How and Why Should Organizing Entrepreneurs Build Their Teams?

By John Trosko
OrganizingLA
and NAPO-LA President

As an owner of a professional organizing business, do you sometimes feel as if you are the only person on the planet?

Do you feel isolated with no one to talk to about your business problems; no one to help you learn that one special technique to tackle client "X" or hunt down a colleague to work side-by-side in accomplishing that big job?

Have you found someone to share in your success, a colleague who understands?

Organizing can be a lonely occupation. It can seem as though you are alone when it comes to wrestling with the worries, fears, and uncertainties that are a normal part of owning your own business. As the President of NAPO-LA and owner of my own company, I know how hard it is to be that owner and manage all the struggles. My secrets for success? Build a business network within your chapter. What are the benefits?

You can

• seek advice easily and freely
• become a mentor to someone with extraordinary potential
• challenge a colleague who is losing focus
• prepare yourself for any personal or professional emergency
• turn up the volume and make more money with the power of a team

1. Attend your monthly chapter meetings; show up early and network;
2. Check out the website calendar and participate in additional networking and educational events;
3. Carry the NAPO-LA membership directory and use it;
4. Consistently forward the business cards of your five Associate (Business) Members to prospective clients. Call the Associate Members to tell them you have done so;
5. Locate your mentors and volunteer alongside them;
6. Enter key contacts into your mobile phone so you can exit out of sticky situations or locate a crew of organizing assistants.

March 24 Meeting

Learn from your colleagues. Share your knowledge and experience. Everyone wins at the NAPO-LA Round Tables. Your table topic suggestions are most welcome. Please send them along with your RSVP to dkaytes@highly-organized.com. We want to be sure to have adequate space at this popular, well-attended meeting.

April 28 Meeting

Bend from the knees when lifting heavy objects. Be sure your workstation is ergonomically set up. These issues and many others will be addressed at the April meeting by a panel of experts speaking about personal safety.

Over 65 people attended the February meeting to hear Karron Maidment speak about the compulsive hoarder. Chapter members took copious notes to capture the invaluable information she gave us about how best to help our OCD and hoarding clients. Our thanks to Karron for her return visit and yet another remarkable presentation.

Many thanks, once again, to all of the volunteers who helped in whatever way they could to make this year's L.A. Organizing Awards such a huge success!

And many, many thanks to Sara Getzkin, as always, for not only taking photos on the night of the Awards, but for taking this group photo as well. Sara, you're the best!

What is the NAPO-LA Assistant List?
It's a place for you to post your contact information, work preferences/specialties, along with your time and location restrictions.

Who uses the NAPO-LA Assistant List?
Organizers who need to hire assistants.

Why would I want to be someone else's Assistant?
Being hired by a veteran organizer as an Assistant is a terrific way to learn from a pro, gain great experience, and make new organizing friends.

If you would like to take advantage of this great opportunity to work alongside your NAPO-LA colleagues, you are encouraged to sign up online.

To access the form, click here www.napola.org. Log in and go to the Members Only section. Then select Assistant List Request Form. Everyone currently on the list is asked to submit this form.

The new format is now live, so please take a look, submit your form, and if you like, send a photo to technology@napola.org.

NOTE: The Assistant List is printed in the newsletter as well as online.

Everyone makes mistakes-even professional organizers (gasp)! Here are a few I have witnessed, heard about, or just dreaded in my imagination.

1. Never walk around your client's home with food or drink; although you have never spilled anything before, this will be the first time.
2. If you ask incessant questions, you may be distracting your client. Limit questions to those necessary to complete the task at hand. In time and with trust, the client will reveal all that you need to know. You are the consultant, so you should be able to formulate most of your questions up front. This, too, will become easier in time.
3. Never toss anything without client consent; it will be the one thing they really need or want.
4. Don't judge the value of anything in the client's possession. One of my clients had a category called "crap I love."
5. Don't make the mistake of thinking that organizing is about making it look good; it's not. It's about making it function for that specific client.
6. No free assessments. If you feel that you must see the job before taking it, charge a consultation fee. And keep your thoughts close to the chest. Every one of us has been duped into giving it away at least once.
7. Never take anything from your client's trash or donation pile: that's stealing. It makes you look like a bag lady. Most clients are generous, so if they want you to have something, they will offer it.
8. Do not charge clients more because they have more money. Rather, consider charging less when a client does not have money. It's good for the soul.
9. Do not interrupt clients when they are speaking, no matter how much this slows the process, frustrates you or bores you. Some clients just need to tell a story for every object you touch. In time, this phenomenon will lessen. Meanwhile, zip it.
10. Send a client out to buy supplies at your own peril. Unless you have shown them exactly what you mean, they will inevitably come home with the wrong thing. (Didn't you find a lot of ineffective organizing tools when you first got there? Uh huh, that's what I thought.)
11. When working as an assistant for another organizer, do not contact the client on your own or give the client your business card or phone number-even if they ask for it. This is probable cause to have your knee caps broken. Politely make it clear that you work with the lead organizer. This client may just be trying to get the service for less.
12. Don't charge clients a rate that is below market price for a NAPO organizer at your stage of experience. If you're feeling unsure of yourself, take a few jobs as an assistant. I guarantee this will boost your confidence, not to mention your bank account. Many long-timers still do it because we just loooooove to learn from each other. Showing a busier organizer your stuff will generate future referrals.
13. Don't stick with a job that is over your head. If you sink in the mire, your name will be mud. Either ask a more experienced organizer to join you on the job, to mentor you through it, or just refer it out. All three options will bolster your credibility with clients and other organizers.

NOTE: This column is an on-going series of articles by Golden Circle members. It is just one of the many ways veteran members give back to NAPO-LA.

For more information on Golden Circle, contact Ann Gambrell
Email: gambrellann@aol.com

Q&A with
Fay Wolf,
One Awesome
Volunteer

What is your business name?
New Order

When did you start your business?
2006

Where do you do business?
Los Angeles

How did you get into organizing as a profession?
As a way of supporting my acting career, I worked in restaurants for several years. After one of life's big wake-up calls, I decided to trade in the waitressing and start my own business. I just didn't know which one. I experimented with personal assisting for a friend who wanted me to help him pay his bills every week. When I first walked in, I couldn't understand why he didn't have a filing cabinet. Something had to be done. It all began that day.

How did you come to join NAPO and/or NAPO-LA?
I didn't know professional organizing existed before I decided that's what I wanted to do. While trying to put the pieces together of this new "weird thing" I thought I might try, I googled a bunch of different organizing terms. Finally, I was rewarded. Finding the NAPO websites was like a ton of bricks hitting me in the face -- in a good way.

What has been your experience volunteering in NAPO-LA and what do you see as the benefits of volunteering?
Believe the hype: volunteering is the coolest! After a solid year of NOT volunteering or speaking up very much, I finally got my bearings enough to break on through. In the fall of 2007, Claire Flannery asked me to take over the Newsletter Publisher position. I was surprised to hear the word "Yes" come out of my mouth, but I haven't looked back. It's been absolutely wonderful so far! Then I joined the Organizing Awards Task Force. Working on the video production side, I learned a lot about film editing, made great new friends, and was overwhelmingly impressed with such an awesome event.

What are your main organizing interests or specialties?
I work primarily in residential, where I enjoy getting to know my clients, as well as their thought processes and the emotions they have for their stuff. I have surely learned as much as I've taught. Most of my clients are in the entertainment industry. As that's a field I also work in, I'm able to give them added expertise and add a little left-brain to their right-brain lifestyles that I know so well.

Anything else we should know about you?
New Order would not be where it is without NAPO-LA. Thanks for welcoming me into the fold.

Note: Have you volunteered yet to help out NAPO-LA in some way? Then you, too, could be voted "Volunteer of the Month" or even "Volunteer of the Year." And when you are, it will be your turn to share your story, so that all of us in NAPO-LA will get to know you just a little bit better.

To find out about volunteer opportunities, contact Abbey Keusch
Email: volunteer@napola.org

Are You Going to Reno?

What:
NAPO's 20th Annual Conference & Organizing Exposition

When:
April 9-12, 2008

Where:
John Ascuaga's Nugget, Reno, Nevada

Who Should Attend:
Whether you call yourself a professional organizer, a consultant, a coach, or a lifesaver, if you enhance the lives of clients by designing systems and processes using organizing principles, or educate the public on organizing solutions, this conference is for you. Organizing industry experts have designed the conference programming to meet the needs of novices, veterans, and those in-between. The conference will address career advancement, business marketing, the future of the organizing industry, and a wide variety of professional organizing topics. Sessions are designed to provide you with the knowledge and support required to enhance your professional organizing career.

Following is the latest list of NAPO-LA members going to Conference:

Beth Zeigler, Dee Saar, Toni Scharff, Sara Getzkin, Robin Davi,Sheila McCurdy , Fay Wolf, Christine Reiter, Donna Rosman, Melissa Kurtz, Meredith Montaigne, Marcy Melton, Jean Furuya, Nadine Levy, Ann Gambrell, Diana Ryan, Chris McKenry, Donna McMillan, Kim Anker-Paddon, Kim Kabbash, Joanna Sletten, David Roers, Jennifer Birner, Carol Keller, Claire Flannery, Barb Schmit, Michelle Cloney, Katherine Macey, Carolyn Strauss, Lynne Gilberg, Abbey Keusch, Lori Gersh, Christie Gelsomno, John Trosko, Robin Valdez, Tom Nevermann, Heather Furlong, Karen Simon, Deborah Kawashima

If your name isn't on the above list and you are going to Conference, email Jennifer Birner at jennifer@pursuitoforder.com to let her know you will be attending. Include your name, cell #, email, the dates you will be there and your hotel.

To register, click here napo.net.

First class postage is going up to 42 cents in May. If you buy the 41 cent Liberty Bell "Forever" stamps available now, you will be able to use them during all future rate increases. They will not be available once the 42 cent stamps come out.

Empower Stay-at-Home Moms

When working with a stay-at-home Mom, empower her by letting her know she is the "Home Manager." Establish a "Home Management Center" to keep her and her family running smoothly.

About the TIPS Program:
NAPO-LA's TIPS Program is managed by the chapter's Golden Circle members. Ann Gambrell is the chair and invites all chapter members to submit their organizing tips via email or on index cards that will be available at the monthly chapter meetings for deposit into the "Organizing Tips" box.

TIPS are requested in two categories:

When submitting TIPS, you are invited (optional) to include your name, business name and contact information. This will serve to promote you when the client/public TIPS are posted on the NAPO-LA website's home page.

Email your TIPS to: gambrellann@aol.com

A NAPO in the Schools Elementary training call will take place on Tuesday, March 25 (5 PM to 7 PM Pacific).

After this call, Elementary School training will be on a quarterly basis only. Space is limited.

Also, everyone is welcome to attend the NAPO in the Schools Committee Meeting at Conference on Friday, April 11, from 3:30 to 5 PM in the Fremont Room when the Middle School program will be presented.

NOTE: NAPO in the Schools is a community outreach program. It brings professional organizers into the classroom for an interactive presentation with students. We hope that by planting these organizing-can-be-fun seeds in student minds, they will realize being organized really does make a difference.

For more information, contact Deborah Kawashima
Email: deborah@creativeorganizer.com
Phone: (323) 656-9665

Donna McMillan of McMillan & Company Professional Organizing and Karen Simon of PC Tech Associates were the featured contributors in the January issue of The Honolulu Advertiser's Homescape Magazine. The article is titled "Fresh Start - 12 Simple Organization Projects You Can Pledge to Do Throughout The Year." The collaboration of their expertise through Island Organizers spotlights their professional organizing and computer consulting services. Both are Past Presidents of NAPO-LA and Karen is the current President of the Hawaii Association of Professional Organizers (HAPO).

NAPO-LA President John Trosko of OrganizingLA is featured in the March national edition of Better Homes and Gardens, as well as in Healing Lifestyles and Spas Magazine where he discussed healthy kitchen tips. John was also quoted on CreditCards.com in a piece on managing your credit and debit cards and he was mentioned in an interview for Decor8, a popular interior design blog.

Robin Valdez of Expert Organizers and Chapter President John Trosko were quoted in the January/February issue of Valley Magazine. The piece featured advice from professional organizers and design experts on how to prevent clutter.

NOTE: "Warm Welcome" is a regular feature of The Los Angeles Organizer. If you recently joined NAPO-LA, be sure to send your photo to the Editor, along with your name, your business name, where you live, and the date you joined to editor@napola.org

Words That Sell

Presented by the
Educational Development Committee
and
Michelle Quintana of
BulldogCreativeCopyrighting.com

In this training workshop we will work together so you can learn to make your web words scream,

Here's a small sample of what we'll be covering to help your website explode.

• The 12-letter word that guarantees your success and how it's NOT used to your benefit.
• How and why the power of the written word works, and how even just ONE WORD can be the difference between a successful marketing message and one that fails.
• How 8 savvy "outside the box" techniques, when applied to your website (with an open mind), will explain why 90% of all service businesses ignore them.
• The 4 simple proven strategies that can help your business break through the dead zone.
• How to write fabulous subject lines that get your email opened and read EVERY time.
• The 10 steps to surefire online marketing success that will help you forget your competition exists!
• How the Magic of False Logic, when explored, will help to explain why you may be losing 75% or more of your potential clients.
• How to reach your potential clients like never before using the BFD formula. What is BFD? Attend this training session to find out.
  Hint: If you are not using BFD in your copy, you might as well go out of business!

BONUS! As a thank-you for signing up for this copywriting interactive, I will email you a free report entitled, "99 Easy Ways to Boost Your Direct Mail Response," written by seven-figure copywriter Dean Riech. These tips will help you with ALL of your copywriting efforts and any direct mail pieces you plan on sending in the future.

So why am I calling this an interactive training session?

I want everyone attending this seminar to bring "problem pages" from their website. After learning these copywriting techniques, you will critique each others' "problem pages" and immediately apply what you've learned. Are you up for the challenge?

Michelle Quintana of BulldogCreativeCopywriting.com spent 11 years as a NAPO member and full-time organizer. She has now traded the clutter for the keyboard. Michelle decided to take what she learned building a six-figure organizing business and turn that passion into a full-time career as a professional freelance copywriter.

For those organizers who work with hoarding clients, you can now select Hoarding in your profile under Special Clients-Residential.

If you are qualified to work with this type of client ( i.e., you have had training with a veteran organizer, the NSGCD, or another organization offering training in this type of work), go to the Members Only section of the NAPO-LA website, click on My Profile and add this selection to your Special Clients-Residential category.

If you have not had this type of training but are interested in learning it, contact Jean Furuya for guidance. Jean leads the CD (Chronic Disorganization) Support Group for the NAPO-LA Chapter and is always glad to help.

Email: jean@theofficejeanie.com

If you are working consistently and on an ongoing basis with chronically disorganized clients, you are invited to participate in an informal support group. Our next topic for discussion will be "CD Clients and Handling Mail".

We will continue to work on "Resources: How can we help the indigent hoarders?" Please bring resources to share.

Time will also be spent sharing our individual issues.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13, from 6 PM to 8:30 PM. Limited to 10 attendees.

A simple pot luck is planned.

To RSVP or for more information, contact Jean Furuya
Email: jean@theofficejeanie.com
Phone: (310) 316-1753

Are you ready to create a successful organizing business? Do you want to learn how to:

• apply proven business techniques and practices?
• find your niche and the clients who need you?
• avoid the frustration and stress of common mistakes?
• become an expert in this rapidly growing industry?

The Educational Development Committee (formerly the Mentoring, Education and Training Committee) provides a Directory of NAPO-LA organizing consultants available to provide guidance, advice and support to potential, new and existing professional organizers. Contact consultants directly for information and fees. Click on the link below to be connected to the Directory.

Email the Educational Development Committee at education@napola.org with questions.