Booming Babysitting Business Forces 15-Year-Old Girl to Hire a CEO
— -- By day, Noa Mintz is your average high school freshman.
After hours, however, the 15-year-old serves as director of Nannies by Noa, a New York City-based company that she independently founded in 2012.
"I hosted art classes in third-grade and I used to take lemonade stands to the next level, so I always had the entrepreneurial spirit," Noa said. "It's not that I wanted to be a babysitter. I just recognized what the potential of a New York nanny should be, so I gave it a shot and it got big very fast."
With the help of her father's investment, Noa got her project off the ground and now employs 100 part-time sitters and 50 full-time nannies, serving 190 clients, she says.
Soon after the business began to grow, the teen felt challenged juggling both a business and her studies.
That's when she called on Allison Johnson, a social worker who originally applied to be a nanny.
"In the summer, Noa reached out to me and told me she was starting high school," Johnson said. "I had no idea she was a minor. Noa's definitely unique. She's extremely advanced as far as being business savvy. We always saw this mutual respect for each other."
Noa eventually hired her as CEO of Nannies by Noa, having her oversee the growth of the company, Johnson, 26, told ABC News.
Noa said, "It’s a very personal service that takes up a lot of your time. I really wanted to focus on school, but I loved the business and realized that people wanted to continue working with us, so I needed a CEO. We have a great working relationship, Allison and I."
Depending on the number of children and the work required, each sitter can make anywhere from $15 to $25 an hour, Johnson said.
The business collects a percentage of this revenue.
As a young businesswoman, Noa hopes her story will inspire kids her age to be confident in executing their ideas.
"We are the next generation," she said. "I want to see it become conventional that there's more teen entrepreneurs; kids that had a vision and created a business out of it.
"I hope that people will respect me even though I'm so young," she added. “I want to continue to see the business grow geographically with the number of clients and investors. I want to become the nation's leading child care agency."
