We were lucky to catch up with Alana Frost recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alana, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

100% yes, I am much happier as a business owner. There’s only two times that I ever think about what it would be like to go back to a regular job, and that is when I’m having a difficult moment with my business, or when I’m reminiscing on the past, and how different my life is now. When things are difficult, you start to wonder if you’ve made the right decision, if all of the hard work is worth the frustration and the pain that comes from growing a business.

When you have a regular job, you’re getting paid by the hour, regardless of the results. You have to put in a lot of work when you’re on your own company, whether you see results or not. Other times, when I’m reminiscing on the past, I can’t believe that I had a regular job for so long. I was completely unhappy working a 9 to 5 and I should’ve quit long before I did.

I realize that my desire to start my own company only grew as time went on. I became very frustrated because I wasn’t living my truth. Now I can’t even imagine really going back to that way of life. I remember how unfulfilled and unhappy I was, and bored because I was doing the same thing every day. Being an entrepreneur is exciting, creative, inspiring and rewarding. I would never give that up for anything.

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’m an ex-banker, turned CEO and entrepreneur of brands that enrich and improve the lives of women around the world. I’ve spent the past five years growing my professional organizing company, Alana’s Organizing.

I got into my business because I was tired of grinding away at a job that I hated. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. When I started my company, I just knew that I wanted to start “A” company. I didn’t have any money at the time and I didn’t want to go back to school, so I started looking at industries that would allow me to use skills that I already had, combined with very little start up costs.

I stumbled on professional organizing, and I was shocked that people paid so much for something that came naturally to me. I’ve always loved things that revolved around the home. I previously had wanted to become a realtor and real estate developer, I wanted to start home staging business as well. So my interest in homes has always been a key part of my focus on my career.

The idea of owning a business wasn’t new to me, but I finally was able to start putting into practice all of the advice that I gathered from reading business books over the years and conversations that I had with my business clients working in the bank.

I’m a pretty introverted person, but I love deep and personal relationships with people. I love having meaningful connections. This is something that I experienced a lot of when working in the bank and doing loans for people.

When it came to organizing, I really wanted to have a business that was tailored towards personalization, and after working with a few clients I realized very quickly that I enjoyed working with people who want, and are willing to pay for someone to do the work for them. People that aren’t trying to do it all themselves because they are looking for an experience, and I love providing that experience for them.

I niched down very quickly and started gearing my services towards those types of clients. Today we provide two main services, home organization, and we also have a relocation concierge division. Most of our clients are in the process of moving and they use this opportunity to have a fresh start in their new home. We come in and get them ready to move, help them to declutter and get rid of the baggage from their old home and get them moved into their new home without them having to be heavily involved in the process.

We arrange all of their services, we do all of the work and we set up their home turnkey so that they’re able to experience the peace and relaxation that comes from trusting someone else to handle all the details, while they’re doing more important things.

Most people that work with us are really stressed out and going through a difficult time, and by having that trusting relationship we’re able to take a typically stressful time, and make it something that they feel good about because they’re being taken care of when they need it most.

What sets us apart is our desire to predominantly work with women and mothers, because they are so loaded down, and they feel guilty for asking for the help that they need. We’re able to provide a really personalized experience for them that’s guilt free, and empowers them to have someone in their corner that is helping them create a home that they enjoy being in.

We help them to not feel invisible, and to help them see that they matter. I’m most proud of the relationships that I’ve built along the way. While it’s always nice and fulfilling to organize a home and help people move, the relationships mean more to me than all of it.

I care a lot for my clients and I think about the struggles that they’re going through even after we’ve worked together. I want the world to know that we are about connection and relationships, not just pretty bins and baskets.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

This is my greatest sales story. About a year into Covid I received a call from a designer, he had a very high end client that he was working with, and he needed to bring on an organization company to help out with the job. After being drawn in from my bio page on my website, he made a connection with my love for dark chocolate and red wine.

I quickly realized after some discussions that this job was massive in comparison to anything I had done before. This was a 20,000 square-foot home and it essentially required about a months worth of work with a large team. I had never done anything like that before on that scale, but being the business owner that I am, I told him that I could absolutely handle it with no problem. It wasn’t the work that was hard, but I had a lot of fear handling such a large project.

After a great conversation, I met up with him and his clients a week later for a consultation. After I showed up to the house, we all sat down at a table, and they patiently waited while I explained what my company does, and how we could help them. We spent four hours doing the consultation. Most consultations are an hour at best, but we had to walk through the entire property and discuss different elements of the job. We also went to the new home that the clients were moving into and talked about all of the details.

This was going to take several weeks to complete. Afterwards I came home and had to put a proposal together. I was really freaked out because I never had a job this big and I was afraid of the sticker shock, concerned that they would find someone else to do it cheaper. I put a proposal together and a week later I discussed it with the designer, we had a good conversation and he presented it to his clients.

That week he gave me the greenlight and I officially booked my first $50,000 job. I am very happy to say that it was executed wonderfully and I’m extremely proud of the work that my team did, and we left on a very good note with a very sweet family.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

This is by far my most difficult lesson learned as a business owner. One year we had a very successful year, we grew over 400% and had a multiple six figure year. When you have so much growth in such a short amount of time, you make a lot of mistakes!

It wasn’t until the next year that I realized how many mistakes I made and how great they were. I spent thousands of dollars hiring people that I didn’t need, and hiring for positions that weren’t necessary. I also hired some people that were very lazy and wasted thousands of my dollars, but because I was so busy I didn’t realize how much of my time and money they were wasting.

I also spent money on marketing in areas that literally had zero return. I basically got off track because I had too much going on, and I had no system set up to handle the increase in business. The following year I almost closed my business because it was such a hard reality to bounce back from.

When you only see the revenue, that’s your mistake. You need to see the cost and the losses as well. Revenue isn’t everything, it’s what you do with the revenue that really matters. I will never make those mistakes again. I’m determined to fail forward, not backwards. I’m also a lot more comfortable with firing people when they don’t fit our culture and aren’t willing to put in the work to be a success within our organization.

Thankfully, I decided to stick it out, learn from my mistakes and create new systems and processes to deal with those situation’s going forward. I’m so happy that I did, it’s helped me get very clear about why I’m doing this in the first place, and how to make better decisions going forward. You have to look at your mistakes, even if they are painful, so that you can grow and progress.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alanasorganizing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alanasorganizing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlanasOrganizing
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alana-frost-54b7b11b1/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlanaFrost_hq
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/alanas-organizing-san-diego

Image Credits
Laura Lemus Photography by L Rose