The Owner, Contractors, and Employees
Employees, contractors help NAPO member’s business boom
She began her professional organizing business in 1990, working solo from her home. Soon after joining NAPO in 1993, her once quiet apartment had begun bustling with the activity of a busy office as she hopped from appointment to appointment.
Saddled with more work than she could manage, the organizer added an administrative employee to help run her business. “It came to a point that I couldn’t handle everything that was coming in,” she recalled. “The administrative side was the first to go.”
With clerical help at her fingertips, the professional organizer began renting a small commercial office space to give her booming business a new home. Next came the addition of organizers on an as-needed basis to assist with the overflow of organizing jobs that were coming in. She could not tackle them all on her own and made a decision not to refer them to other companies. Clients were finding her company and she wanted to provide them with services. Although contractors helped to increase business, the arrangement posed some difficulties. “It was an administrative nightmare to rely on independent contractors,” she said. “We would waste half our time either begging people to take a job, or switching things around to accommodate their schedules.”
Although her office staff consisted of all full time employees, she was not prepared to take the plunge and hire full time employees to handle organizing jobs – at least not right away. “I was afraid of committing to X number of hours per week,” she said. “That belief really held me back for a long time.” She felt it was a lot of responsibility on her part.
In 2005, after her company’s continued growth, the professional organizer decided she was ready to commit to changing the business model. Today, she has 10 full time employees, three part time employees and six on-call independent contractors in three locations.
“I’m not always with clients. I’m not always in the office. Having the right support staff in both areas allows me to do that,” she said. “The biggest challenge in running a business with employees or independent contractors is hiring the right people and creating the right team to live out your vision.”
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