We were lucky to catch up with Meghan Brodie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Meghan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I am definitely happier as a business owner than I was when I had a “real” job. Prior to starting my organizing business, I was an elementary school teacher for six years in Atlanta, Charlottesville, VA and finally Richmond, VA. While I was a passionate teacher and thought I would be a lifer, my personal life changed and caused me to reevaluate my career. My pregnancy with our first child put me on bed rest for four months, partially in the hospital. During this time I had to resign from my position with a school district. When my daughter was born premature she was in the NICU for nine weeks and then I stayed home with her for a year. While I loved being a mom to her, I needed more for myself. That’s when I started toying with the idea of working for myself. With my husband’s encouragement I emailed everyone local I knew and asked if I could organize something for them. From there my business grew by word of mouth and I have been thankful every day since that I don’t have a regular job.

Had my business not taken off the way that it did, I may have returned to a regular paying 9-5 job, but thankfully The House Finch has grown steadily each year since 2019. My perspective on working has changed and I feel strongly that so many Americans would be happier if they choose to make a living doing something they love.

While regular jobs come with lots of perks: consistent and reliable pay, benefits, colleagues with similar mindsets, etc. I wouldn’t trade what I have created for myself. I get to do work that I love and each day is a different challenge. I get to decide what types of projects I take on and my clients allow me to make very visible and lasting differences in their surroundings and lifestyles.

Meghan, 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?

My name is Meghan Brodie and I own a home organization business in Richmond, Virginia. I am a mother to three children, four years and under and I understand the constant struggle that maintaining an orderly home entails. As a 5 year old I would constantly reorganize our Tupperware cabinet. Flash forward 29 years and I am organizing for a living. Prior to starting my business I worked in marketing, consulting and education, but the business I started 3 1/2 years ago is my real calling. I never dreamed of starting a business, but other than my family, it is the accomplishment I am most proud of. I have built a recognizable and reputable brand in my city and people associate my business with order, systems and charity.

My small team works with families of all types to help their homes be more peaceful and purposeful. We provide a different perspective that helps clients quickly decide what items in their home are needed and loved versus what would be better used by another person. We strive to donate locally to our community as much as possible and even have a platform to sell client items on consignment. We help clients see the potential in their spaces and bring that potential to life in very short amounts of time. We have helped a select number of small businesses get organized as well!

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Yes! Our bread and butter is earned by organizing for clients in their homes, but over time we’ve developed some additional ways to earn revenue. Here they are below:

Consignment Income: As we sort through items with clients, we separate into these categories: donate locally, donate to Goodwill and sell. We make our best attempt at selling small items through Instagram and Facebook. We split profits 50/50 with clients.

Memory Nests: Parents struggle to determine what to do with their child’s mementos, artwork, etc. We have a customized system that we sell to families to help them wrangle the extras that come with parenthood.

Text Service: We are working on a service that will help families utilize our help to get organized via texting.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Everyone loves a transformation, so that is what I focused my social media accounts on initially. Many of our posts and stories share before and after pictures with details on project duration, what supplies were used and a brief non-specific description of the family and their situation.

I also saw a lot of great growth in number of followers by hosting a handful of giveaways over the years, though I have been hesitant to do one lately.

Genuine content is what my followers really engage with and it is something I strive to make more time for. I want followers to see that I struggle with many of the same organizing challenges that they do: messy children, partners who don’t put things away, etc. It is the times when I have been the most forthright and vulnerable that I have seen the greatest interest from social media followers. Now the challenge for me is to make more time to share relevant and relatable pieces of my life through the lenses of social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thehousefinch.com
• Instagram: @thehousefinch
• Facebook: @thehousefinch