.” they say. That doesn’t work for me and my imagination. I imagine my children glued to the couch watching reality TV then deciding to jump from our roof into our pool. Maybe I have an overactive imagination but you don’t know my kids. They have overactive imaginations too. This family trait is not always a good thing.
So, onto the next step to find the perfect summer camp: filling in the missing information onto my existing sheets of paper. I find this part to be the most time-consuming and frustrating part of the process. Nothing is more frustrating than researching a camp and finding out that your children are not the right age to attend. Ughhh! The age cutoff narrows down a few camp choices but the prices actually have a greater impact. Enter the spreadsheet.
I am forced to move to a spreadsheet at this point because the pricing is like an algebra equation ((Camp fee/camp days)+ registration fees + before care + after care = total cost). I don’t know what summer camps truly costs until I plug-in all X variables. Time ticks on. Tic toc. Tic toc. I wake up from my camp research project to find spring break has ended. Oh no! Less than a month to make a decision. I speed up the process and panic.
I narrow my choices using the final criteria: my children’s whims. I call them whims because they keep changing their mind. With our choices selected and the summer weeks scheduled, we complete the final registration paperwork.
Done! I am finally done! Yeppee!
Enter my oldest son with a new camp brochure in hand and says, “Mom I want to go to this camp”. What? Good grief.
I vow to myself that I am not going to do this again next year.
PlanSummer Update
First I want to take a moment to make you pat yourselves on the back for making your family’s holiday special. I am sure that you are the sole organizer who baked cookies, decorations, traditions, costumes, teacher’s gifts, school parties, company parties and the list goes on. If you could be paid for what you just accomplished, you would have enough money to spend a year at a spa.
Although our blog was silent (as it should be during the winter holidays), PlanSummer was busy too. We were busy thinking about you. We have been thinking about what makes planning summer childcare so frustrating and time-consuming. These past few months we went to work programming software features that will accomplish our main goal: saving time. Time…the one luxury that working parents can’t afford to waste.
Our other objective was to keep it simple. Simple interface. Simple solution. In my experience, daily life for working moms is complicated enough. Personally, I am always amazed that the word “simple” is not encouraged in the software industry. Software doesn’t need to be complicated to solve a problem.
So what is next for PlanSummer?
We are currently testing on our software to prevent as many defects as possible. We will spend the next two months on this effort to make the most defect free software that ever existed. Spending two months on testing is unheard of but I want you to know that I will be personally horrified if I add a second of frustration to a working mom using our software. This is where I insert my disclaimer. Here goes: software is written by humans and all software products interact with other software written by other humans. Therefore, defects will happen. With that said, I am also committed to fixing any problems should they arise.
We are also spending our time adding summer camp programs into our system. We currently have more than 150 summer camps loaded but we are going to keep adding to it throughout the summer planning season. In my upcoming blogs, we will try to feature some of the interesting camp programs that you probably didn’t even know existed.
These next two months are going to be busy for us but to me it will be like Christmas morning all over again. I love the anticipation and hard work that goes into making people happy especially children. I hope we help every family make 12 weeks of summer into a lifetime of happy childhood memories just like the winter holidays!
Last Unemployed Summer
In July 2009, I finally admitted defeat against the financial strain that was placed upon my family to be a stay-at-home mom. There were signs that I was ready and signs that my children were too. First, I found myself counting down the days until school started so I could resign as the day to day Child Entertainment Director. Second, I played legos with my children and I built an office rather than a spaceship. My husband was the person who pointed it out to me. I had built a desk and everything. I tried to pass it off as our house but he knew. Of course, there was the main driving force – lack of money.
During the summer as Child Entertainment Director, I challenged myself to not spend a dime. This is hard to do with two hungry boys and long summer days. I also found it hard because my kid’s summer is not the same as my generation’s summer. When I was young, kids left their houses unsupervised in the morning and returned at the end of the day. We entertained ourselves with sticks and jumping creeks in the neighborhood. We leaped from trees and built forts. There wasn’t a single parent sitting in their backyard watching us. I couldn’t tell you what time I left the house or what time I came home. The time of day was signaled by the light posts turning on which meant I had to go home. Our kid’s summer is over supervised and over scheduled. Thus, moms everywhere become designated Child Entertainment Directors especially during the summer.
Our kids are over supervised because we know too much. My generation is too aware that kids can be taken by crazy people and kids can be permanently hurt by just about everything. Each day I tried to find free, fun and safe activities and most of all I tried to find play dates. We call them play dates because there isn’t impromptu neighborhood gatherings anymore. Children in my neighborhood play baseball and gymnastics and piano and soccer year round. So…getting together means moms coordinate dates and times around our children’s designated activities.
This leads me to my point of knowing that my children were ready too. My children started judging my planned activities or lack there of. I would hear my boys say, “The pool is boring without friends. Where is so and so?” I would call other mothers only to hear the run down of their schedules: my son has this and my daughter has that, then we are leaving town, then they are at camp, let’s get together next month on Tuesday at 12;00. My children wanted to know why we didn’t leave town or go to camp too. I told them that it takes money and I wasn’t working so I could be with them. My son responded, “So why don’t you go back to work?”
My resume was written by the end of the day and that was my last unemployed summer. Now don’t get the impression that I permanently resigned as the Child Entertainment Director. Oh no. Now I pick up this job in the spring to plan the summer in advance. My new challenge is coordinating a “super summer schedule” that consists of finding the right camp , mind-blowing vacations and coordinate with other mother’s calendars for playdates. Hmmmm…I wish there was a web based application to help? Shameless plug.
Working Moms vs. Stay-at-Home Moms
I overheard two conversations the other day that disturbed me. The first conversation ended with something like….”Those moms with their yoga classes and yoga pants”. The other conversation ended with something like…”Those moms don’t know how hard it is to spend all day with kids. They escape.” So I bet you can quickly guess which quote was coming from which mom. Since I have 7 years of experience as a stay-at-home mom and this year counts as 4 years as a working mom, I feel the need to bridge the gap between these two wonderful groups of mothers.
Let me start by defining each group so I am clear about whom I am referring to. Also, let’s take out Single Moms – they are Superhumans.
Stay-at-Home Mom – A mother who is not employed or paid, is responsible for the full-time care of her children above and beyond 40 hours a week. They are also responsible for household and family maintenance. This maintenance includes shopping, cooking, cleaning and coordinating all family activities. Note: Most husbands only contribute as needed if they happen to be in the hospital. This reference excludes women with enough money to have maids, nannies and personal assistants.
Working Mom – A mother who is fully employed outside the home, works at least 40 hours a week and receives a paycheck. They are responsible for the coordination of all childcare coverage, family activities and appts. They perform all household maintenance on nights and weekends. They optimize their family time spending from 3 to 4 hours a weekday and all weekend with children. Note: This description assumes some type of help from working husband. Otherwise, single mom reference applies. This reference excludes women with enough money to have maids, nannies and personal assistants.
Now, let me start with my stay-at-home pros and cons from my personal experience. I loved watching my little ones sleep and coo, learn to talk and walk, and I enjoyed cuddling. Those were the good days that I will never regret staying home but those were not the only days. The other days consisted of temper tantrums, lots of crying, constant cleaning, food preparation and unbearable financial stress. I also faced personal demons like feeling mentally unfulfilled and constantly unappreciated. Stay-at-home moms are women who at some point had promising careers and still remain competitive beings. This ambition to personally challenge themselves did not get removed from their body when their baby was born. Within a few years, stay-at-home moms also lose their work network and become surrounded by other like-minded moms. This can be a good or bad thing depending on who you surround yourself with. In the end, the biggest challenge that a stay-at-home mom faces is to redefine what it means to be personally successful. Back to the yoga quote, I have this to say. These moms if they find the time to make it to yoga, go for inner peace and quiet. So back off because they deserve it. As for me, I wore the same yoga pants because I couldn’t afford more clothes.
When I became a working mom, I was faced with the impact of my stay-at-home choice on my career. Like I mentioned above, my business network was gone and the moms who had stayed after having children were now Vice Presidents. I would be forced to beg my way back so I could report to people 10 years younger than me. It was humbling. I am a generation behind and I have a hard time getting their jokes and this idea of multitasking. However, the first day when I was shown my office and my business cards, I could have cried with joy. I was back and my success was measurable again. At work, I was so excited about being among adults and not discussing children. I think I literally glowed. The downside hit me when I got home. Where is my hot meal? Who is making dinner? Someone is sick? But I just started a new job. Suddenly, I am not feeling successful at all. Again, I had to redefine my idea of being successful. Back to the escape quote, working women don’t escape at all. They are very aware that their success hangs by a string between balancing work and family demands on them.
Unless I win the lottery, I am a permanent member of the working mom group now but I will never forgot my precious seven years as a member of the other side. My stay-at-home moms keep me informed and grounded. We cherish the moments when we want to swap lives. I remind my stay-at-home mom friends how lucky they are to pick their kids up everyday and they remind me to be thankful for a corporate trip to New York by myself.
So before you do the whole “Grass is greener on the other side”, let me share some words of advice. A mother is a mother. It is such a part of who we are as women that whether I am a CEO or a housewife, I am always aware that my greatest challenge comes from being a mother. I can’t think of a paid job that brings more challenges or is more important than raising children. In the end, our success no matter which group we fall into will be measured in two words:
THANKS MOM!
Where’s Waldo?
So my 120 seconds have come and gone and several people are wondering what happened. I think it went well. We presented and now we hope interest turns into sales. We demonstrated our product several times and I saw heads nod. Heads nodding to hands signing contracts can be a long process so we will keep you posted. Now we have to keep moving forward.
Our new program is to become human billboards. What can I say our marketing budget is tight. I am challenging myself and others to wear my PlanSummer.com shirt at least one time each day as we run errands and eat lunch. We are hoping that working parents will read our shirts and know that a better way is coming. I am on day 6. Don’t worry I have a box full of t-shirts in my car and obviously I wash them. In some locations, I will be joined by other moms who support our program.
Of course, my boys will be participating and don’t seem to mind. Like they have a choice, right? The other day our family sat in the Apple store for a long time buying an iPAD. I wasn’t concerned because my kids were happy playing with apps and sitting in the middle of the store wearing my shirts. On a different note, it was funny watching my husband change the monitors to display my website. We have become shameless. Whatever it takes.
I thought about challenging Jacksonville to a “Where’s Waldo?” type of game to see if people can find me. I have been toying with the idea of carrying gift cards and performing random acts of kindness. I remember when Disney had their dream campaign and the staff was having so much fun giving away everything from trinkets to free vacations. So if you see me say, “Hi”. You never know what I might do but you already knew that.
Where am I going? I ask myself that every day but I can only tell you where I have been so far: European Street. Publix, Publix again, Panera, Chik fila, Apple Store and Carithers Pediatric Group. Tommorow is looking like soccer games followed by pizza. See if you can find me.
plansummer 