We recently connected with Janelle Azar and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Janelle, thanks for joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?
As a professional home organizer, I’m being invited into a person’s most sacred and personal space so it is crucial that I convey how much I respect and appreciate this honor. Showing gratitude to my clients is deeply important to me. They not only provide me financial support and offer opportunities for growth but they also provide me with a sense of personal fulfillment with the work we accomplish together.
Some of the ways that I show clients that I appreciate them are:
*Focusing solely on their project when we are together (this means not answering phone calls, emails, or texts. Time with a client is strictly reserved for them).
*Communicating with them quickly and clearly (this means responding to their questions and giving them updates on their project, or even checking in with them after the project is completed).
*Celebrating the positive changes and progress made on their organizing journey
These values are at the foundation of everything I do as a business owner serving clients.
Some additional ways that I show clients appreciation:
*Sending hand-written thank you notes after meeting them in person to thank them for giving me an opportunity to meet with them.
*Giving clients a gift of appreciation at the end of our work together. Currently, I have a custom candle designed by a local woman-owned business with my company logo. This small consumable gift expresses appreciation without adding clutter to my client’s home.
*Sending a consumable (and customized) holiday gift to long-term clients with a handwritten thank you note.
A customer’s experience has been at the core of every job I’ve held in my 20+ years as a professional. This has provided many opportunities over the years to learn, shape, and review how to show customers my appreciation for their business. What I’ve learned and carried with me over the years is to always go above and beyond for your clients. Establishing long lasting client relationships not only ensures that my clients feel valued and appreciated, but it also ensures that I am building a thriving and successful business.
Janelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’ve been passionate about organizing throughout my entire life and had spent many years organizing for friends and family before deciding to turn my passion into my profession.
My skills for organizing got put to the test in 2000 when my family moved out of our 2,000-square-foot home after 22 years. I was the one that spearheaded the packing and moving efforts since I was home from college with some free time. I took on the challenge of coordinating a move and a garage sale in less than 2 weeks with no prior experience. It was thrilling!
Fast-forward 15 years and I found myself in a career with a national retail company in management. The job was constantly evolving, the day was never the same, and I always found myself wearing several different hats. I loved the versatility that the job provided but felt that my true passion was still missing. I researched several different career paths and then finally came back to what brought me joy as a kid, organizing.
I found a way to combine my passion for organizing with my love for helping others, and a way to do it on my terms by becoming a professional home organizer. In 2018, I founded A Meaningful Space, an organizing company that specializes in residential and small business organizing services that are tailored to each client’s home, routine, and lifestyle. I bring with me my years of customer service experience and the ability to pivot and adapt at the drop of a hat. I also bring my love of helping others by providing my unique gift of organization. I truly believe that your home should be a place for you to enjoy. A place where you find comfort and relaxation. A place where you can focus on your family, and not all of your things.
Since 2018, I’ve helped hundreds of clients declutter and organize hundreds of spaces. My goal is to create an organized space that aligns perfectly with who the client is as a person. I strongly believe that organizational solutions should be tailored to each individual, rather than adhering to a one-size-fits-all approach. I’m passionate about creating a safe and supportive environment where clients feel comfortable sharing their struggles and challenges because I know that the process of decluttering a home is about 70% emotional and 30% physical. Having a non-judgmental accountability guide (aka ME) helps create a supportive space where clients can process their emotions and make decisions that align with their values and priorities.
And in 2022 I discovered how much I loved working with KIDS to declutter and organize. This love has been the driving force behind the digital course I created and launched in the spring of 2023, Simplifying & Organizing with Kids. This course was created to help parents deal with all the kid clutter taking over their homes. It teaches parents how to involve kids in the organizing process while making it a fun and enjoyable activity for the whole family.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
After having spent almost 20 years in retail management, I knew that I needed a big career change. I was looking for something that would not only make use of my best skills, but something that would be personally fulfilling. I had a few criteria that I used to narrow down the search. First, it had to involve working with people. I’ve always thrived when working one on one with another person whether it be a collaboration or as a teacher. Next, I wanted the freedom to make my own schedule. Years of working holidays, weekends, and late night shifts until midnight had finally taken their toll on me and I was ready to have a more set schedule. Finally, I wanted versatility in the day-to-day of my career. Being able to have each day look different versus the monotony of the same routine every day was part of what I loved about retail management.
I spent about 3 years researching different career options. At first, I started by looking at other companies for human resources or management and soon realized that I would not find the freedom that I desired with my schedule. That’s when I started thinking outside the box about all the possibilities that existed, and I soon realized that if I couldn’t find the right career for myself I would create it.
In the winter of 2017 after a long and exhausting retail holiday season I stumbled upon the NAPO website. NAPO stands for National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. As I scrolled through the pages and reviewed the educational offerings I realized that being a home organizer was actually a real thing and that people did this for a living! I quickly started gathering as much information as I possibly could about the industry. Reading books, taking courses, and meeting actual professional organizers. The more I learned about it, the more I realized that this is what I was meant to do. During this time I also started researching what was involved in owning your own business. I checked out local county resources for small business owners and started working on a business plan. In the spring of 2018, I applied for my LLC and A Meaningful Space became official.
One of the biggest challenges that I faced was the idea of leaving a salaried position that provided 60% of the household income and the health care plan for the family. I knew that in order to see past this challenge I would need to determine if this new business would be viable and bring in the amount of income that would be needed to sustain my family’s current lifestyle. Basically meaning that I would require actually having paid and consistent client work.
From June 2018 to May 2019 I spent time building the behind-the-scenes aspects of my business while continuing to work 50-60 hours a week at my retail management job. During my days off or on vacation days I worked on creating my website and social media channels, setting up systems for emails, phone calls, and potential client inquiries, and networking with other businesses at local events. I also helped friends and family members with organizing their homes in order to practice my skills. And on May 10, 2019, I received my first official client inquiry through a Facebook ad that I had been running to promote my business. As 2019 progressed I gained more clients to the point that I had to limit how many clients I was able to work with at a given time. In September of that year, I felt I had proven to myself that I was more than capable of being successful at this new endeavor. That’s when I began to realize that if I could fully commit my time to this new career I would be financially stable and so I began my exit strategy from my full-time job. I set a deadline of January 2020 for my last official day as a retail manager. I was definitely counting down the days over those 5 months between, but for me, it was the right amount of time to ensure that I had a nice financial cushion to fall back on as well as some additional time to continue building up a client list.
Now it is 3 ½ years later and I am beyond words so proud of myself for taking the leap to do something different. My business is financially stable and growing each year. I have 2 people who assist with organizing jobs and marketing. I’ve created a digital course about organizing with kids. I’ve spoken on a variety of organizing topics for different organizations as well as on podcasts. I’ve met incredible small business owners and feel deeply connected to my community. And best of all, I’ve been able to help amazing clients achieve functional and organized homes so they can live with less stuff and less stress.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think the most significant time I’ve had to pivot was like many of us, the pandemic. My last day at my full-time job was on February 1, 2020. That day I left all the familiarity of a job I knew how to do inside and out as well as the security of a consistent paycheck. But I was ready and excited to dive right into this new career I had created for myself. I had paid client work lined up for the entire month of February and part of March. I was getting phone calls and emails from people inquiring about my services for potential future projects. I was on an emotional high because all of the hard work and dedication that I had put in while I side hustled was paying off. And then on March 16, 2020, the state of Michigan and pretty much the rest of the world shut down.
It was just 45 days into my new and exciting business and here I was not able to provide the service that my entire business was built around. I was more than a little worried about what this meant for me, my family, and my clients. Between March 2020 and June 2020 one of the adaptations I made to my business was to offer virtual organizing services. While it wasn’t my preferred method to connect with clients it was certainly helpful in keeping existing clients on track with their work as well as connecting with new clients who were stuck at home with all of their stuff. I also spent time writing blog posts and newsletters and connecting with my contact list to continue to build relationships with potential clients.
This time period provided the ability for me to consider what other streams of income could be possible as a professional organizer and it helped me realize that as a business owner, I should never rely on just one avenue of income. And as a result of this, I now offer virtual services, speaking presentations, and a digital course. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ameaningfulspace.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ameaningfulspace
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ameaningfulspaceorganizing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a-meaningful-space/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@organizingkids
Image Credits
Angela Brown Lorell Bosek