October To-Do List For Your Organizing Business
Guys, it's October. It's finally October. It's my favorite month, probably of the whole year. I mean, I really love December, but, October in Minnesota is... pretty unparalleled. And I am thrilled. I am ready for some coziness. I'm ready for some crisp. I'm ready for the leaves to change. I'm ready for all of it. Also, for our listeners in the southern hemisphere, I understand it's just starting summer, so just ignore me as I talk about how great fall is, but I love October.
And I love October because it really, for some reason, maybe I'm alone, you guys, I don't know, but it really energizes me to get stuff done and to really get into some like solid work projects. So today on the podcast, it's going to be a little bit of a quickie, but, stay tuned because I have some good news for you.
But one of the things that I want to do is do October to dos. I did this in August and people really loved it and they said, “Hey, can you do this every month?” And I said, yes, absolutely. And then I promptly forgot to do it in September. So go me! But I want to give you some October to dos, and tell you a little bit about what I'm focusing on in my own organizing business, and also what I'm coaching the people in our Pro Organizer Studio programs to do in their business in October. I just want you to feel like you are a part of our family.
And I want to go back to before we get into the meat of this subject and I give you a bunch of things to go do in your business–I want to do a quick wrap up because last week I was so fortunate to get to meet a ton of amazing women at the How To Summit. And I just want to do a little bit of a shout out to every single person who came up to me and said, “Oh my gosh, I love the podcast.”
Thank you so much. Or there were people that said the podcast inspired me to start my business and now I'm two years in and thank you so much. I mean, it just really warmed my heart more than I can possibly articulate to you. And I just really appreciate it. So I told some of the people who said this to me that making a podcast is actually a lot of work. I know that there are organizers that do it, and I'm sure you're saying like, amen, sister, but–I love doing this podcast and every once in a while I'm like, Hey, I wonder if anyone's actually listening. And the answer is yes, they are. I cannot explain to you how amazing it was to talk to people who said that the podcast has helped them in their business.
And I am honored truly to be able to do this because there is nothing I'm more passionate about.
And I want to support you in any way, but the other thing that I will say it definitely became clear to me that there were a lot of people who didn't realize, that in addition to the podcast, we actually offer a ton of different programs for people in the organizing community to get involved in.
So if you are searching for community, if you are searching for business coaching with actual details about how to grow your business, I'm talking like details, we will go into your individual business and talk about how about you do this and this and this and this and this. I talked to some people at the airport on the way and I was giving them all sorts of business advice and they're like, wow, you actually give advice a lot. Yeah, I do. I love giving advice. So, if you are searching for a community and a coaching environment and mentorship and cheerleading and support, and all of those things, I would be honored to be on your path. We have a lot of different programs you can get involved with, and I would love to talk to you about that.
So if you would like to schedule a chat with me about what your options are for business coaching, that is an affordable investment that will actually grow your business. I would love to talk to you. So DM me on Instagram or hit me up at hello@proorganizerstudio.com and we can have a little chat.
But thank you again to everyone that talked to me at the How To Summit. It just hits different when you meet someone in person.
Okay, let's get into the meat of it. Let's talk about October!!
One of the things that we talk to our organizing clients all the time about is habit development. And one of the things that I remind myself frequently of, if I want my clients to develop new habits to keep up their homes, we also need to be developing habits in our business and we need to practice what we preach.
And so that's what I want to talk about for October. I want you to think about some habit development of things you can do in your business that are really going to help you down the road. So a couple of examples of this are things that I'm doing in my own Home By Eleven organizing business, and that I'm going to be coaching people on the first thing is going to be automate as much as possible at the beginning of the month or do things that will pay dividends for yourself down the road every day for the rest of the month.
An example in my own business, I am going to be planning all of my social media for the month. Now I practice in my organizing business, a proof of life strategy. I've talked about it a million times in the podcast, but I do want to put some content up. And I want to get that all planned out and set for the month of October on planally, which is what I use and just get it set and ready to go.
The other thing that I'm going to do is take care of my Google Business Profile. It’s the best free thing that I guarantee a lot of you aren't doing. I want you to go take care of your Google Business Profile. So post photos. I'm going to be doing that as well. Those are some of the basics that I like to do right at the beginning of the month and get that out of the way.
But one of the things that I want to challenge you to do in October is think about something you've been avoiding in your business. Okay? We all, every single one of us, we've got it. There's something out there, something you've been avoiding or something you know that you should be doing that you're not doing.
I want you to go make a commitment to yourself that it's going to be done in October. If you want to go back to a year ago, there was a podcast that I did with my friend, Leah, about something that she does called Boss October. Go back and listen to that for a little inspo, but the things that you've been putting off in your business, let's go get them done in October.
Pick one of them, okay? You don't have to do all of them. Pick one of them and get it done. So, the other thing I want you to do for October is some of this habit development that I've been talking about. So, I want you to pick something that you know is important to do in your business. And that you need to develop a better habit on it.
Maybe it is planning your social media in advance. Maybe it is setting up an automation for your Google business posts. Maybe it is setting up an automation tool like HoneyBook. Which, by the way, we have a course on HoneyBook. It's $149. You can get your entire HoneyBook set up, including with swipe files, for $149. And you get a discount on HoneyBook as well.
But whatever it is that you're like, I know I need to do this, go do it. My own goal for October, because I also want to practice what I preach. I'm going to say the B word, blogging. I am going to commit to one blog post a week for my Home By Eleven organizing business. I just redid my website recently and so I'm rebuilding my blog content and I am definitely someone who needs to be a more consistent blogger. And that is my thing that I need to do to practice what I preach because I do believe it for organizers. It's super important. So I'm going to commit in October to one blog post a week.
And then the other thing I'm going to commit to for Pro Organizer Studio is I'm going to do more social media for Pro Organizer Studio. I talk about social media here a lot. I will die on the hill that you do not need social media. If you really, really, really can't stand it, you don't need to do it. If your goal is to get in home local organizing clients, but. For Pro Organizer Studio that has people all over the world that we connect with, social media is a great way to connect with them. For that, I am going to make a goal for myself. I'm putting it out there in public, because then it's public and I have to do it. I want to commit to doing at least one thing on social media per day in the month of October for Pro Organizer Studio. So you can check up on me. and see how I'm doing.
Here are some ideas of things that you can promote in the month of October wherever you're promoting things. So you can do a blog on it, you can do a newsletter on it, and social media if that is your jam.
Ideas for October: summer to fall wardrobe refresh. I don't know what everybody's like, but it's really hot where I live. Totally get it, I understand that this is not going to hit for everyone, but–no matter what season you are in, where you live, there is some sort of wardrobe flip over that could be a part of your business.
Wardrobe refresh, summer to fall switch out, summer to winter switch out, in our southern hemisphere, it's the other direction. But any type of wardrobe refresh you can really promote this month. Again, I know that this is dependent on your geography, but there are a ton of our listeners that are in a geography where people are doing a closet switch out.
This is a great time to promote that. The other thing that it's a great time to promote is because the holidays are going to be here before we know it. You could promote, “Hey, why don't you get holiday entertaining ready before things get crazy?”
So everybody knows once November hits things start to get a little bit crazier in terms of the number of things that are scheduled and the number of parties that you're going to and the shopping that you have to do and all of those things–pitch to your client list that you can get holiday ready before it's an emergency. That could be entertaining prep, that could be getting your kitchen reorganized because you're going to be entertaining for Thanksgiving, it could be getting your holiday stuff ready to go if you didn't do it, if you avoided it last year and you didn't do it, you can do that holiday refresh, lots of things.
The other idea, which goes back to what we talked about focusing on a lot in August, is for moms with kids in school–we are now decently into the school year and that kid paperwork is probably piling up and the moms that didn't do anything in August or September are probably like oops–probably should have done that! And also if you live in a part of the world where it is about to be winter, mudroom prep, anything like that–you can really do a great focus on that. Also–you could say, “hey, is school paperwork already starting to pile up and you're already starting to get overwhelmed by it? Have I got a solution for you!” You can always promote kid stuff. There is not a single time of the year that you can't figure out something that you can promote to moms with kids if that is in your ideal client list, okay? The other thing, this may be going a little bit out on a limb, but just based on my Instagram feed and my own neighborhood and just driving around, and being in clients homes. Halloween decor is starting to be a huge part of decorating.
So you can also go to people and say like, Hey, are you doing a lot of Halloween decor? Let's figure out a good storage solution at the end of the month so that we can get you into the holiday season without being stressed out. So just a few ideas of things that you can promote to your newsletter or on your social or just in general to clients.
I also want you to think this month about some of the bigger things in your business.
What are you doing for you and your business? We are always helping clients. We are always giving to other people. And I want you to think about are there some things in your business that you need to take care of you on. Whether that is, I really need some education on a certain subject, I need to get less afraid of X, Y, Z.
I need to stop overthinking. I need to, whatever that is for you, I want you to do some deeper business thinking this month too. Because everything I just gave you above is a little bit more tactical. And those tactical things are super important. You guys, that's how we build businesses. But I want you to do some strategic thinking too.
And say, I have three months left in this year. It is an absolutely fabulous time to make sure that my funnel is all set, that I have clients that are coming in, that I have a good system set up to be prepared for what happens in January or February. And I want you to think about some of those bigger business things.
And if there's something that you are struggling with, or if it's something that you're like, Hey, I don't even know where to turn on this, and if you're sitting here going, Hey, what's a funnel, I want to help you with that too. I want to help you fill your plate with clients.
Maybe you are thinking about totally changing a lot of your policies or procedures. Maybe you listened to my podcast from a few weeks ago about raising your price, but you haven't done it quite yet. Maybe you are thinking about starting to have a subcontractor or build a team of organizers. Maybe you're thinking about pulling back from a team. Any of those big things that you're working on. I want you to develop a plan for that and tackle it in this month. What are you doing for you? What are you doing to help yourself and your business?
And I'm gonna go back to what I said earlier. What is it that you've been avoiding? I have things that I've been avoiding. I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it yet, but I have things in my organizing business that I for sure have been avoiding and I don't want to do that anymore. So let's make October that month that we are going to tackle those things. Develop those good habits and get our funnels filled as we go into the last quarter of the year.
So make yourself a list of all the stuff for your October in your organizing business. and you’re going to do great stuff!!