The Fulfilled Employee
Business ownership is not essential for your organizing career
Running a professional organizing business requires marketing know-how and the ability to pitch your company to potential clients. In addition, there are many other duties to address: Web site creation and maintenance, bookkeeping, phone calls, client follow-ups, scheduling and rescheduling appointments, among them. All of these tasks are in addition to working hands-on with clients!
Which is why, instead of starting their own companies and juggling the accompanying headaches and responsibilities, some NAPO members choose to work for an established business run by a colleague, instead. “You get to do what you love and have the interaction with the customer,” says one employee who has worked for a fellow NAPO member for the last three years. “And you don’t have to deal with all the other aspects of running a business.”
The employee, who specializes in home and business office organization, knows the ins and outs of running a business: Prior to becoming a NAPO member, she ran her own business as a writer and editor of financial materials. “I just got tired of it,” she says. “It was just too much computer work.”
While surfing the Internet, she stumbled onto a NAPO member’s Web site and was inspired to investigate a new career. Following an email exchange and interview, she soon found herself being trained and hired as a professional organizer. Had it not been for the ease of transitioning into the organizing field through another organizer’s already established company, she point out, she probably would have continued working unhappily in the financial arena.
Her boss and three other employees helped her make a seamless shift to organizing by sharing insights, ideas, and advice. That warm welcome, coupled with the ability to work a flexible schedule, sealed the deal on her career switch. “I love working in the professional organizing field, and I do really love working for someone who’s organized. She was born organized,” the employee says of her boss. “We know that everything is taken care of and we can concentrate on just working with our clients.”
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