We recently connected with Brian Saeger and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

We got a call from a client to help them prepare for their move out of state and get the home ready for the market. After working with them for a little under a month with great success, laughs, and appreciation on both ends, they were on their way and the home quickly sold. Two months later we got a call from clients wanting help unpacking and creating sustainable systems (think, everything has a home). We show up to do the job and realized it was the same address and after asking, we found our that they hadn’t spoken to one another about us. I’ve known all along the potential for our services is unlimited but to have the experience that each home has double opportunities for us to be of service was awesome.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

From the moment someone decides they need to move until the day the movers show up there are thousands of decisions that need made and actions that need to take place. Be Free Organizing & Move Management has created a process called the Be Free Method that makes this time period as stress free and effortless as possible for homeowners. We help sort, pack, and clean out the home so people don’t have to do it alone. Our services include hauling unwanted items away, having an estate sale, one time deep clean of the home, curb appeal in the yard and so much more. Our Be Free Method works in a way that the client is in control the entire time and we simply plug them into the drivers seat and teach them how to drive while we do all of the actual work. If the house is going to be sold as well we are a one stop shop to prepare the home for the market.

My personal mission is to get my company known in a new industry.
If your sink leaks we know to call the plumber.
If the electricity goes out we know to call the electrician.
If you need to move but are nowhere close to being ready for move day, or if you need to move your elderly parents from a home they’ve lived in for 40 years to assisted living, we don’t, as a culture, instantly know who to call. My mission is to change that and to put Be Free Organizing & Move Management on the front of people’s mind in the marketplace.

I grew up in a small town in the middle of Illinois were there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for both work and growth mindset opportunities so I left young and lived in 9 states before landing on the front range of Colorado. The only consistent things I had during most of those years, besides my 4 runner, was teaching yoga and practicing massage therapy. For years after I landed here I built custom homes and my favorite part of the job was keeping the jobsite clean and helping the crews keep on task.
I remember vividly over the years when I heard other friends or people doing amazing work asking them if they were hiring or asking if I could help out in anyway. I had so much energy and drive that I wasn’t tapping into around my career and I could feel it every day. That’s were Be Free Organizing & Move Management sparked from, I was on a jobsite one day and realized how much I’d loved organizing my whole life and how it was my favorite part of the current job. So with a little research I discovered people could make professional organizing a career. BOOM, I was inspired, excited, and ready to take on the challenges of running yet another solopreneur endeavor. This was around 2006-2008 and I work alone out of the back of my, latest, 4 runner for about 11 years hiring help once in a while when I got a big project (looking back, I have no idea how I was pulling off some of the jobs I did solo..). A few years in I realized that the jobs that I was getting called for the most were helping people transition from a home to assisted living, or helping with an estate when someone passed away, things of that nature so I went from organizing to organizing and move management.
About 4 years ago I started hiring with the mindset of offering an amazing workspace for people who, like myself, where looking for a home to put their passions, hustle, teamwork, to good use, a place to invest into their own career and take ownership if their growth. We were able to take on more jobs and dial in our systems and work flow. I’ll spare you the details, but I obsessed about building out the backend of the business from hiring/onboarding to scheduling for both staff and clients and creating systems for everything around money, from getting paid, buying supplies, paying staff and everything in-between.

Our mission is to be of service, our values are to put people first, their belongings second, and profits third.

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Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

My biggest lesson is knowing that I’m the weakest link. I have a strong work ethic, I love working hard and being of service, but when it comes to tasks that don’t directly relate to a customer or project, I can blow it off for months. This is not conducive for building a business.
I hire out everything that I get stuck on. If something comes my way and it sits for more that 2 weeks without me getting to it when I feel it needs done every day, I’ll find a pro to make it happen. That way the pace of growth isn’t dictated by me personally.
I’ve also learned to not hire friends or anyone that says “I can probably figure that out”. By the time I pay them $3o an hour to figure it out I could have paid someone $75 an hour to have it done in 1/4 the time and a way better end product.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’m my fathers son, to me, this means I can figure most anything out, I’m done when the job is done and not when I don’t want to be there anymore, and there is a right and wrong way to do things. I let my slight anxiety mix with my slight OCD about doing things right the first time, put people first, and genuinely care about the moment to moment details as I move through life. I return phone calls, answer emails, follow up when I don’t have and answer, and do what I say I’m going to do when I say I’m going to do it and if I can’t for some reason then I communicate that to my clients and staff.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from clients that people don’t call them back, it blows my mind. To me it’s not only dumb as a business owner but it’s rude as a person offering a service. If someone calls it’s because they need help, to not call them back makes no sense whatsoever.

I feel blessed when I read most books that tell people the best way to do business is to basically be a good person and put your clients needs and emotions up front. To me this isn’t even something that would come up as a consideration, it’s the foundation of who I am, it’s common sense.

When I work with B to B and get several referrals from once person or source it’s because they know the quality that their clients are going to receive around the work and customer care in general.

Contact Info:

• Website: befreeorganizing.com
• Instagram: befreeorganizing
• Linkedin: Brian Saeger