We were lucky to catch up with Amy Fredericksen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

I worked alone for the first 3 years in business until I decided to take the plunge into hiring a team. I was honestly going back and forth about the decision. On one hand, I felt like I was drowning and that there was not enough time in the day. And on the other hand, I knew it would help me tremendously to have someone on my team, but I was so scared of all of the unknowns. I was scared that someone couldn’t do the job as well as I could, I was scared of letting go. I was scared of actually having to delegate, and was also scared because I wanted to make sure I would be someone people wanted to actually work for. I thought about all of the negative “what if’s” that could happen and it held me back.

When I finally decided to hire, I did a simple post on Instagram explaining the position and told them to apply at the link in my website. I also did a post on Indeed and in those directions, I made sure to say that applicants must fill out the application on my website directly in order to be considered. I did this for two reasons. One, I wanted to make sure that they paid attention to detail (because that was a quality that was needed for the position), and two, because I had the whole application process automated so I didn’t even have to spend time looking at the applications until I knew the applicant completed all of the steps I required to apply for the job.

I think I had a pretty extensive application process, and I did it that way on purpose. They had to apply, take a personality test and share their results with me, answer a questionnaire, and upload a resume and upload images of their previous work. I wanted to make sure that the applicants could follow directions, and that they were willing to put in the effort to make sure this is a job they actually wanted to do.

From there, if I was satisfied with everything I saw, I scheduled an interview. I don’t have an office, so we would meet at a local Panera or something for the interview. During that time, I would ask a series of questions. Before the interview, I already knew what types of answers I was looking for that a great candidate would express.

After doing interviews at a previous job, I’ve learned to trust my gut with a lot of things too. And this is something important when hiring too. If someone can’t look at you in the eye, if someone shares WAY too much with you, that may be reasoning to not hire.

Through this process I’ve learned to take things as they come and not be so scared. There’s always a solution and if you aren’t coming across hard things, then you aren’t growing. If I had to do things differently I probably would have started the hiring process a lot sooner.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a retired fork lift driver, and reject elementary teacher! I have a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and elementary education and realized right after student teaching that I loved the kids and the practice of teaching, however, I did not enjoy the classroom environment. I used to work at Lowes offloading trucks, and construction jobs with my dad and uncles, so going from moving and being physical all day to behind a desk just didn’t do it for me.

I started my professional organizing business, All About Organizing, because it was a great way to intertwine my abilities and passions. All About Organizing helps busy families create a home-life balance by caring for their homes so they don’t have to. Our signature service is our PAM℠ (personal assistant for mom) services. PAM℠ is like your house manager, concierge, task rabbit, and professional organizer all in one. We come to your house on a regular basis and help check things off your list like: laundry, errands, calling for birthday parties, calling service providers to make sure things in the home are properly serviced and maintained, etc. as well as helping to create and maintain organized and streamlined systems in your house.

One of the things I am most proud of is the fact that I listened to what my clients were looking for and we tailored our services for that. When I first started my business, I was doing things a certain way and had this vision in my mind. But as I grew and met more amazing people, through building close relationships and listening to what they wanted, I was able to shift and offer a service that is more beneficial and even more life changing for them. We really try to create a close, long lasting relationship with our clients, so it’s very important to make sure that we are setting up the right person on our team with the family.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

5 years before starting my business, I was in so much personal debt and was in such a bad way. I couldn’t even get approved for a car loan without the help of a cosigner. I had maxed out all of my credit cards and was in this vicious cycle of paying a minimum payment on my credit cards, then charging again for the month because I paid the credit card with my cash. I was getting nowhere. I finally got the kick in the pants and worked really hard to become debt free and promised myself I would not do it again.

Luckily for me, there was not much overhead or capital I needed to invest in my business to get started. I worked really hard at my W2 jobs to save up money for things like: LLC formation, business insurance, a few supplies I know I needed to get started, and a course I decided to take online for professional organizers specifically that taught you how to start your business, basically all of the back end things that come with running a business that I had no clue about. So, I saved and saved until I knew I could pay for the initial set up.

When I first started my business, I read the book, “Profit First” and knew I was going to pay myself from every single job right from the beginning, and that is exactly what I did. I was very disciplined in the sense that I only spent money reinvesting back into the business that I intentionally saved for expenses, and never went into debt, and still have not a single cent of debt 5 years in.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started my business as a side hustle. I worked part time as a mail carrier at the time, so I had days during the week and weekends sometimes where I was able to take on clients. It was great when I first started because I was able to work on growing my business, but at the same time, I was still getting a paycheck and medical benefits through the post office so I was covered in that aspect. 2020 came, and we all know what happened then. So, luckily, I picked up more shifts at the post office because everyone was getting packages delivered. During that time, I decided to offer virtual organizing services to still be able to help people all over the country when they were living in the chaos and needed an outlet.

Once everything started opening back up, the business has been continuously growing. It finally came to a point where I was booked out for months at a time, which ended up not working out so well with the post office schedule. So, I made the decision to quit the post office and go all in on the business and I’m so happy that I did.

I’ve learned so much from the time I started the business until now. From just starting out, being so timid, thinking that there is only one way to do things, to really understanding that this is the business and the life I’m creating, and I can really make it look however I want in order to best serve my clients and make myself (and hopefully the ladies on my team) happy in the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.allaboutorganizing.me
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/allabout_organizing
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/allaboutorganizingllc

Image Credits
Kaitlyn Casso Allegra Anderson