Category Archives: Business Practices

Using Information Products to Increase Your Income

Savvy professional organizers don’t rely on client fees as their sole source of income. They realize that with this business model, your earnings are restricted by the number of billable hours you work, and that you have no money coming in at all if you’re too sick to work or want to take a vacation. That is why so many have created information products to sell on their websites.

Information Product Sweetie

Checklists and Contracts and Agreements – Oh my!

It’s amazing how many different forms you need in order to operate a professional organizing business! Some are just for your own use, such as client information sheets, assessment forms, and checklists. Others, such as invoices and letters of agreement, communicate important information to your clients.

Organized Assistant forms

How to Protect Your Intellectual Property

If you have a blog or a website, you probably put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into writing your content, or paid a professional copywriter to do it for you. Either way, when you’ve made the effort to publish something that’s uniquely yours, it can be beyond frustrating to discover that someone has adopted it as their own.

Copyright

Five Ways To Keep Your Business From Taking Over Your Life

During Improve Management Skills Month, I’ve touched on a few of the essential skills for business success, including written communication, social networking, and public speaking. As March draws to a close, I’m going to cover one more skill that is often overlooked by busy entrepreneurs, and that is the ability to switch off and relax.

Taking a time out

How to be a Better Business Writer

As a business owner and manager, I’m sure that not a day goes by where you don’t have to write an email, a blog post, a proposal, or some other type of business document. Since everything you write is a reflection of you and your business, you need to make sure that your vocabulary and writing style are suited to your reader and that your spelling and grammar are flawless.

Writing business documents

Essential Skills for Business Success

Since becoming involved with the industry, I’ve seen many people become successful organizing consultants, but sadly, I’ve seen many others who started an organizing business only to shut it down after a few years, or even a few months. Sometimes there’s an unforeseen change in health or family situation, but often it’s because they lacked the skills required to effectively manage a business.

Business Success

Grow Your Sales Team, Grow Your Income

I’ve blogged previously about the benefits of creating information products, whether they’re related to organizing or to one of your other interests, but even if you’ve developed a product, unless you have a very popular website, you may have found that you’re not bringing in nearly as much income as you’d hoped. Why not increase your earning potential by hiring a sales force?

Sales team

Add to Your Toolkit – or Your Income – with Tomboy Tools

I know how important it is for professional organizers and other service-based small business owners to generate earnings over and above their professional fees, so when I learned that my client Judi Suraci of Organized Homes had become a consultant for Tomboy Tools, I invited her to share some information about the company.

Tomboy Tools

Is a Franchise Right for You?

This past fall, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Karen Shinn, whom I met at the 2002 POC Conference, when we were both starting out, and got to know quite well when we served on the National Board together. When I heard about Karen’s latest venture with her business partner, Gail Shields, I just had to share it with my readers, so I asked them to answer a few questions.

Downsizing Diva

The Pros and Cons of Offering Gift Certificates for Organizing Services

More money exchanges hands in December than at any other time of year, but if you don’t sell products, how can a savvy business person get in on the holiday shopping frenzy? Many professional organizers get on board by selling gift certificates for their services, but is it really a good idea?

Gift Certificate

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