150 | How Will I Know the “Perfect” Time to Start Your Professional Organizing Business

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Written By Melissa Klug

We got an email the other day from someone who was asking, essentially, what's the perfect time to start my business? She gave me a couple of details about what she has going on in her life driving the question...trying to figure out when she should begin.

But I thought about that email and I was like, you know what? We have something. Jen and I had a conversation about this one time, and I found it and knew it was the perfect thing to share. But--it's not JUST about starting a business.

The thing about this conversation is Jen has so many things that she says that I realize it's not just about whether it's time to start a business. It's really about what's the right time to start doing anything different.

Whether it is starting your organizing business, whether it is starting a team and your organizing business, whether it is time to pivot into  something, no matter what it is, whatever you're trying to decide about, if you're reaching some sort of a crossroads in your organizing business.

You can listen here, read the full transcript below, or find us on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you love to listen to podcasts!

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Jen Kilbourne: when someone's asking, so how do I just start? It's almost like the underlying question is how do I know when I know enough? How do I know when I'm ready? Enough? How do I know when I've done enough research and listened to enough of your podcast? You actually just, you know, try this. That's the answer though, is that there's never going to be a time when you're not learning something new.

So when you're used to that, then it doesn't matter where you start. And when. 

Hey, pro organizers. It's your podcast co-host, Melissa, and I hope that you are having an absolutely awesome week. I know I am just doing like a million different things and so I decided that for this week on the podcast. I don't know about you guys, but my attention span, I don't know if it. Like it's the end of the school year for the kids and there are a lot of things going on.

I am in the middle of doing a lot of work for Pro Organizer Studio. We are totally revamping our entire inspired organizer course. So I am deep into that and I'll tell you guys about that a little bit more in a few weeks. But, there's just a lot going on right now and I know my attention span [00:01:00] is very short.

So I decided I'm gonna bring you a couple. Really quick hit episodes, but things that are thought starters and things you can contemplate maybe while you're driving to a client, but that will not take a lot of time out of your day. So today I'm going to start this for the next couple of episodes, and I wanted to start with one.

We got an email the other day from someone who was asking about, what's the perfect time basically to start my business? She gave me a couple of details about what she has going on in her life and all of that. But I thought about that email and I was like, you know what? We have something.

Jen and I had a conversation about this one time, and I found it \ the thing about this conversation is Jen has so many things that she says that I realize it's not just about whether. Time to start a business. It's really about what's the right time to start doing anything different.

 Whether it is starting your organizing business, whether it is starting a team and your organizing business, whether it is time to [00:02:00] pivot into something, no matter what it is, whatever you're trying to decide about, if you're reaching some sort of a crossroads in your organizing business.

This is advice that really hit me. I know I am doing a lot of things in my organizing business home by 11, and I got a lot of listening to this conversation that ironically I was a part of. But you know what, sometimes we forget, sometimes we forget. Really good advice that we got. So, I wanted to share this with you.

I think it'll be helpful to everyone and it's a nice little. And then I'll be back in a couple days with another short episode because I found another gem from the archives that, really hit me where I needed it this week. Just a quick reminder, if you have not joined us for our free workshop, the Pro Organizer's Profit Plan, it is up for you and any time of the day or night, I don't know about you guys.

I've been waking up a lot in the middle of the night, so if you really want some entertainment, I am there for you. It is@poroadmap.com and we would love to see you there. All right, here we go.

Melissa Klug: a lot of people ask us the basic question, which is the hardest question to answer.

How do I get started? Sometimes the simplest question is the hardest question. Part of my answer to this question is. Just get started because I actually think one of the reasons I have been successful is because I really gave almost no thought whatsoever to starting a business and just doing it.

Someone who like never wanted to be an entrepreneur, never like being an entrepreneur. Was one of the scariest things that I could've ever imagined. I had to take an entrepreneurship class in grad school. And we had to present an entrepreneurial idea. We didn't even have to do it. I had like the cold sweats.

I remember I had like hives coming up my neck when I had to present this idea. Yeah. And so being an entrepreneur was something that was very scary to me. And so when I decided to become a professional organizer, I just said, I'm just going to do it. And I think sometimes we can overthink things so [00:04:00] much that then you give all these reasons as to why I can't do it.

Yeah. Well, I don't know how to build a website. Neither did. I didn't know how to organize in someone's home. I didn't know how to get an LLC set up. I didn't know how, I didn't know how to do any thing. Yeah. But I just said, I want to do this. And other people figured out how to do this, so I must be able to figure out how to do this.

Right. So I think part of that answer is just have the confidence that you'll be able to figure it out, but thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it and never doing anything. Or thinking about, well, I have to make a list of all the things I need to do, right. 

Jen Kilbourne: I think, there are a lot of reasons, why somebody would be asking, they have all the information, but how do I get started? And this is one of the reasons why I felt very compelled about telling people or sharing that my experience, which is you can do this as a side hustle.

It does not have to be your full-time business right on day [00:05:00] one or day ever. Yes. Or it can be a side hustle part-time business for. And then later it can be a full-time thing or never. I mean, it's, it's okay for it to look like, whatever it has to look like for you. And what being your own boss allows you to do, and especially with a business like this, where you can take it with you, like maybe your spouse is relocating and you want to start over somewhere else.

Or maybe now you're about to have twins and you're not going to work for a while, but you kind of like want to have some clients that you keep seeing, you have a lot of flexibility to have it mold and shape along with your life circumstances. So when we're talking about getting started, it's like okay, if your goal is just because you want to make a thousand dollars by next Monday the answer is a little different than if you know that this is the type of business you want to slow down and be able to set your own schedule.

You want to be able to be your own boss. This is not a, two week project. And then now. [00:06:00] A full-time right. Entrepreneurial venture, you know, there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of lessons about being your own boss, that along the way that you cannot quite rush.

 Right? Like, getting a client and making some money and getting the website started. I mean, we talk a lot about these things that your doing at the beginning to set yourself up for success down the road, but you can't necessarily come up against all of the obstacles and all of the growth lessons and say, okay, I'm going to have those done six weeks into it.

And I'll be ready to go. Don't do everything scaling and building a team. It's personal growth, which does not come on a schedule. The personal growth of accepting that. Are the one who's in charge and that you are making your own rules. And to kind of settle into your confidence of I'm the one who is designing my business plan and business model around what works for me.

And it's okay for it to not look exactly like someone else's and it's okay for me to. Invest time and energy into maybe [00:07:00] even reworking things that are not working for you and figure out how to improve those things, because you probably won't get the recipe correct. Right out of the gate for how this business is going to work for you forever.

So getting comfortable with that process of continuous improvement, I think is something that. For people who are perfectionist it's a hard lesson of entrepreneurial life that you don't have. All of those things set for you. And that you're going to have to continually adapt to circumstances as you go forward.

So COVID certainly brought out some of those challenges for certain people. People who thought, I mean, Melissa, and I've talked about this on the podcast a few times, you know, people who thought, oh, well, everybody else who's growing a big business is growing a big team and hiring these employees.

And then I thought that's what I needed to do. And so I started doing that and I found out I can't stand managing people. And Melissa. And I both agree that is not the path for everybody. And that that's okay. And when you start to compare yourself to other people, it's going to eventually slow you down because you're not listening to what is working for you and for the types of clients that you want [00:08:00] to have. If you do want to grow a team and become a leader of a company or franchise your business, I mean, people have a lot of dreams of how to expand this and once it gets going, because I would say this industry is still very much. Growing and expanding and becoming more mainstream, that's, that is its own business path where you have leadership, personal growth, milestones that are going to come to you at unexpected times.

So your timeline might be different than somebody else's and that is a hundred percent fine. I think that's something that really needs to be said over and over again is no matter what your goal is.

Part of being a business owner is being a risk taker and not just being a risk taker, but adjusting and adapting to the things that you learn along the way while you're taking those risks and learning those lessons and applying them to you and to your clients, into what you want the next five or 10 years of your life to look like.

Not that you have to have it perfectly planned out, but having a better vision of, what would make you happy? Like the [00:09:00] more, you know, the better, right? And sometimes you don't know those things at the beginning. So it's kind of like with your client you've got to adjust and give it give it the time that it needs and the time that it deserves for you to process those lessons and to actually apply them to yourself. Yeah. Gosh, that was like a little mini SIGMOD ,

cause don't you think,

when someone's asking, so how do I just start? It's almost like the underlying question is how do I know when I know enough? How do I know when I'm ready? Enough? How do I know when I've done enough research and listened to enough of your podcast? You actually just, you know, try this. That's the answer though, is that there's never going to be a time when you're not learning something new.

So when you're used to that, then it doesn't matter where you start. And when 

Melissa Klug: also I had someone say this to me and this is not a personal statement. You can decide that you like kids and want to have kids, or you never want to have kids but I remember when I was in that phase of my life, when you might be starting to think about having a family and someone [00:10:00] said, there's never a perfect time yeah. If you wait for the perfect time for you to be making the exact perfect amount of money and have the perfect job and it's the right weather outside or whatever, like you wait for a perfect time to do anything. You're not going to get a major sign there's not going to be an airplane that flies by and says it's time to start a business.

The perfect time is when you realize I want something different. This is a dream that I cannot stop thinking about. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, or I have always wanted to be a professional organizer or every one of my life has told me I should be a professional organizer or I'm in a job transition.

That's the story that happened to me. It doesn't matter. What the scenario is that scenario is going to be different for every person. The reason I started my business is different than the reason Jen started her business. Every single organizer has a different start to their business. You're never going to get a formula of [00:11:00] a plus B equals C and C is the perfect time to start your business.

Jen Kilbourne: Yeah. And you know what else is not going to happen? They won't suddenly be. Six people that heard that you love organizing that, or your call you all at the same time and say, I just, I don't know how this crazy idea can you just come to my house and pay you to make it look like, I mean, if that were to happen to everybody, then we would be like, this is a sign, right?

I mean, yes. But like, unfortunately nobody knows about that until you start talking about it. So how do you start is you have to start talking about it now, Melissa and I have shared about a million ways. You can either talk to a crowd of a thousand people or you can talk to one person. But you've got to be in the habit of talking about it in a way where you're just sharing what you do.

It's not about selling them on it. It's just kind of like, Hey, you know, that show Marie Kondo, you know, show them that it, yeah. I help people organize their house, like yeah. 

Melissa Klug: This thing, and yes, I get paid for it. And all those other questions that people ask you, like, wait, people pay you to do that.

Yes they do. I have had multiple different careers and I have [00:12:00] never had a career that when someone is making small talk with you and say, what do you do when I say I'm a professional organizer, I have never had anyone go well, that's boring.

I need to go get a drink and I need a new appetizer. I got to go. People love talking to me about my job. And I will tell you to the point that sometimes I'm at a party or an event. And I'm like, I'm kinda tired of talking about work right now. I work all week. So like, I don't really maybe want to talk about it.

Now, people talk to me about it, eagerly and excitedly. And it's not because they're trying to be nice. They are fascinated by what we do. So when you start talking about, this is what I do, you are not annoying people and you don't have to do it in a salesy way. You don't have to say, Hey well, can I schedule a consult at your house?

That's not what we're doing. Yeah. People are obsessed with talking to me about my job. 

Jen Kilbourne: Oh, I have a funny story for you.

I don't think I've ever shared on certainly not on the podcast if [00:13:00] this isn't I love this because I do have little things like in my pocket that I'm like one day, I'm going to say that on the pod. Today's the day I have. So one time a guy said to me, he's like you're a professional organizer.

He's like, how much do you charge? And you know, of course he's not, we're not thinking ideal client here. Right? And I'm like, well, it's a hundred dollars an hour, but you know, I do like. The sessions or whatever. And he's like, okay, great. So here's what I want to happen. I will pay you a hundred dollars to just approach my wife in a social setting.

And just, tell her, she has too much stuff and she needs to downsize. And I was like, and that'll take me 15 minutes. Now that didn't actually happen. But it just goes to show you that people are always thinking that. Would I necessarily hire you? Probably not, but I need that.

What he was saying to me was I need the words or I needed the motivation to talk to my wife because now we need to go through the downsizing process. And I get that. And you know what I said to him, I said, I will talk to your [00:14:00] wife for free. I was like, but it sounds like if she needs help, I said, at least, you know, that that exists.

And he's like, you're exactly right. Yep. And I do think that that was kind of funny because I was like, okay, there's a whole nother, when you talk about a little side angle, you're like, I could also just be the wing man for. For the spouse that just needs somebody who does this as a business to just sort of motivate I'm like, oh, well, I'll get paid a hundred dollars per 15 minutes to be a wind, man.

Yeah. I love that. That actually would be fashion wing, wing organizer. 

Like I said earlier, I was a participant in that conversation and I forgot some of the awesome things that were in there. So I hope that that helped you out. And listen, all of us, every organizer that I know, including myself, suffers from a little bit of overthinking and all of that.

So if there is something that you have been thinking about or procrastinating on, or really just trying to overthink, I wanna just, how, how about you just throw it out there? This. See if you can make some progress on [00:15:00] it, and if that progress involves something that you need a little bit of extra help with, please feel free to organize.

Please feel free to organize me. 

Listen guys, I told you that I'm going all over the place and I have things on my mind. Here is what I meant to say.

Please feel free to throw me an email at hello pro organizer studio.com. I really read them. I really respond to them. I am the only person that reads it, and I'm the person that responds to it.

So I would absolutely love to hear from you of what you're thinking about and what you're working on, and I will talk to you soon with another little mini episode. Have a good day.

Thank you so much for listening into the pro organizer studio podcast. If you'd like to get our roadmap for success as a pro organizer, head straight to www.poroadmap.com.


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Melissa Klug
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