With summer fast approaching, this can be an ideal time of year for marketing to teachers and others who work in the school system. Between school years is the perfect time for them to get organized, either at home or in the classroom.

Teachers, especially at the elementary school level, tend to accumulate a lot of craft supplies, books, lesson ideas, and other items they might find useful in the future, especially with reduced budgets. Of course, none of these items are of any value if they can’t put their hands on them when they need them, so they need your guidance to help them identify what they really need to keep, as well as your expertise to organize things efficiently.

Ideally, you’ll be working with the teacher in his or her classroom, but many bring their materials home with them over the summer. Since they are usually quickly tossed into bags and boxes, just sorting things out can be a huge job. I once worked with a teacher whose home office was filled with bags and boxes of lesson plans, pamphlets from school trips, and other materials she’d brought home from school over the course of the year. It took a couple of days of sorting and purging before I even realized there was a desk under there!

Organizing classroom materials at the teacher’s house presents another challenge, in that you can’t place things in their permanent homes. Instead, you have to treat it like a moving job, making sure that all boxes are clearly labelled as to their contents and where they should be placed once they’re returned to the school.

Check out these links for some insight into organizing teachers:

• Organizing Teacher, a blog by teacher Valerie McInall
• Classroom Organization, an article by middle school teacher Amy Horn

Since teachers have most of the summer off, it’s also a great time for them to focus on getting organized personally!

To tap into this market, be sure to start promoting your services well before the end of the school year. Start by contacting anyone you know who works at a school or school board. Consider offering to go in to do a Lunch & Learn about getting organized, and do a draw for a tips booklet or a gift certificate to generate interest. You should definitely hand out flyers, possibly including a special offer. Even if you’re not comfortable public speaking, or if you’re unable to schedule a speaking session, ask if you can leave some flyers at the school to be distributed to the staff or posted in the lunch room. I’ve attached a flyer I used one year to give you some ideas. If you don’t have the time or creative abilities to design your own flyer, please feel free to contact me; I’d love to be of assistance.

If you’ve got any great tips for working with or marketing to teachers, please share them in the Comments section below.