Allison Carter is a Panelist at NAPO’s Annual Conference in Orlando
I will be one of the featured speakers at the general panel on living your dreams this Friday morning.
They chose me because of the innovations I have brought to the industry with the licensing program (60-day Masters). As far as I can tell, only one other organizing business is doing the licensing, and to get their license, you must attend their training in person. So by holding individual trainings by phone and webinar, Organizer U. has filled a need in the organizing industry.
I have a feeling that many organizers would like to expand their income potential by licensing but they may not know how, or they’ve never heard of it. So I decided to write a concise but dense E-book to help anyone who wants to begin licensing.
The E-book answers everything you need to know to get started. And it also includes a 30-minute call with me to clarify any points or talk you through roadblocks.
One version is just info for those who want info but aren’t ready to jump in.
The second version is all the same information PLUS a sample licensing agreement so you can begin to formulate your own right away.
Get started licensing right now:
The Insider’s Guide to Licensing Your Business By Allison Carter, CPO®
Expand your business and income without having to manage employees and schedules! Find out how to use a licensing business model to expand and grow without the pains of owning a large business. In this concise E-book, you get:
Definition of licensing vs. franchising
What to put in an agreement checklist
What benefits and features to offer checklist
Marketing workbook
Sample licensing agreement to use as a starting point
Case studies
1/2 hour private call with the author to clarify and answer any questions you may have
What you don’t get:
A bunch of legalese and words you can’t understand. I have written this so it is easy to understand, take home, and DO!
A long book that will take too long to get through. The Insider’s Guide is short and to the point.
The Insider’s Guide to Licensing Your Organizing Business With Sample Licensing Agreement
$249.00
The Insider’s Guide to Licensing Your Organizing Business Without Sample Licensing Agreement
$49.00
Professional Organizer Jill Ferguson, a licensee of The Professional Organizer, shows viewers how to use everyday household items for organizing. She appers on Daytime in Tampa, FL with these tips.
Great idea in tough economic times or anytime really.
Over on Twitter.com , we’re hosting an Ask the Organizer party with some of our twitter friends…
and you’re invited!!
This Friday 4/3/09 from 4pm – 6pm ET , 1pm – 3pm PT, Professional Organizers from all over the world will answer your questions about organizing or becoming an organizer or anything at all (in 140 characters or less – twitter style).
How it works:
Log into twitter (or get an account first)
Send your organizing questions about anything to @askorg
If you want to keep it private, send your message by DM instead of reply (we’ll follow you back asap so you can dm)
I will be moderating this first ever #askorg chat this Friday.
Party Co-hosts are Brandie Kajino @bkajino, Krista Colvin @kristacolvin and Ellen Damaschino @ellendamaschino.
As moderator, I will post a new question every five minutes or when there is a lull in conversation.
You can comment and add a question from your own twitter page and watch the chat as it happens by going to http://www.tweetchat.com and go to room #askorg or http://www.summize.com and search the term #askorg.
All posts with the hashtag #askorg will post there in real time.
If you have a follow up question, you can also post that from your twitter account, using the #askorg tag.
“Clutter is Delayed Decisions.”
– Barbara Hemphill, Taming the Paper Tiger
Understanding our clients and being compassionate is part of the job.
And it’s often hard for many organizers to understand why it’s so difficult for our clients to make decisions.
There are so many factors including perfectionism and procrastination.
But what about the sheer volume of information and choices?
Barry Schwartz has written a book about The Tyranny of Choice – when too many choices paralyze us.
This article is a wonderful quick summary of his book.
Shoppers who confront a display of 30 jams or varieties of gourmet chocolate are less likely to purchase any than when they encounter a display of six.
Students given 30 topics from which to choose to write an extra-credit essay are less likely to write one than those given six. And if they do write one, it tends to be of lower quality.
The more funds employers offer their employees in 401(k) retirement plans, the less likely the employees are to invest in any, even though in many cases, failing to do so costs them employer-matching funds of up to several thousand dollars a year.
From time to time we answer your questions about the organizing industry.
I’m in the process of growing my team. Do you have any tips for hiring or training assistants?
– Amanda W.
Hiring and training are two very different things.
When hiring an assistant, you want to look for someone who
does not want to run a business, or it will be a temporary hire as they will leave to start their own biz.
understands that working for someone else means the pay scale will reflect that they are not paying for their own marketing
likes to be a “doer”
is inspired to follow your lead
can be directed and can take initiative
is skilled and competent for the job
When training any kind of assistant or employee, you want to be prepared for any circumstance, because you are essentially the boss, payroll, and human resources rolled into one.
Create a procedures manual so you are clear about expectations
Create forms and checklists so jobs are completed to your satisfaction
Take time to supervise at first until you are sure they can do the job
Allow assistant to work independently after training, and provide useful feedback
Assistants who are independent contractors working as an organizer with you have a different set of rules than true employees. If you are contracting an assistant, the rule of thumb is this:
You can tell them the result you want, but they can get to the result as they see fit. Independent contractors also use their own tools (in general).
If you are telling your assistant what to do every step of the way and providing the tools, you essentially have an employee who can seek employee status.
Rubbermaid recently conducted interviews with organizers around the country.
Today the interview with Organizer U. founder Allison Carter is posted on the Rubbermaid Blog.
The interview came about because of my participation in social networking. I became interested in social networking after hearing how it was working for some of my friends who are organizers in other cities. They found they were making important connections and forming relationships by:
1. Blogging about the things and people in their community (area of interest)
2. Commenting on other blogs in their community
3. Sending tweets (or mini posts) on twitter.com
4. Responding/commenting on tweets from others
5. Bookmarking interesting articles on social bookmarking sites such as digg, delicious, stumble upon, and more.
Public Relations just ain’t what it used to be. Traditional media are there. But they are evolving into news sources that integrate social networking. Most TV news and newspapers now have blogs and many can be found on twitter looking for interesting news sources.
I encourage everyone to get out and give it a try, or get left behind in the new media age.
From time to time I’ll answer questions from readers that could be answered even better with your input.
Below is my answer to this question. What do you think it takes to be a good professional organizer?
– Allison
How do i know if I have what it takes to be a professional organizer?
– Tori
This is one of those questions that could have a zillion good answers. I’m going to answer based on traits and skills that are useful when you help people get organized only. I will not be answering based on the traits that are beneficial in running a business.
1. Ability to analyze and synthesize information
2. Ability to sequence – put activities in order
3. Ability to categorize
4. Ability to be flexible
5. Ability to guide and lead an organizing process
6. Ability to filter out distractions
7. Desire to teach others how to organize for themselves
8. Desire to find solutions to fit the circumstance rather than using one system for everyone.
9. Doesn’t fear trying new things
10. Has ability to simplify overly-complicated systems
If you can do these things, the rest can usually be learned through a training or through experience.
Remember: you are almost always going to be more organized than the people who are asking you for help. And even if you are not MORE organized, you can still provide a fresh look and help find solutions because you’re not deep inside the problem.
The mind that creates the problem can rarely find the solution.
(Einstein said it like this: No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.)
Lorie Morrero is one hot tamale these days. She is a publicity magnet since her latest book The Clutter Diet appeared on Amazon.com’s Kindle and is now in print.
She is featured in this month’s Good Housekeeping Magazine and will be doing a TV special called “Change for Good.” You can find show times here.
I love to educate organizers about all kinds of business models and encourage you to create your own business model… like Lorie did with The Clutter Diet. So I asked Lorie to share a little insight about how she came up with her virtual organizing program and how it works.
Q:How did you come up with the idea (If I remember you had an inkling in San Diego when you mentioned a membership format like Weight Watchers)
A: I have been exploring this analogy between weight loss and getting organized
for a long time, after saying so many things in person to clients about it
and realizing that they are both about a process of personal change. In
January 2006 I attended an internet marketing seminar and flew home from it
overwhelmed with all of the ideas they had given me, and as I was staring
out the airplane window the whole thing just synthesized in my brain and hit
me like a lightning bolt. I wrote pages of notes right there on the plane
and all of that information I wrote down became reality within about a year.
I was fortunate that I had a team of organizer employees who took over the
majority of the hands-on work in my service business while I was developing
all of the content and designing the site. It was countless hours of work
and a lot of big investment, but I believed in the idea and kept going.
Q: Can you explain how it works?
A: We say it’s kind of like Weight Watchers for your house. Members pay a low
monthly fee and get access to our team of organizers in our member message
boards where we answer every question. They get a weekly plan of projects
designed like a menu, with a “Main Dish” project, two “Side Dish” projects,
a “Sensible Snack” task, and a “Dessert” reward. Each week they “weigh in”
from last week to show what they got done before they get the new plan, and
the system tracks how many “Clutter-Pounds” they lost. They also get access
to our searchable knowledge base with hundreds of tips and articles and over
two hours of multimedia tutorials with lessons on organizing concepts, along
with lots of downloadable audio content and a customized e-mail reminder
system.
Q: Who is the program for? Who is the market?
A: The Clutter Diet program is for the millions of people who either cannot
afford our rates in person or who want to do a lot of the work themselves.
They just need to get unstuck and get a little professional advice, and they
need support to keep going. Our experts and our member community provide
that support and encouragement.
Q: Do you have office and organizing staff to help it run?
A: I have a virtual team of contractors to keep the site working, the products
getting fulfilled and manufactured, and the marketing/PR machine going, and
I mostly work alone in my own home office, having meetings as needed.
Q: What are the biggest challenges?
A: The biggest challenge has been educating people on what we’re doing. Now
people are really catching on, but it’s been a long 2+ years to get people
to know we exist and that we really can help them get organized online. I
also was challenged running a hands-on service business at the same time I
was running this online business, and last year I transferred ownership of
the service business in Austin & San Antonio to my former employees via a
licensing agreement. Now they can still work as organizers under the name we
built regionally, and I no longer am involved in any day-to-day operations.
That has made all of the difference– I can now focus on building this
business and our product line, and my stress level has gone way down too.
Q:And you also have a blog on Kindle and a book on Kindle. Can you
explain what kindle is and a little about the blog and book?
A: Amazon’s Kindle device is kind of like an iPod for books. You can download
books wirelessly from anywhere and keep many books with you in a small unit.
They also sell Kindle subscriptions to popular blogs and newspapers. I have
been fortunate that my blog (www.clutterdietblog.com) has been a bestseller
on the Kindle for many months, so when it was time to promote my book,
Amazon and I were able to partner on that and get the word out in a big way.
The Kindle edition of the book went up to #8 on the Kindle nonfiction
bestsellers that first week (New Year resolution time). And now the book’s
print edition is going into major bookstores in late February too. The title
is “The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control
of Your Life.” We’re getting a lot of big media attention for it and it’s
been incredibly fun and exciting!
Q: How long have you been a professional organizer?
A: I have been a NAPO member since 2000, so 9 years. I joined right away when I
opened my business. I think being involved with NAPO and attending
conference has been absolutely key. I cannot imagine my life and business
without knowing all of the great NAPO colleagues and friends I speak to
constantly around the country. I love you guys!!
Q: Do you do much hands-on organizing still?
A: I definitely don’t do as much as I used to, but yes, I organize for a
handful of clients here in Austin and now find myself doing organizing
projects for the media too. Very different but also very fun.
Q:What’s next for Lorie?
A:About ten years ago, I had narrowed down my ideal business ideas to these
top three things: Freelance writer, web designer, and professional
organizer. I think it’s really funny now that my life has evolved to where I
am essentially all three at once. I could not be any happier! So as for
what’s next, I guess I am going to keep on writing–probably another book is
in my future. I also want to develop more products and do more
media/spokesperson work. Whatever it is, I am going to keep on learning and
growing and showing fear who’s boss. That has become the theme of my life.
Q: Anything else you want to add?
A: In this economy, there are many more people who are unable to afford our
rates in person. Organizers can join our affiliate program and everybody
wins… the clients get the help they need, the organizer gets 20% recurring
commission on their memberships, and we get great new members. I encourage
everyone to join our free affiliate program and get a link that you can send
in an e-mail or place on your site as a banner or button, so that you can
help all of those prospective clients on a budget and help yourself too.
More info at http://www.clutterdiet.com/affiliates/index.php.
Even if you aren’t all the way green (and who really is) you can still be a little bit green (green-ish) and do more and more to help clients organize green-ish. This is one of those times when it’s better to do a little than to do nothing at all.
2008 Stats
Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail. Each year, about 100 million households receive 16.6 billion catalogs.
If all U.S. households received and paid their bills online, it would eliminate more than 800,000 tons of waste each year.
4 steps to Organizing Green and Reducing Trash
Recycle all you can – recycle bins out-number trash cans
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