We recently connected with Meg Delong and have shared our conversation below.

Meg , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

We knew that building a portfolio of our work would be crucial to continuing our business; having photos and testimonials of what we do and the final “product” would hopefully entice others to reach out and hire us! After we initially started our business, we ran a Mother’s Day Special; since moms are our target demographic, we ran a deal that was a steal so we could do 3 things: 1) Help a mom get organized! 2) Get images of our work! 3) Practice our work! Needless to say, we had two people book us. ONE was a really hard job haha! But we had realllllly good before and after photos so it was worth it. And the other client was friend, and she helped spread the word of our new business and we booked several other clients in her neighborhood which booked us out for that summer! We were so excited and shocked that our business was actually working and we were bringing in some money; it felt good!

Meg , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When doing the article can you put me, Meg DeLong, and my sister, Ea Fuqua down for owners, it’s both of us! Thanks!

Ea and I are professional organizers in Nashville TN! We watched Marie Kondo’s Netflix series and were really inspired personally and professionally. We had been wanting to start a business together and were looking for the right thing;Ea literally called me up and said…. “What if we start an organizing business? I think we’d be really good at it.” And I said “Okay! Let’s do it!” And we truly JUST STARTED hahah, we didn’t waste any time at all. We got our business name, started a website, got our LLC and went to work. We figured a lot of things out as we went, and that really worked and works for us. Ea and I are creatives at heart, and that is our bread and butter for everything we do. Whether we are helping a wonderful client get their homes organized, we really and truly come at each project with a relatable approach that uses their space in a way that really helps each client live easier and better lives after we get them set up for success. And we also use our social media to help our followers get tidy! We use our creativity in a way that shows those watching how they can set up their homes in an organized way, and feel better, even if they can’t hire us!

Anyone that hires us or is watching from a far I believe would see that our mission is to always be relatable and helpful and fun. We never ever want our clients to feel they have to change everything they are to get organized; we really do try to meet people where they are and read their lifestyle and come up with a game plan that fits THEIR lives.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Goodness, talking about this gives me some anxiety because we really learned from this experience! We started our business in 2019 and then we got through Covid years, and came out stronger on the other side. We’ve always known that when people hire a professional organizer, I mean, it’s a luxury service, meaning not everyone can afford to hire a service to come in and take care of something in their home. One summer, we really kicked it up a notch and realized we *could* charge more for our services, so we did. We booked out some very fancy homes and fancy clients, and we felt so cool! Haha! I think we felt like “Wow! We are really doing it!!!” And then we worked for these fancy people and it was A BUST!! We were miserable. The jobs weren’t fun, they were way more anxiety-ridden projects and we never felt good and didn’t feel like we were helping them at all. And we felt like we were just hired help coming into a home instead of being respected for the work we do so we had to make a MAJOR PIVOT to realize who we actually want to work with, and it’s really people kind of like us. Mom’s that need help, maybe they save up for our service so they can get some peace in their lives. We adjusted our pricing to get back to the clientele we actually love to work with and for, and said goodbye to the high-end homes. It really wasn’t for us at all!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

There are a ton of organizers in Nashville, but for us, I think making sure we start and finish well sets us apart. That may seem like a really simple thing, but so many people don’t follow through. I tell our clients all the time “I probably care about your home more than you do!!” And simply put, until a project is officially wrapped up, I’m breathing, eating, and thinking of all the problem points and how we can best serve our clients and their issues to get them to the other side. I want to get their homes to be a place that feels so freaking good, that they keep up their organized systems and feel like it’s a game changer for them. We care a lot about what we do, and we see it through to the very end.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thetidyhomenashville.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetidyhomenashville
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetidyhomenashville
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/thetidyhomenashville

Image Credits

First two Images are Kindfull Co