We recently connected with Anne Blumer and have shared our conversation below.
Anne, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
In 2001, I left my human resources position with a high-technology company I had worked for thirteen years. I left because I wanted to graduate that June with my degree in organizational communication. To do so, I needed to take more than a full-time course load, which meant I needed to stop working.
I graduated in June, and then in September, my husband, Stefan, and I married. I was in a career transition and busy raising two young children. Alex was nine, and Hannah was seven years old. I was searching for what was next because I knew I wanted to be more than a stay-at-home parent. But I also knew I wanted to be there for Alex and Hannah after school as they were growing up since I had not been able to in their early years.
I would not have started a professional organizing business if it were not for my husband, Stefan. It was New Year’s Eve 2002, and we were sitting at home by a warm fire, watching the snowfall. Stefan turned to me and said, “I want to start a consulting business, and I want to do it tonight!” My response was, “Can’t we just drink wine and sit by the fire like everyone else who doesn’t go out on New Year’s Eve?” Stefan said, “You drink. I’m starting a business. And you will be able to do your organizing thing under it too.” And by golly, he did! He downloaded the state of Oregon’s Small Business Guide, and by January 17, 2003, we were incorporated. Keep in mind Stefan is Swiss!
We named the company SolutionsForYou, Inc. In retrospect, that was the first significant mistake we made. Generically, it works for both of our services because it doesn’t say specifically what solutions we provide. But from a marketing standpoint, it is not specific enough because it doesn’t have the word organize or organizing in it. If we were to do it over, I would have formed Blumer Enterprises as the corporation and registered separate DBAs (doing business as) with specific names for our services. From a marketing perspective, your business name needs to say specifically what you do to be searchable on the internet. To remedy this error, I added my tagline, “providing effortless solutions to organizing,” for web searchability and other marketing needs.
I wasn’t sure how viable a profession organizing was, so I searched “organizing” on the internet. The National Association of Professional Organizers, now the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals (NAPO), was at the top of the search list. I clicked on their website and was amazed to learn over 1,200 people were doing this for a profession. I immediately joined both NAPO national and the Oregon chapter.
I attended NAPO meetings monthly, and within six months, I was asked to serve on the Oregon board as board secretary. I was thrilled that they wanted me and, of course, said yes! I remained on the Oregon board for seven years and retired as chapter president. This was probably the single most important action I took in my first year of business to develop my skills and education as a professional organizer and to promote my business. As I continued my NAPO board work, I moved into the role of director of membership. In that role, I noticed many members who joined one year did not renew their membership the next year. I was curious about why and contacted several to ask them why they didn’t renew their membership. What I learned was that they were closing their businesses. There were two main reasons: 1) they could organize themselves, but they couldn’t organize others because they didn’t have a process, or they were very set in the way they wanted to organize, and 2) they didn’t know how to manage their business. I thought it was so unfortunate that this happened because many of them were truly passionate about their profession. Lightbulb moment! It occurred to me that maybe I could teach others what they need to know about starting a business, working with clients, and growing their business. What is now The Institute for Professional Organizers https://www.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The first question people ask me after learning I’m a professional organizer is, “What led you to this career?”
Over the years leading up to starting my business, friends, and coworkers would comment on my home environment or workspace and tell me I should do “this” for a living. I didn’t know what they meant by “this.” One day, a coworker said, “I would love for you to organize my kitchen.” I looked at her like she was crazy, and I thought, Doesn’t everyone have things organized in their kitchen? I didn’t realize that not everyone is organized. I didn’t even really think about the word organized because I didn’t realize that other people didn’t know how to be organized—even though two disorganized parents raised me! However, growing up, I didn’t think of my parents as disorganized; I thought of them as messy, forgetful, and late to appointments.
What led me to this career was others noticing a skill—organizing—in me that I wasn’t even aware of and the realization that others would want to pay me to help them organize their stuff. I could be paid to do what comes naturally to me and what I love to do—organize!
What I am most proud of is coaching and mentoring nearly 500 people, who aspired to this profession, to start their professional organizing business through my Institute for Professional Organizers Fast-Track Method training program. I feel my organizing clients see that this sets me apart from other professional organizers.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
From 2009 to 2011 professional organizers in the United States were in make-or-break years. In 2008 and 2009, the United States labor market lost 8.4 million jobs. People were cutting out all discretionary expenses, and that included professional organizing services.
My phone was not ringing, and people were not signing up for my webinars, online training, or live seminars. Many professional organizers left the industry because they were experiencing the same and needed to find employment to pay their bills. Or, if they did not provide the primary source of income for their family and that person lost his or her job, they now needed to find a way to have a steady income.
Interestingly though, many people who lost their jobs and couldn’t find employment wanted to start their own business. They had time on their hands and were watching HGTV and, you guessed it, Mission Organization, Clean Sweep with Peter Walsh, and Neat. These shows sparked a desire in many to start a professional organizing business, but they had little financial resources to do so and didn’t know how to start a business. The calls I received from people about my training program were to say they would love to take my training program, but they just could not afford it.
I, too, suddenly had time on my hands, and I was fortunate that Stefan’s employment was not impacted by the recession. As Stefan can attest to, when I have time on my hands, I find a way to fill it! I decided that if the participants couldn’t come to me and couldn’t afford the online version of my training program, there must be a way to get the information to them. Because what I’m passionate about is making sure those in this profession represent the industry as experienced and knowledgeable professionals.
I decided to write a book that covered my training program content, not the depth of the content but the surface—enough to give the information needed to get started. Writing a book was not an easy task. In fact, it was painful. I was accustomed to writing in bullet points and then speaking at some length to each bullet point. But I persevered, and with the help of an editor, Get Rich Organizing was self-published in August 2009.
I didn’t write the book to get rich. In fact, I knew I wouldn’t sell millions of copies because millions of people don’t want to become professional organizers—thank goodness! I wrote the book to fill a need for a niche population. I’m glad I did! I have met and heard from hundreds of people who have purchased Get Rich Organizing about how it was an invaluable resource to them in the development of their business and how they would not have succeeded without that information. Those words are worth all the pain it took to write the book!
After presenting my keynote at the Japanese Association of Life Organizers in 2017, I casually mentioned to Stefan that I wish I had titled my book, Mastering the Business of Organizing. He said, “it’s not too late.” UGH! The challenge. Nine years had passed since I wrote Get Rich Organizing. The content could be updated, plus I had more stories to tell and information to share about managing and growing a business. So, I decided to dive in and rewrite it. It is on the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers’ list of suggested resources for the Certified Professional Organizer (CPO) exam.
Never in my wildest dreams did I dream of being a published author because I didn’t think I had the skills to write a book.
Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?
I have had many streams of revenue over the past 20 years including:
- Organizing services – Hands on
- Organizing services – Virtual organizing
- Organizing services – Coaching
- Organizing services – Senior Move Manager
- Subcontractors’ revenue
- Subcontractor with The Container Store (closet designer and Contained Home Organizer)
- Webinars
- Author – Get Rich Organizing
- Author – Get Organized Today
- Author – Mastering the Business of Organizing
- The Fast-Track Method Training Program – Certified Master Professional Organizer Course (Institute for Professional Organizers)
- The Fast-Track Method Training Program – Trained Organizer Course
- Professional Organizer business and client forms package
- Speaker – How to organize topics
- Speaker – Industry Keynote
There are many opportunities in the professional organizer industry to diversify your revenue.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instituteprofessionalorganizers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/instprofessionalorganizers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InstituteForProfessionalOrganizers
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anneblumer/
- Youtube: @AnneBlumer
Image Credits
Tanya Rochat to the photos of me.