Side Job Ideas

If you have a flair for putting things in their place and have everyone asking for your help in de-cluttering their house or office, then starting an organizing business might be for you.  You’ll be working with hoarders, pack rats, busy moms, busy executives, seniors, and many others so they can find their stuff more easily.  The benefit of your services will be saving people time and money while reducing their stress levels.

Services can revolve around arranging papers on up to organizing professional responsibilities or long distance moves, giving advice on what to keep, what to toss, and where to take action.  You can specialize or be all encompassing, figure out what you’re good at organizing and begin there.  Additional services can be added later.

The job could range from organizing the kitchen and pantry, or an overflowing closet, to working with an entire house.  Room space planning, improved storage of papers and computer files, personal finances and other important records.  With businesses, organizers can help business owners improve productivity and profitability by improving filing and storage, work flow, and time management.

Other specializations could be working with seniors, students, kids, those with ADD, or someone who’s just plain disorganized.

According to StateUniversity.com, earnings for professional organizers vary widely according to qualifications, experience, type of service offered, and geographic area. Organizers may start out with an hourly fee of $25 to $35, while those with more experience may charge as much as $125 per hour. Some organizers charge by the day, collecting as much as $1,500 for an eight-to ten-hour day.

Getting started does not take a big expense and you don’t have to be certified, although holding a professional organizer certification can add credibility.  The main expense up front will be your marketing to get the word out of your presence and develop relationships with suppliers and vendors for organization products you’ll use with your clients.

Promoting:

After you determine who your target audience is, find out where they hang out, what papers/magazines they read, what businesses they might shop.  This will determine where you might place some advertisements.  Local papers, magazines, Craigslist can be a good start with minimal expense.

Websites can be set up relatively cheap if you have a basic know how or can have a professional designer set it up for you ranging from a few hundred dollars on up to $2000 depending how much designing and features you’d require.   A basic site explaining your services and a way to contact you for an appointment should be all that’s needed.  Add a blog to the site where you provide organizing tips for added credibility and will help place your site higher on the rankings ensuring people will be able to find you.

If it’s in your budget, paying for some AdWords on Google can help drive traffic to your website in the beginning until more people start finding your site naturally.

Of course, the most important form of marketing is your quality of service and customer satisfaction.  Many people can offer an organization service, but the organizers who will always come out on top are the ones who develop positive relations with their customers and will do whatever it takes to get the job done right.  Provide a satisfaction guarantee to help eliminate any doubts in your service.

Referrals are the cheapest and most effective form of advertising you can generate.  Provide free written estimates of costs before you begin.  List services, storage items and their cost so clients will know up front what they’ll be expected to pay.    Many satisfied customers will provide names of people they know that you could contact by phone or mail.

Helpful Resources:

NAPO – National Association of Professional Organizers

You can become a certified professional organizer by taking courses through NAPO.