The Product Developer
New Ideas Can Distinguish You and Your Business
When she began 30 years ago in the field that is known today as professional organizing, there were very few — if any — resources available. NAPO, the organizing authority, had yet to be founded. She knew of no other professional organizers. Organizing stores, catalogs and television programs were non-existent.
In short, there was no game plan for professional organizing; so she decided to write her own.
The self-described risk-taker and entrepreneur plowed ahead, placing an ad in a major metropolitan newspaper seeking clients. The ad yielded three crank calls. The fourth call came from the woman who would become the first client, a widow looking for organizational help following a death. Suddenly, the organizer’s career was born, but she still needed a way to spread the word about her newfound profession. “I would speak at PTAs and garden clubs and church groups to find other clients,” she says. “I just made it up as I went, by listening to people’s needs.”
Early on this organizer discovered that people’s needs often centered on finding necessary documents under mounds and mounds of papers. When she searched the library for a book to assist her and her clients in the paper-sifting process, she came back empty-handed. So, she wrote several books of her own, some of which have since been adapted to computer software.
For her, product development — from books and CDs to computer programs — is essential in terms of growing the organizing industry and ensuring that fellow NAPO members succeed long-term. “If all you have to offer is your time, you will ultimately burn out,” she says. In addition, products serve as another source of income and help to differentiate one organizer from the rest.
But, suppose you don’t know the first thing about writing a book, making a CD, or venturing into other uncharted territory? “Look for other people who will help you build a product,” she suggests. “If you want to be successful long-term, you do need to develop some things of your own that are proprietary.”
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