Bonnie McCarthy was a stay-at-home mom who chose to raise her four children rather than place them in the care of others.

Occasionally, however, she needed some time to herself to run an errand, go to a doctor's appointment, or just to have dinner with her husband. But McCarthy didn't want to pay a monthly fee to place her children in a daycare program and didn't have a reliable sitter that she could just call and drop off her children.

The 40-year-old Maui resident figured that there were probably hundreds of other mothers in her situation who just needed childcare for an hour or so a couple of times a week.

In 2002, McCarthy decided to do something about it and launched Maui PlayCare, a drop-in sitter service in the Ka'ahumanu Mall in Kahului.

Maui PlayCare charges no membership fee and requires no reservations. Parents pay $8.95 an hour for up to six hours a day to have McCarthy and her staff watch their child.

"I saw other mothers in the grocery store with screaming kids, or trying to buy a car at the car lot, and I knew there was a need for a drop-in service where you didn't have to have a schedule, you didn't have to have reservations," McCarthy said. "You could just wake up in the morning and say, 'Oh, I need to get my hair cut today' and you could drop them off, get your hair cut, and pick them up whenever you were done."

McCarthy said business was brisk from the start and that allowed her to quit her job as a safety manager for a construction firm to devote all of her time to her business.

In addition to its no-reservations, no-monthly-fee policy, Maui PlayCare differs from traditional childcare programs because its staff serve as sitters, not educators, and the business is open on weekends and in the evenings to accommodate busy parents.

"It's nice for the movies and stuff," she said. "Sometimes the movie doesn't get out until 9:30 and that gives the parents time to get out of the movies and get back down to pick the kids up."

Maui PlayCare is open to children between 2 and 8 years of age, 10 if the child has a younger sibling there. First-time customers fill out a form and their information is put in a computer so all they have to do when they come again is sign in.

McCarthy said she has about 1,200 children enrolled at Maui PlayCare. She said the average child-to-staff ratio is 8 to 1.

When she came up with the idea six years ago, McCarthy said she was surprised to find that there were very few businesses like hers in the country.

"Most people in the childcare industry are focused on daycare because that was the necessity so moms could work, and daycare was going to make them a lot of money," McCarthy said.

"But they overlooked the drop-in childcare. A lot of people get into business to make money, but it's just nice to be able to do something to help other people and be in business at the same time."

With its location at the Ka'ahumanu Mall, Maui PlayCare attracted a lot of tourists. McCarthy said many of them have asked her if she had franchises that they could buy, which she said got her thinking.

"I decided that I better do it before somebody else did," she said.

McCarthy hired Francorp, a company that specializes in setting up franchises, to help her get started. Francorp did all her legwork, which included putting together an operations manual, training plan, and researching compliance laws in each state.

The investment for a Maui PlayCare franchise ranges from $163,750 to $252,000 and includes an initial $40,000 franchise fee. Franchisees must sign a five-year agreement with Maui PlayCare.

McCarthy said her first Mainland franchise will open soon in Scottsdale, Ariz., and she's "really close" to signing agreements in other states. She said she hopes to have 12 franchises on the Mainland by the end of the year and also wants to open a site in Honolulu.

When she first opened her doors six years ago, McCarthy said, she never envisioned her business growing to this point. All she wanted was to provide a service to people like her.

"I just wanted to help other mothers that were in the same boat I was, because many people don't have their families to help them out with watching the children," McCarthy said. "Once I started seeing the community accepting it and being in the store and having mothers say, 'You saved my life today. I had to make this meeting and my baby sitter was sick,' you hear stuff like that every day, so that is what fueled me to go, 'Yes, we can make this.' "