Most organizers are solopreneurs who handle every aspect of their business, bringing in colleagues on a subcontract basis as needed, or perhaps engaging the services of a virtual assistant or other professional. My guest today has some great tips for you if this is no longer enough and you need to hire a regular employee.

©Depositphotos / Chris Lamphear

As a small business owner, there are two areas that can cause the most headaches: staffing and accounts.  While large businesses are able to employ whole departments dedicated to both areas, the small business owner faces the unique and un-enviable position of having to be expert in all areas of business management.  For those running their own Human Resources or Accountancy Business, these problems are probably not so great, but for professional organizers they can mean hours of additional work once the day job is over.  Taking on staff for the first time is exciting – it’s a sign that your business is growing – but it can also be daunting and making the right selection is essential.  So how do you set about finding your very first employee?

Character Traits

• Personal qualities are sometimes more important than qualifications.  Individuals who have a “can and will do” attitude, or a “can’t yet but am happy to learn” attitude, are often more valuable to a small business than those who have a list of excellent qualifications or work history.
• Always question why a prospective employee is leaving Goldman Sachs to work for your organizing business.  There may be a perfectly legitimate answer, or there may be a dark secret lurking behind this sudden and unusual career move.
• Don’t discount people from schools with ‘poor’ reputations, over those with ‘good’ schools.  Younger people from more dubious backgrounds with good qualifications have already proved they can succeed against the odds, while those from privileged backgrounds may not even know what an obstacle is, or how to deal with one.
• Experience is sometimes over-rated.  Remember that an individual who is bright and keen is usually fairly easy to train and can be more flexible.  While relevant experience in your sector is certainly important, it shouldn’t be the only factor you use to make your judgement.

Selecting, Interviewing and Aftercare

• Many small business owners find that the demands on their time are many, and the hours in the day are few.  However, it can’t be over-stressed enough how important it is to make time for interviewing potential employees and making your decision.  One rushed, bad choice now, can lead to months of frustration and additional work.  Get it right at this stage and life may become significantly easier.
• Try to screen candidates prior to interview by ringing them in advance.  Phone interviews are not always the best way to get an impression of people, but they can help.  They are particularly important if you’re selecting customer facing staff or reception staff.  You can normally discount people who say “Wot” when they answer the phone, at this stage.
• Again, as we are all pressed for time it can be tempting to just select a friend or your wife’s ex-mother-in-laws sister’s step-daughter to do the job.  It can be a big mistake.  If you’ve got the wrong person you stand the chance of damaging your business and ruining a relationship.  Friends and families can make far more difficult colleagues than complete strangers.  Always interview several candidates – most experts recommend at least three.
• When it comes to the interview itself you shouldn’t be doing most of the talking.  You’ll need to ask the questions, but let the candidates talk.  Most people will be keen to fill a silence, and may well give more away about themselves than they’d planned – for both good and bad.  Essentially you are there to listen and learn, they’re there to tell you about themselves.  Those all-important personal qualities tend to show best at this stage, so ensure you give them time to demonstrate them.
• Aftercare is important, and that may involve a little advance planning.  There is a wide range of payroll software in Canada, and taking some time to select an appropriate system and getting it in place before you take on that first employee is worthwhile.  Once you’ve found your perfect candidate you’ll be keen to have them on the team as soon as possible.

Carlo Pandian is a freelance writer and blogs about business, entrepreneurs and technology covering everything from QuickBooks essentials to social media management tools. He loves reading great entrepreneurs biographies and speaking at conferences about how the internet can help small businesses.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on How to Hire Your First Employee.

If you’re thinking about establishing an organizing business, you’ll find lots of helpful information right here on Your Organizing Business and elsewhere on the Internet, but sometimes it’s really helpful to have a comprehensive guide to keep on hand as a reference manual, both as you get started and down the road.

As a professional organizer, you can get paid to do hands-on organizing, to give people organizing ideas, or both. The FabJob Guide to Become a Professional Organizer holds nearly 300 pages of valuable information on this rapidly growing field, including:

• Background about the organizing industry to help you decide if this is the right career for you
• A room-by-room guide to home organizing and reducing clutter, with proven systems for deciding if something is treasure, toy, tool or trash
• Tips for organizing businesses, including workflow management, filing systems, and space planning
• Personal organization and time management strategies
• Advice to help you start a professional organizing business, set your prices, and attract customers
• Marketing techniques, from public speaking to article writing

You’ll also read profiles of a number of industry experts, including Laurene Livesey Park, former President of Professional Organizers in Canada (POC), and Barry Izsak, former President of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO).

Originally developed as an e-book, the FabJob Guide to Become a Professional Organizer is now available in a printed version for just a few dollars more. The print book includes a bonus CD-ROM with forms and checklists you can use in your organizing business.

Other FabJob guides that may be of interest include:

• Become a Home Stager
• Become an Interior Redesigner
• Become a Life Coach
• Become a Business Consultant

As an affiliate for FabJob.com, I will receive a small commission on any purchases originating from this post. Although I have not read all of the guides mentioned above, I have read some of their other publications and am confident you will find them to be helpful resources.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Becoming a Professional Organizer.

I am especially pleased to introduce today’s guest blogger, Clare Kumar, who is one of my clients and one of the few Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Bloggers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in person. I’ve invited Clare to share her experience as a product developer and professional organizer.

As a professional organizer I problem solve daily as part of the job. Often there is an obvious way to address a particular dilemma with available products or systems. Other times, I simply wish there was a solution that existed.  From time to time, I invent a solution.

Even before I was an organizer, I’d come up with ideas for products that would neatly address a challenge.  For example, I thought it would be helpful to have eyeglasses with one side that flips down so you can apply makeup with ease. How about plastic bag holders to protect hands while carrying a heavy load, or a light that slowly brightens in the morning to soften your waking moments and counter the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder? I ended up seeing every one of these in market.

All of these ideas came to mind clearly, and I could even visualize them, but I did nothing to bring them to market. Yes, a good idea is a brilliant thing, but is only the seed.  And it takes a lot of seeds to turn into a few well-developed trees.  Having worked for the past almost three years on bringing a product to market, I have healthy respect for any product that actually ends up in the marketplace. It takes a tremendous amount of work and determination, and often even a bit of luck.

If you’ve got an idea you’re thinking ought to be “out there”, here are four things you can do:

Write it down

Begin documenting the idea in an Inventor’s Log Book.  Here you will use words and pictures to describe your idea. It is important to date each entry.  There are guidelines on how to choose and maintain an Inventor’s log book, and resources which can help make sure you’re doing it properly. In countries where patents are granted on a first-to-invent versus a first-to-file basis, this document could be critical to proving you are the inventor.  In any case, it is good practice to make sure you don’t lose a good idea!

Determine if there is a market need

For a product to be successful there has to be a market for it.  With the internet, it’s easier than ever to reach niche markets, upping the ability to reach those markets.  But how do you know if there is demand for your product?  It feels very risky to talk about a new idea, but you won’t find out if there is a market for it without asking a few folks what they think.

Prepare non-disclosure forms for your test market to sign and do have them sign it. It may protect your ‘investment’ in the future if you decide to pursue creating intellectual property.

Listen to feedback

Stay open minded to what people tell you about your product. It’s hard to do when you think you have something fantastic, but if you listen, you may find ways to improve your product. Your idea may not be for everyone, and that’s okay.  This process may help you define your target market, too. Remember, a “not interested” or “don’t like x or y” could be more helpful than an “I love it”.

Figure out if there is a business

Your idea may be ingenious but if it is too expensive to produce or to ship to its market, then there is no sustainable business.  You will want to determine how much it will cost to produce at a range of volumes, and see if, even at low volumes, people will pay enough to generate a profit for all the parties involved, including manufacturers, distributors and marketers.  If not profitable, consider redesigning to reduce costs, or working on your next idea.

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for general purposes only and is not a substitute for legal counsel of financial advice.  It is the responsibility of the reader to verify any legal information with an attorney.

Clare Kumar is Chief Organizer at Streamlife®, an organizing company, and President of Flo Collection Inc, the company behind Pliio™ – the fastest way to fold, file and find your clothes.  Clare is thrilled to be launching the product she co-developed with inventor Yuriko Zakimi on HSN, the Home Shopping Network, on March 22, 2012.

Clare is presenting “How to Take Your Organizing Product to Market – What You Need To Know” on Saturday, March 24th at 1:45pm at the NAPO 2012 Conference in Baltimore.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Taking Your Organizing Product to Market – Four steps to get started.

You provide a valuable service, but not everyone needs or can afford to pay for hands-on organizing, so maybe you also offer organizing seminars or workshops. My guest today is Audrey Cupo, who has found a great way to enhance her educational sessions with quality organizing products.

A Complement to A BETTER SPACE

I have been a professional organizer since 2004 when I began my business A BETTER SPACE, which is based in Bucks County, PA in the United States. I have grown my residential organizing business each and every year to include not only in-home services, but writing, public speaking and product creation. My product line called “U Can Do It” was created to help those I could not reach with my in-home services to get organized and stay organized. It has served me well and has enabled me to reach out to people all over the world.

Recently, however, I felt that I wanted to do more education-based work and was considering developing another aspect of my business where I could go into people’s homes and educate a group of women around a dining room table about how to get and stay organized.

I was in the process of formulating how I was going to do this when, one day, back in November of 2011, I was on a LinkedIn group site created as a place for professional organizers to share information. One of the members asked if we had heard about Clever Container? I had not but was curious. So I investigated further.

Upon learning about this company and researching it thoroughly, I learned that Clever Container is the only company of its kind in the United States (and soon to go International) that provides an opportunity for those who love organization to help others get organized while having fun at the same time with in-home party demonstrations. Just what I was looking for! I signed on within three days.

I am thrilled that I can now offer my existing clients good, quality organizing products as “a complement to A BETTER SPACE”. I am also able to provide education in a group setting right in someone’s own home surrounded by their friends and family members. I now schedule organizing parties which are fun and educational at the same time. The hostess gets to earn free and discounted products to help them get organized as well.

Another bonus for me is I can do vendor events. I have always wanted to participate in vendor events but found it difficult to do so with only information products to display on my table. Now, I can provide a product that is in line with my business and my passion. The response has been overwhelming and it is very exciting!

My professional organizing business can now provide my own information products as well as physical organizing products from Clever Container.  A BETTER SPACE has truly become a full service company!

Are you interested in learning more? Simply visit www.4abetterspace.com/clever_container.

If you like the products and want to place an order, you need to enter a Consultant ID #. My consultant number is 373.

If you like what you see and want to become a Consultant, you have the ability to start your own CLEVER CONTAINER business and supplement your existing income.

At my very first party, I sold $1000 worth of product (easily!) and as a consultant and host of that party, I got a commission, free products, discounts on additional products and free shipping. Contact me and I can help you get started right away.

As a professional organizer, I think it’s the perfect complement to my business and I would love to have you on my team! Together, we can help others get organized just by scheduling parties. I don’t know about you, but I love a party!

Audrey Cupo is a full-time Professional Organizer and sole proprietor of A BETTER SPACE based in Bucks County, PA. She specializes in residential organizing and focuses her business on helping busy moms and women entrepreneurs with home-based businesses get organized with her in-home services, writing and public speaking. She has created the her own “U Can Do It” product line and is an independent consultant for Clever Container.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on A Clever Way to Enhance Your Organizing Business.

People join professional associations for various reasons. Some join because they feel it gives them credibility. Others hope to attract new clients through the online directory. For many people, those are the only reasons to join, so they don’t see any benefit in actively participating in their association.

I’ve even heard some people say

Why would I want to go to a meeting? It’s not like I’m going to get any business out of it.

Those people are missing out! Not only can you learn a lot from networking with your colleagues, active participation in a professional association can indeed bring in business.

I became a member of Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) mainly for the reasons mentioned above, and although it was certainly worthwhile in both of these areas, my relationships with other members brought me far greater benefits than I could ever have imagined! Here are just a few examples:

1. I received referrals from members in other regions who received inquiries from prospective clients in my area.
2. I was hired by a member who specialized in home staging to organize her home office, and by a home organizer to help organize her email and computer files. Professional organizers don’t all have the same skills or offer the same services!
3. Several organizers offered me subcontracting opportunities on projects that were too large for one person to manage alone, or where they needed someone with expertise in office organization.
4. I was also able to bring in other organizers on my larger projects, or when I needed someone with expertise in home organization.
5. One member left the organizing field to pursue other interests. This led to my being interviewed for a local radio show as well as an article in our local newspaper, which directly brought in new business.

Those things didn’t just happen because I paid my membership fee and stuck a logo on my website! I was very active in the association, attending Chapter meetings regularly and even serving on the National Board as Director of Membership for three years. During that time, the organization grew from fewer than 100 members to over 500, so I got to know hundreds of members, even if our only contact was by email. Even though I haven’t been a professional organizer or a POC member for several years now, I attribute much of my business success to the knowledge I gained and the contacts I made during that time.

If you’re new to the industry, I highly recommend you not only join, but actively participate in your professional association.

If you are involved with your professional association, please leave a comment to let others know the benefits you’ve experienced!

If you’ve decided professional association membership is not for you, please leave a comment to explain why.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Are You Active in Your Professional Association – or are you just a member?.

As an organizing consultant, you often have access to clients’ confidential information, and this is not something to be taken lightly. In fact, it’s such an important issue that I’ve invited Lisa Montanaro to share her expertise as a Certified Professional Organizer and former attorney, so you can approach it as a true professional.

© Fotolia.com

If you are a professional organizer, chances are you use a client agreement (if you do not, please reconsider!). Because professional organizing services are confidential in nature (we see it all!), your agreement most likely contains a confidentiality clause (if it doesn’t, consider adding one!). But what confidential information are you actually protecting? And how far does that protection extend? If you are unsure, then the confidentiality clause is essentially meaningless. If you don’t fully understand its weight and coverage, how will your client? Will a court or government body be able to ascertain the full meaning and scope of the confidentiality clause when asked to issue an interpretation of the confidentiality clause’s coverage? How will it play out if the party that drafted the clause can’t provide relevant information as to its scope and intention? As a former practicing attorney that has seen her share of confidentiality clauses, I can assure you that the importance of crafting a meaningful, powerful, but accurate and realistic confidentiality clause is vitally important to your business.

Why include a confidentiality clause in your client agreement?

Let’s first look at why you would want to include a confidentiality clause in the first place. A confidentiality clause provides a safe environment for your client and promotes trust. Your client wants to know that he or she (or “it” if you are working with an organization doing non-profit, business or corporate organizing) can fully trust you with confidential, personal, financial or proprietary information. A confidentiality clause demonstrates to the client that you are a true professional, willing to keep certain information to yourself and not disclose such information to others except under certain circumstances (more on the exceptions later). This allows the client to be fully present and disclose information freely which will result in a better, more open relationship, which in turn will lead to an increased ability to service the client.

What can you keep confidential?

There are some typical types of information that most confidentiality clauses cover. Many include confidentiality of financial information and trade secrets, promises not to release information to third parties without permission from client, no written or electronic information retained past the termination of relationship without the permission of client, no use of client information in marketing materials without permission of client, etc. In other words, it depends. You could guarantee that all information that you obtain during the scope of your work with the client be kept confidential. You could guarantee that any information that the client deems confidential will be kept from disclosure. But if you were to make that type of blanket guarantee, you would essentially be lying to your client. Why? Because it is up to the courts to determine the scope of the confidentiality clause if challenged.

Why would a confidentiality clause ever be challenged?

Let’s look at some scenarios. Let’s say you are organizing the client’s files, and promise to keep all financial information confidential. Then you get served with a subpoena by a court or the Internal Revenue Service advising that you must appear in court or cooperate in an investigation. Let’s take it a step further and assume that if you fail to cooperate, you can be held in contempt of court, fined, or worse, jailed. Now do you plan to stand by your blanket statement that ALL information of a confidential nature will be kept confidential? Doubtful.

Because organizers are exposed to so much, there are other scenarios that may result in you being called upon to disclose information. Child protective services investigations, elderly protective services investigations, drug enforcement investigations, spousal abuse investigations, tax and financial investigations, firearms investigations, etc. The list goes on. Are these scenarios common? Not typically. But that doesn’t mean they may not arise. If they do, you need to be prepared for the fact that the confidentiality clause will most likely not be a match for the court or government agency’s stronger need for the information you possess.

Do organizers have immunity against disclosure of confidential information?

Some organizers may try to keep confidentiality by arguing that they have a certain type of immunity under the law. While organizers may be privy to their client’s personal and confidential information and that develops a special bond or relationship, there is no recognized protection for this relationship under the law. If you are a lawyer, doctor, priest, therapist, or other professional that is covered by such an immunity, then by all means, go ahead and assert it. But professional organizers do not have a recognized immunity under the law. Therefore, a court would most definitely overrule any immunity you try to assert as an organizer and order you to disclose any and all information in order to fully cooperate.

How do you assure confidentiality in a way that is meaningful but allows for the fact that you may be called upon to answer to a higher authority?

Be careful not to draft an overly broad confidentiality statement or you will give your client a false sense of security. You can only guarantee confidentiality up to the point when disclosure is required by law or subpoena. So why not just say that? Put clear language in your actual confidentiality clause that explains when disclosure is warranted. That way, the client is aware that you have every intention of protecting confidentiality, but that if you are issued a lawful subpoena and required to disclose, you will obey the law and cooperate. (By the way, when I refer to a “higher authority” in this context, I don’t mean God, although you may feel a moral obligation to disclose is just as strong, if not stronger, than a legal one. If so, then you can envision yet another means for disclosure and breach of the confidentiality clause if you will disclose for moral reasons and not just legal ones.)

Where does that leave you and your client if you disclose based on a proper investigation and lawful subpoena?

Disclosure would probably not endear you to the client. However, that would be the lesser of two evils given that the alternative may be financial ruin or jail time. Can your client sue you for breach of contract for violation of the confidentiality clause? Sure. Anybody can sue anybody over anything at any time. But you would have a pretty airtight defense to get the case dismissed given that your disclosure was court ordered. Plus, you may just sleep better at night if your disclosure helps remedy an unlawful situation, prevent a crime, or save a person.

Copyright 2011. The information provided in this article is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys general information related to legal issues commonly encountered.

Lisa Montanaro, JD, CPO, is Principal of LM Organizing Solutions, LLC, a professional services firm created in 2002 that offers professional organizing, business and life coaching, and motivational speaking to individuals and organizations. Lisa publishes the monthly “DECIDE™ to be Organized” e-zine for the general public, and “Next Level Business Success” e-zine for professional organizers and entrepreneurs.  Subscribe today at www.LMOrganizingSolutions.com. To explore how LMOS can help take your business to the next level, contact Lisa Montanaro at (845) 988-0183 or by e-mail at Lisa@LMOrganizingSolutions.com.

Want to learn an effective new organizing process to use with your clients (while working on your own organizing projects personally and professionally)? Join Lisa for the DECIDE to be Organized Group Coaching Program, a 6-week teleclass series, starting 10/18. Upon completion, Lisa will issue a certificate for 9 hours of continuing education. Organizers have taken the program alongside non-organizers and say that it is a powerful way to learn an organizing methodology. http://lmorganizingsolutions.com/groupcoaching.html

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on How Far Does the Confidentiality Clause in Your Client Agreement REALLY Extend?.

In my experience, most professional organizers are very happy to share resources and expertise with their colleagues and reap many rewards from doing so. I asked my client, Julie Stobbe, about her thoughts on the subject, and was so impressed that I invited her to share them here today as my guest blogger.

Coopetition occurs when companies work together for parts of their business where they do not believe they have competitive advantage and where they believe they can share common costs. (Source: Wikipedia)

Cooperating with someone in your line of business is a great way to get to know people, brainstorm and  learn ideas and help each other with areas that you are weak in.

When I decided to try coopetition, I did it on a project basis. I used it to help me to market better, because marketing is not my strength.

I would think about something I would like to have (product development) or something I would like to do (offer a new service) and think about someone who had mentioned that they had an interest in the same thing.  I would approach them with an idea and see if they were interested in working together to develop and implement the plan.  It was nice to have a partner to walk the path with and hold my hand.

The payoff is having to do half the work while increasing business for both parties with the understanding that if they get busy and need help, they would approach me first, and I would do the same for them.  If you develop a service with a partner, if someone gets sick, you have the other person as backup.   I always selected someone who lived east of my main marketing area.  This made it easy to get materials delivered over a larger area – half the work, twice the area covered.  This gave us both exposure to a larger market.

Here are some examples of projects I’ve worked on with people in my field and with complementary businesses:

• Developing organizing tip booklets; we have 4 different topics.
• Developing courses to offer to colleges, school boards and groups; we have 3 different 3 hour courses prepared.
• Advertising someone else’s electronic resources (because I don’t want to develop them at this time) in exchange for services.
• Advertising together so the cost of printing is shared by both companies.
• Recommending specialty services to clients, such as clutter removal service, rug cleaning, and website design.
• Inviting someone to attend new meetings and events with me. That way I don’t have to walk in alone, and perhaps they can make introductions too.

Although I have been fortunate and careful with whom I partner, there are always things to consider.

• The person you partner with now represents your company as well as their own.  Make sure you have similar business ethics or your company’s reputation maybe adversely affected.
• If you are producing a product and the quality of what they produce is not up to your standards, you may be disappointed.  However, you have both contributed time and money to the project so they may use it the way they want to.
• One of the companies may work much harder at marketing the product or service than the other company.  Make sure that you can live with it if you realize that you are marketing them but they are not marketing you.

Overall, I have gained a lot from coopetition with others.  I have grown as a business person, I have learned new skills, I have made good friends I can depend on, and I have learned to be flexible.  I hope my coopetition partners have found me to be reasonable, supportive and hard working.  Taking a chance to work with good people is really making a sure bet.

Julie Stobbe is a POC Trained Professional Organizer and the owner of Mind over Clutter in Beamsville, Ontario, Canada. You can also like Mind over Clutter on Facebook.

Do you have a “coopetition” story of your own? Please share it in the Comments. If you have any questions for Julie, please feel free to post them here as well.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Do You Play Well with Others? A look at cooperative competition.

When you joined NAPO, POC, or another professional association, you agreed to follow the Code of Ethics of that organization. You probably scanned the Code of Ethics quickly and figured you’d have no problem doing the right thing, right? You’re a good person, after all! But there’s a lot more to ethics than just being a good person.

I became aware that things weren’t quite that simple when a discussion about referral fees took place at a POC Conference several years ago. Some members felt it was wrong to ask another member to pay for referrals, whereas others believed it was unethical for a member who doesn’t invest a lot of money and effort into marketing their business to expect someone who does to just hand over referrals without compensation. It became clear that there was no absolute right or wrong answer.

Debbie Stanley’s Ethical Pitfalls for Professional Organizers describes a number of other sticky scenarios you may encounter when interacting with your peers, as well as issues that may arise when working with clients, managing your business, dealing with the media, and even when you’re off-duty. In some cases, you’ll probably feel confident that you would handle the situation appropriately, but there will be many others that you might not have even considered as having ethical ramifications.

You won’t find the answers to these dilemmas within the pages of this book. What you will find is a nine-step process to guide you in making ethical decisions. You’ll also find an explanation of the meaning of professional ethics and how they apply to the organizing industry, as well as helpful tips on dealing with someone you feel has behaved in an unethical manner.

It’s not difficult to see why the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers suggests reading Ethical Pitfalls before writing the certification exam. It’s a thought-provoking look at a very serious topic that deserves much more attention than it gets. I highly recommend that you read this book, whether you intend to pursue certification or not. At only 100 pages, it won’t demand a lot of your time, but it will definitely change the way you look at things.

Have you read this book? What did you think about it?

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Book Review: Ethical Pitfalls for Professional Organizers.

When you started your business, you probably had no trouble fitting both your paperwork and your clients into your schedule, but now that things have taken off, you may be thinking about bringing other people on board. Before you take this step, find out what’s involved by reading my interview with Janice Russell, CPO-CD, COC of Minding Your Matters® Organizing.

Janice, how long have you been a professional organizer, and at what point did you decide to bring in team members?

I opened Minding Your Matters® Organizing in 2002, and began to build my team in 2005.

How did you know it was time?

By the time many people call us, they are ready to get started. While they have had clutter for years, at the point of the phone call, they’re ready to start the next day. I was having to book people more than a month out, and I could hear disappointment and some frustration in their voices.

Being able to respond quickly to client needs is clearly a good thing, but how has it benefited you and your business?

The biggest advantage to having a team is the ability to earn more money. There are only so many hours in a week which means that as service providers, we can only earn money for billable hours, with two notable exceptions: if you have passive income or if you have a team.

The team is advantageous in two ways: organizers can work billable hours, and support staff can complete tasks to free you up to take care of other business activities.

How many people are on your team right now? Are they employees or independent contractors?

I have two organizers who are employees, and a bookkeeper and administrative assistant who are independent contractors.

How did you go about finding and selecting your team members?

For organizers, I put out the word through my local network connections and my NAPO-NC Chapter, but I have had potential organizers contact me for years, so I always tell them that if they send me a copy of their resume, I will contact them when I’m hiring.

I’ve always had a list of questions that I used with each candidate during an interview, and my selection process has been refined through the years. Now I also have a list of questions for the phone interview prior to the in-person interview.

I found each of my independent contractors a different way.

I found my bookkeeper through a local company that matched moms who had previously been in the workforce and then had taken off time to stay at home with children but were now looking for opportunities to work part-time with flexible hours.

I found my administrative assistant through another organizer. My admin is a virtual admin who lives in a different state. Because the recommending organizer lived in a third state and had a different type of practice from mine, I didn’t feel there was any conflict of interest. I figured it was prudent to work with her for a while and then, if it didn’t work out, to use the industry association for virtual assistants to find someone else. In this case, I had very specific needs and none of the VAs in my area provided one of the main services I wanted.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of hiring your own employees versus hiring independent contractors?

You can train employees in your methodology, so you have more control than you do with independent contractors, where there are strict parameters over how you can and can’t supervise or guide their work. For the most part, it is hands-off. If you want people to do a task according to a specific methodology or using specific tools, using independent contractors isn’t advisable.

On the other hand, with independent contractors, there’s much less paperwork; you don’t have to deal with the administrative piece around pay and taxes like you do with your own staff. But that is one reason why I have a bookkeeper!

What are the biggest challenges you face managing your team?

My biggest challenge is one that’s faced by all managers: communicating with each team member in a way that works for them. It’s easy to make assumptions that I’ve communicated clearly, and then I find out that it wasn’t so clear on the receiving end.

A second one is delegating. Since I tend to like things “a certain way,” I’ve had to really learn the skill of delegating in addition to the concept that often “done is better than perfect.”

One challenge that might be unique to organizers is the amount of time in the field. From the very beginning I set the expectation that I can’t predict how many organizing hours staff might have during a week or month. The team has done a great job of understanding this, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t feel bad if I’m not providing them with as many hours as I know they would like.

Looking back, is there anything you would do differently?

That’s a great question! I don’t think so, only because time and going through the process of hiring and letting go have brought me to the place where I feel comfortable making staffing decisions. Experience is a great teacher and even if someone had “told me” the lessons that I’ve learned, I don’t think I would have followed their advice. Sometimes the only way to learn is to try and see what happens.

What is the #1 piece of advice you would give to an organizer who wanted to build a team?

Make sure you are following the law when it comes to deciding whether to hire employees or to use independent contractors. I have heard stories of organizers who had to pay big fines because the IRS disputed how team members were classified.

Any other tips?

NAPO has a Multi-Person Special Interest Group. People who are NAPO members with teams who want to discuss issues, challenges and successes related to teams can see if they meet the qualifications to be part of this SIG. I’ve found it very beneficial.

A leader in the organizing field, Janice is a founding member and past president of the North Carolina chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) in addition to being a Golden Circle Member and past education chair for NAPO. In 2009, she was nominated for the prestigious NAPO Founder’s Award.

Janice is the Past Certification Program Director of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) and holds the distinction of being the first professional organizer in North Carolina to become a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization, a certification she has held since 2005. In 2007, she received her credential as a Master Trainer in Chronic Disorganization and Organization. Janice also holds the Chronic Disorganization Specialist Certificate and the Attention Deficit Disorder Specialist Certificate and has obtained all ten of the Certificates of Study offered by ICD.

She is a graduate of the Organizer Coach Foundation Training provided by the Coach Approach for Organizers. She also holds a Masters in Education from Vanderbilt University.

In addition to organizing services to the public, she provides consulting for professional organizers to help them start or grow their business.

Do you have a question for Janice about starting or running a team? Please enter it in the comments and she’ll be happy to answer.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Secrets to Growing Your Organizing Team.

Today I’m thrilled to introduce a special guest, Lelah Baker-Rabe, who is one of our Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Bloggers. Lelah specializes in helping clients eliminate paper from their offices, and is here today to explain how you can benefit from making your organizing business paperless.

As professional organizers, we work with many clients who are challenged by paper. The daily inflow of paper is constant and our expertise helps our clients manage paper effectively. As business owners, we also have paper challenges. Because we have paper-management skills, the paper might not be as overwhelming for us, but it must be managed well in order for us to run our businesses profitably. With recent tech products like smartphones, tablets and net books, professional organizers have excellent resources and excellent reasons to take their businesses paperless.

What does it mean to have a paperless business? Invoicing and contracts would be sent and received electronically. Advertising and marketing materials would be electronic, too, forgoing a paper newsletter or direct mail campaign for an enewsletter or email campaign. When you do receive a piece of paper that you want to keep or a business card you want to refer to, you would employ a scanning system and then recycle the paper rather than storing it in a filing cabinet. Your calendar, address book and notebook might be available through web-based applications you can access on a smartphone, or you might use something like Apple’s MobileMe to keep your data updated across multiple electronic platforms, such as an iPhone and laptop. One always has to keep some physical records for legal and tax reasons, but they can be limited to a small permanent file.

Why go to all the trouble to retool your professional organizing business as a paperless one?

1. Mobility. You can be anywhere and access important data, making it more efficient to schedule and follow up with clients and manage your workflow. You can also share data with employees or contractors more easily.
2. It saves money and space. Your office space will be lighter without a lot of paper files; having all your data backed up to an external hard drive or a cloud-based backup system takes up very little room. While you might invest in new technology like a scanner or smartphone, you’ll save money on supplies like printer ink and paper.
3. It helps you learn new skills you can transfer to your clients. A paperless business teaches tech skills that will help you work with clients on time management, office organizing and productivity.
4. It sets an example for your clients and can be environmentally responsible, too. Recycling is good, but not using paper in the first place is better.  However, tools like phones and computers can have large eco-footprints, so if you strive for a green business, do your homework before you invest in products.

Your organized business can also be your paperless business!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. For more information on how and why to go paperless, call her at 818.269.6671, email lelah@lelahwithanh.com or sign up for Lelah’s News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Your Paperless Business.