Building the Business of Organising

Being a Professional Organiser is a fun occupation. It is also incredibly frustrating at time. I spend a lot of time talking about what I do, I always get interesting responses, some include.

* The Blank Stare: Normally reserved for incredibly organised people who wonder why people would need a Professional Organiser.
* The loud laughter: Either very organised or embarrassed about own level of clutter.
* "I know someone who could use your services" : great, but I will only help them if they are ready to get organised and declutter.
* "Boy, do I need you or what?" - Great call me and I will get you organised.

Today my dilemma is what actually stops the "Boy I could use your services" group from making an appointment. I am looking at innovative ways to let people know that by calling me they will achieve more in a 2 hour consultation then they would working on getting organised on their own for 10 hours. A client of mine calls this the 5 x leverage. She is sure she achieves 5 x as much when I am working with her. The she assures me this multiple works with how great she feels after having an organising session and how much more she achieves for a period of time after the session.
This client also assures me I do not charge enough for my services, as the value of my services are greatly underestimated by people who have never used a Professional Organiser.
This is all fantastic, but how do I equate that to converting the "I need you services" to actual clients.
We looked at the "Traffic" analogy, being disorganised is like driving on a 4 lane freeway with 2 lanes closed, traffic gets through but it is slow and sluggish, having a session with a Professional Organiser results in the closed lanes being opened, creating a fantastically clear flow of traffic. This clear flow last for weeks after the session, drivers feel better and they get to where they are going much quicker.
Now imagine that in life, I can make that difference to peoples lives, homes and business's and I do this on a regular basis. But man I am ready to do it for more people. I am ready to grab those "I really need your services" people and show them what the clear freeway looks like.

So what stops them from actually taking the step, I suspect it is:
* too confrontational - having someone help sort through belongings
* Embarrassment
* Too hard

I am not naturally organised so I fully understand where my potential clients are coming from with any of these feelings, but boy if I had a "Wendy" to call a few years ago, I would have swallowed my pride and done it. The I would have managed to get organised in weeks or months not the years that it did eventually take me.
What a Professional Organiser should be able to do for you is encourage you, motivate you, support you and give hands on help to clear any area of your life that is disorganised. This is done in an empathetic non judgemental manner. A good Professional organiser is not there to judge you, but to help you open those other lanes on the freeway. One thing my clients do say is that I am approachable, down to earth and even fun to work with.
So I am here putting all these thoughts out there so that all my potential clients can see the benefits to their time, life and sanity in getting some help in to tackle the issues. If anyone has any innovative suggestions in getting this message out there, please let me know, email me action@totallyorganised.co.nz and for those of you that have been wanting to call, go on pick up the phone or email me and make a time to clear that great freeway we call life.
Have a blast of a weekend.

What a difference 2 hours makes

Some people ask "How long does it take to declutter a space?"
We;ll the answer is not cut and dried, however last Thursday I worked with a client and in 2 hours we had her office go from chaos to clarity.
It can be surprising what can be achieved in 2 hours if you are focused and determined to get the job done. Also the pay off for doing the job is huge. My client last Thursday has told me since that she loves the space and is getting things done in it.
How did we achieve so much in such a short time?

The steps we followed were.
* Have a box ready for recycling papers.
* Rubbish bag for non recyclables.
* Then begin to sort through and action all the items in the room you are working on.
* Try to avoid the temptation to bypass tricky decisions.
* have a tray for items that require action.
* Make an appointment with yourself to spend an hours actioning the items in the action tray with 48 hours of the declutter session.

That was how we dealt with Jennifer's office on Thursday, I am calling her later today to see how her "Action Appointment" went this morning.
This was achieved within 2 hours, and I will be posting Before and afters on my website http://www.totallyorganised.co.nz/ later today.
So if you need to declutter a space, call me. We can achieve a lot in 2 hours together as a team.
Happy sorting.