How to Sell Organization to People Who Don’t Know They Need it (Yet)
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Entrepreneurial people are amongst the most creative in society. They have to be, as to come up with a winning business idea you have to have a high degree of openness in the way you interact with the world. This means that in order to spot the lucrative opportunities, creative entrepreneurs tend to remain ‘switched on’ at all times, scanning the environment for new opportunities, wherever they may present themselves.
This is a fantastic quality, but it is not naturally conducive to maintaining a successful business. A high degree of orderliness is required in ensuring that your records, finances and planning needs are met. Often with entrepreneurial types, organization may not come as easily to them. Too much attention to minute detail can take them away from their wider ‘vision’ for their company’s development.
As a professional organizer, here are some ways you can present your services in order to convince business owners that your skills can help them meet their creative visions for success.
Benefit #1: You can organize in a way that suits their needs
Every personality type will present certain strengths and weaknesses when it comes to organization.
The Myers-Briggs personality test has derived 16 main personality types made up of multiple categories that score high on creativity and low on orderliness. An ENFP company boss may be highly creative and sociable, however, they may struggle in organizing their daily meetings schedule. ESTP bosses, on the other hand, may have good time planning, however, they may also have a tendency to ‘hoard’ things like unnecessary paperwork, making office filing systems difficult to navigate and manage.
Hiring help with organization can help bosses play up to their personal strengths and effectively manage their shortcomings in a way that won’t affect their business operations.
Benefit #2: You can eliminate their stress
Running your own business is hugely stressful. As well as being legally culpable for all aspects of operations, there is the stress of maintaining a life outside of the business. There are only so many hours in a day and many company bosses would welcome the opportunity to plan their time in the most efficient way.
A professional organizer can help their clients manage their time more effectively and as a result, reduce their stress levels and promote a better work/life balance.
Benefit #3: You can help streamline their business
Outsourcing organization is often part of a wider effort to streamline and improve their business operation as a whole — be part of that change in their business.
Encourage the bosses to start thinking more strategically: outsourcing can allow business owners to take more of a backseat, entrusting key tasks to a professional who has all of the training they need to make the right decisions.
Explain the value of having the right people work on the right tasks — and how this approach is ultimately better for budgets and stress levels.
Benefit #4: Good organization can fulfill life in other ways
In eliminating the small, irksome parts of running a business, bosses can reconnect with their inspirations and ambitions and bring about success in their even loftier life goals, like self-improvement. A professional organizer can help bosses take a SHED approach to goals and ambitions.
To explain, SHED is an acronym for:
Separate The Treasures
Heave The Trash
Embrace Your Identity
Drive Yourself Forward
With professional help, business owners can ensure that they conduct the process of ‘separation’ and ‘trash removal’ in a productive way, leaving them more time to concentrate on what is driving them forward.
Chaos is the enemy to organization, and organization is required to run a business that stays on top of its goals and finances. A professional organizer can help whip businesses into shape and maximize a company owner’s time and energy in the right areas — just make sure that you spend time opening their eyes to the possibilities.
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This is such a good post. As a purchaser of small business services (particularly home service businesses), I’ve noticed that many professionals are very good at their chosen profession, but not so good at the business end. Those who do well seem to have a strong administrative system (or person) in place. I had one contractor who just kept forgetting to invoice me. He told his wife was always bugging him about it, and she was right! I believe that being successful depends on garnering whatever resources you need, especially those that perhaps you either don’t enjoy or are not good at performing.
That’s true, Seana – and what you say applies to organizers as well! I know quite a few who are no longer in business, not because they weren’t good at organizing, but because they didn’t know how to sell their services. Hopefully Kayleigh’s tips will lead a few people in the right direction.
Great article. These are very helpful tips!
Great article. It is important to figure out what you can offer the person or business. I found that there were many professional organizers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs that just didn’t keep up with the administrative end of their business and as a result, created undue stress for themselves and their business as a whole. Many times it was because they just didn’t have a business background to understand what needed completing.
This observation helped me create my admin support business. It’s my passion to help others get their administrative tasks in order and stay updated, as well as, streamline their processes so they can focus on the business part they love.
Thanks for sharing and bringing this to other’s awareness.
That sounds a lot like my journey, Sabrina. When I decided to add VA services to my organizing services, I said, “You can organize someone’s office and teach them time management strategies, but sometimes the best way to help them is to take some tasks off their plate.”
These are all great points / tips. Highlight the potential cost savings of being organized. Save money on stuff, storage, moving, the list goes on. Everyone likes to know how they can save money!