On any typical work day, you might find Richard Shandelman installing anti-scald valves, latches for cabinets or toilet lid locks.

Shandelman is in the business of baby-proofing houses.

His Blue Bell firm, Safe & Sound, evaluates homes for child safety hazards, develops and installs safety equipment and educates parents on how to safeguard their homes from hazards.

Now 5-year-old, Safe & Sound has grown as quickly as the children it helps to protect. During the last four years, revenues have increased by 100 percent each year, said Shandelman.

The idea for the business sprang was conceived in the early '90s, said Shandelman, who at the time was self-employed as a radio frequency design consultant. One of his clients was complaining that his 18-month old baby was "getting into everything; the client also was frustrated with defective safety products he had purchased from local hardware stores.

At the same time, Shandelman's wife was pregnant. "A light bulb just went off in my head," he said. He then started the company with personal savings and spent the next year or so analyzing home hazards for children under the age of six, developing a procedure to test child safety products in the marketplace and designing custom procedures and installations for those products.

Then, in 1994, the company received its first big break. It gained regional exposure by consulting with home builders such as Ryan Homes and the Quaker Group to design child-friendly homes. "Every home that was built in (Ryan's) launch community had a child-safety package integrated into it," said Shandelman.

The company's aggressive marketing techniques, including cold-calling, helped push open doors into local day-care centers that, in turn, helped it promote its child-safety education program to parents. Likewise, it formed alliances with child-safety associations such as the Juvenile Product Manufacturing Association and consulted with manufacturers such as Gerry Baby Products to help them design safer products.

Still hungry for exposure, the company aligned itself with Jefferson Health System late last year. The health-care provider will promote the firm's services in its health and child safety newsletter that is distributed to parents of newborns.

Safe & Sound now supports five employees and boasts more than 1,000 clients in the region, Shandelman said. Its service fees range from $250 to $3,000, but most clients pay between $500 and $750 for a full child-safety package, which includes custom installation of gates, cabinet latches, hearth protection, anti-scald valves in the kitchen and bathrooms, outlet covers, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

The company also tests a household's water for toxins and bacteria and, if the house was built prior to 1977, checks for lead in paint, especially around the house's windows and base moldings.

While it uses products from about 20 different manufacturers, the business has developed new ways to install them and began creating a proprietary line of child safety products such as a child-wandering device or invisible leash that helps parents track the location of their child.

Outside of the several hundred mom-and-pop child safety businesses that exist in the U.S., Shandelman said the company virtually has no competition. Yet, without additional financing, his business would have likely stagnated. In response, he partnered last year with Peter Lipschutz, a 20 year veteran of the safety industry, to boost his business to the next level: franchising.

"The reason we're franchisng vs. expanding with sales offices is because we'll grow faster and create our distribution channels for our proprietary product line a lot faster," Shandelman said. He recently hired a director of franchise development to launch the program, which will initially target the Northeast.

By 2005, Safe & Sound hopes to have 100 franchisees. "But we're going to be very selective in choosing them," said Shandelman, explaining that the company is seeking entrepreneurs who relate well to people and are committed to working the business. "We have a very extensive six-day training program and will do periodic visits with each franchisee to make sure that they're experts in all aspects of our business."

By tapping into existing databases of people interested in franchises, the company mails introduction letters or brochures and maintains listings in franchise publications. The initial franchise fee is $19,500. Depending upon the amount of supplies and equipment needed, total capitalization costs can range from $30,700 to $43,100.

"One of the exciting parts about this business is that it's relatively virgin territory, it's wide open," said Lipschutz, who also serves as the company's chief operating officer. "A lot of products that are sold in stores are really inferior and can cause a lot of problems. There's a tremendous need for (our services) and people are very excited about it."