Professional Organizing is one of those jobs that most of us perform in person and the COVID-19 outbreak has shut down many of our businesses. I hope you all are keeping safe and healthy❣?
I’ve gotten some questions about if it is even ethical to work with or market to our clients right now. ?
Here, I’m reviewing all the ways you can work on, and in, your business without meeting with your clients face to face.
#1 Connect with Your Clients
The first way you can still work on your business is to connect with your clients. Just because you may not be able to work with your clients face to face, you can still support them and stay in touch. A lot of folks are stuck at home right now and could use the advice of a Professional Organizer to help them set up a home office, homework stations for students, or just declutter their closet to stay active and busy while at home. If you have a Facebook page, YouTube channel, or Instagram account for your business, you can post tips or tutorials. You can host a live Q and A or offer phone consultations. Let your clients know you are thinking about them and that you can still provide resources and advice.
#2 Rev-up Social Media
One of the constant struggles I have as a one-woman business is balancing the time I spend out of my office with my clients and working in my office on marketing. And I must admit, when I have a full week of organizing jobs, I have completely ignored my social media marketing. Of course, the problem with that is because I have not been marketing, I eventually run into a slow period and then I try to cram in as much marketing as possible to rev up my business again.
The best way to prevent that and something you can do while stuck in your office is to batch and schedule your social media posts in advance. I’ve heard from some organizers who don’t feel it’s appropriate to bombard their clients right now since they may be ill or stressed. With batching and scheduling you are creating content now that you can post weeks or months from now. I use scheduling tools like Planoly and Tailwind. You can also upload to Facebook and YouTube and set a date in the future to release the content. So, this week you could create a tip sheet for organizing holiday decorations or even back to school prep and not post it until much later in the year.
Assuming we all get back to work in the upcoming months, you’ll have marketing content ready to go when you are back to working your regular schedule.
#3 Do a Brand Review
A brand review is when you look at all the visual media that represents your business – your website, social media pages, business card, and other print material – and check it for consistency. The point of this is to create a consistent look and tone for your business so your brand is easily recognized on different platforms.
This is something I’ll be working on from home because I launched a new website in January and I’m changing my services a bit, so I need to revisit my Facebook Page and Linked-in to get them in sync with my website and Instagram account. What I’m looking for is a consistent look with colors and fonts and consistency in messaging. That each platform tells the same story about who you are and the services that you offer.
#4 Take Online Courses
Would you believe I’ve taken over 160 hours of continuing education units (CEUs) just to maintain my certification as a Professional Organizer?! I love sites like Udemy and Teachable for online training. You can even listen to past NAPO Conference lectures via their website.
We are so blessed to live in a time when so much training is available to us at home! If you are new to Professional Organizing, check out my course “Intro to Professional Organizing”, I’ve put a link here that includes a $30 off coupon. And if you are already a student of mine, be sure to check out the private Facebook group “Organizing for Professionals” where I’ve uploaded more free and discounted classes.
In addition to courses in organizing, you can take courses in marketing, business development, web design, anything that will help you grow and manage your business.
# 5 Offer Virtual Services
Helping your clients declutter and organize is not limited to visiting them in their homes. Now would be a good time to offer virtual services to your existing clients or put in place a system for working with your clients remotely in the future.
The software I use to schedule and collect payment for my coaching calls is Calendly. Clients can set up their own appointments based on my calendar availability and pay for their appointments via the PayPal integration. The appointment is automatically added to my Google Calendar. Calendly also integrates with Zoom video conferencing software and a meeting link is automatically sent to all participants.
I know that was a lot of technical jargon, so let me know if you guys would like me to do a separate blog post on how to set up your virtual services!
If you are looking for a coach or mentor for your Professional Organizing business, I would love to meet with you by phone or video chat ☎
