professional_organizers.htm

Does taking a vacation mean making detailed lists in advance of what needs to be done, what to take, what you’re going to do when you get there and when?

Do you often receive comments from friends and family about how organized you are – and you take them as compliments?

If you answered, “Of course,” to any of the above, you may have a bright future as a Professional Organizer (PO). It lends itself well to being operated as a home-based business.

What Professional Organizers Do

Professional Organizers provide ideas, information, structure, products and/or services to help people and businesses get organized. They create specific, customized solutions for clients, help them restore order to their homes, businesses, and lives, and make the most of the resources they have. The result is that people and businesses become more productive, are less stressed, and have more control over their individual resources.

Specifically, Professional Organizers (POs) help with many types of organization challenges, and many specialize in one or two areas. Specializations include residential, business, time management, paper management and filing, clutter control, behavior modification, space planning, financial management, packing/moving, home offices, personal shopping, event planning … and the list goes on to include almost every area of business and life that benefits from being organized.

Although some POs many specialize in certain types of organizing, others may offer general services or even work with specific populations, such as the elderly, children, students, people with attention deficit disorders, professions (such as law or medicine) or clients suffering from chronic disorganization.

According to the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, chronic disorganization is defined as having a history of disorganization that has a negative effect on quality of life; disorganization that self-help efforts to change have failed, and that a person expects to continue in the future. People with chronic disorganization accumulate large quantities of things beyond necessity and have extreme trouble letting go of anything; have many unfinished projects around, and exhibit weak time management skills and other characteristics that lead to clutter around the house and office that interferes with normal everyday life and work. Professional Organizers help the chronically disorganized not only clear up clutter and get organized, but also help with time management and overcoming procrastination. Many POs also work with people who have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), who also tend to get disorganized because of their ADD.

Some POs write books, produce newsletters, offer seminars, training and classes, work on a speaker’s circuit, or serve as coaches or consultants. Most POs maintain their own Website; many work only locally in their area, while others are available nationally and internationally.

Skills, Talent & Knowledge

If you are just naturally an organized person, have strong organization skills, love to help others get organized and your fingers just itch to convert chaos into order, the strong possibility exists that the Professional Organizing field is your personal career niche.

Experience in a field or industry is helpful and adds to a PO’s credibility when contacting potential clients. Clients who contact and hire a Professional Organizer expect them to be competent and skilled in the particular arena of organizing. An unorganized teacher, for instance, will benefit more from a PO who has had some teaching experience than from a PO who understands none of the specific challenges of being an organized teacher. Many organizers come from backgrounds in corporate management, counseling and social work, teaching, event coordination, household management and other professions in which being organized is essential to success. Also required is an understanding of what a PO does, extensive knowledge about organizing products and services available and, of course, excellent organizational skills personally.

A common thread appears to run between people who left these particular fields and started their own Professional Organizer businesses. They wanted to make greater use of their total package of skills, knowledge and experiences; they wanted greater control over their own time, or they wanted the increased freedom that comes with being self-employed or owning their own business.

Clients also expect confidentiality, since many may not want even family members to know they have hired someone to help them get organized. Making sure that the client’s expectations and the PO’s match is also very important.

As far as personal characteristics, an Organizer needs to be a good listener, nonjudgmental, creative, intuitive, committed to providing value to and involving the client in the process and, as noted above, have basic administrative and business skills. A PO also should enjoy and be really good at problem-solving and have the patience and ability to teach new ideas to people.

Professional Organizers are owners of their own home-based business, so they must have the skills needed by any business owner, including knowledge about marketing, customer relations, financial management, business planning, and inventory management (if they also sell organizing products like planners, calendars, space savers, etc.).

The Outlook For POs

The Professional Organizers in Canada group estimates that only slightly more than 1,000 Professional Organizers exist in North America. However, another PO association, the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), states it has 3,200 members, which includes manufacturers of organizing products as well as organizing consultants, speakers, trainers and authors.

The Professional Organizing field is one of the fastest growing industries in North America. As more and more people feel they have less and less time, they become increasingly willing to pay someone to streamline and simplify their lives. Consider the following statistics from various published and research sources and compiled by NAPO:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that 80% of medical expenditures in the U.S. are now stress-related; 75% to 90% of all visits to physicians now are stress-related.

85% of the information businesses need to operate is not in a structured format, but exists in e-mails, graphics or videos.

Employees spend an average of 25% to 35% of their work time looking for information they need just to do their jobs; and on any given day, American workers spend a total of nine million hours collectively searching for lost information, costing companies billions of dollars each year.

In the next three years, businesses will create more information than has been created in all of history; and the supply of information now doubles every 5 years.

The average American burns 12 weeks a year looking for stuff they know they own, but can’t find.

The U.S. Department of Energy reported that 25% of people with two-car garages don’t park any cars in there and 32% park only one car.
The PO Business & Money

A Professional Organizing home-based business can easily be run on a part-time basis. In fact, many POs start their business part time, working full time at another job, until they feel ready to run their business full time. Professional Organizing tends to have flexible work hours, often nights and weekends, depending on the type of organizing.

Successful Professional Organizers say that a PO can not only earn a living, but do quite well with work. The Canadian PO group estimates that Professional Organizing fees can range from $50 to $175 per hour. The fee depends on several factors, including the PO’s level of experience, the type and location of the client, type of organizing service being offered, the difficulty level of the project and how far the PO had to travel to the client.

POs are located throughout North America, and if you’re interested in start a PO business, you will want to check with Professional Organizers in your area to see what they are charging. However, unless you are still working another full-time job, you may want to have some reserve funds to carry you over until your business gets underway, just like you would with any start-up home-based business. On average, building your PO business may take between two and five years; but this time frame is heavily dependent on the amount of time and effort you put into the business, your experience and determination, and your target market.

One advantage of this field as a home-based business is that start-up costs can be very low. Most Professional Organizers get their clients through referrals, networking, membership in professional associations, and their Website. Many write books and articles or publish newsletters on their Website, as well as accepting requests to speak at clubs, business functions and community events. In her “Quick Tips for New Professional Organizers," Maria Gracia warns new POs not to spend a lot of money on stationery, business cards and advertising until they have fully defined their business and target market. New POs need to figure out what market they are going to sell to, what products or organizing services they will offer, how much prospective clients are willing to pay and how they will find clients.

Training and Professional Associations

Certification as a Professional Organizer is in the early stages of development. The field has existed since the 1980s, but interest has exploded since the 1990s. The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD), and the International Association of Professional Organizers are among the few groups offering the Certified Professional Organizer designation after completing specific courses and passing an exam. NSGCD offers various levels of certification for working with specialized populations, such as chronically disorganized, ADD, the elderly. The certifications are only offered to the groups’ members.
In addition to NSGCD, several private PO firms, the National Association of Professional Organizers and other Professional Organizing associations offer seminars, telecourses, and mentoring and apprenticeship programs on all types of Professional Organizing. Although none of these are required to call yourself a Professional Organizer, as with most fields, education and certification increase credibility and marketability.

The Downside

After extensive research, the only drawbacks to a Professional Organizing business involve convincing potential clients that you can organize them and their lives better than they can. With all the organizing books, videos, and products available, the general public may prefer to try to do their own getting organized. Part of the focus of many courses, seminars, classes and Professional Organizing manuals available – judging by the excerpts – is teaching Professional Organizers how to market themselves and their business.

Although many books and courses are offered, they all cost money. The primary product of Professional Organizers is information. Therefore, not much information on much of anything about the field of Professional Organizing is free.

Another factor anyone wanting to start a Professional Organizing business needs to be aware of is that getting the business off the ground, becoming profitable, and finding clients may take a while – just like most home-based business start-ups. Although some Professional Organizers say they started earning thousands of dollars right away, they probably are the exception.

RESOURCES:

Anderson, Linda. “Why Is It So Hard To Let Go Of All That Stuff?” Attention Deficit Disorder Association, http://www.add.org/articles/stuff.html

Disposophobia – The Fear of Getting Rid of Stuff, http://www.disposophobia.com/

Gracia, Maria. “Quick Tips for New Professional Organizers.” Get Organized Now for Professional Organizers, http://www.getorganizednow.com/po.html

International Association of Professional Organizers, http://www.organizingtheworld.org/

Minding Your Matters – Organize Necessary Matters to Revitalize Real Life, http://www.mindingyourmatters.com/htmls/organizing_services.html

National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, http://www.nsgcd.org/index.html

Professional Organizers in Canada, “F.A.Q.” http://www.organizersincanada.com/fut_faq.html and home page, http://www.organizersincanada.com/index.html

Professional Organizers Web Ring, “FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).” http://www.organizersWebring.com/faq.asp

U.S. Small Business Administration - Starting Your Business, http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/index.html

Pat Dinslage is a freelance writer and staff writer for IAHBE. She has BA degree in Economics, BS degree in journalism and is currently working on a Master’s degree in career counseling. She has worked in business, government, agriculture and media, including a stint as a business reporter for a daily newspaper.