We recently connected with Sarah Dunn and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

Lately I’ve been thinking about the Pareto principle and how I can use this concept to build my business. The Pareto principle says that 80% of our outcomes come from 20% of our work. In other words, 20% of our efforts produce 80% of the results. The converse is also true: 80% of our efforts only products 20% of our results. With this in mind, it’s important to hone in on what 20% produces the greatest results. When I started my business, I spent the first month or two building my website and writing blog posts. It consumed at least 80% of my time and I’m not even sure it produced 20% of the results. If I were to start over, I would spend less time working on the website and more time working with potential clients like family and friends (even at a discounted rate) because it’d mean I’d be moving closer to my goals.

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

I’m Sarah Dunn and I run a San Diego home organizing business called Ready Set Organize. I started my career in sales, then quickly moved to event planning — running upwards of 180 events per year in San Francisco. I loved the work, but after about 4 years, I was burned out. It was during my time as an event manager for a venue in SF that I became re-interested in organizing. I had always been an organized person growing up. A few times a year I’d reconsider everything I owned, declutter and reorganize my closet, and rearrange my room. Even as a kid, I knew the profound impact one’s environment had on their happiness and productivity. I’d help friends for hours do the same with their closets, getting so much joy out of the process and end result.
When COVID shattered the live events industry, I decided it would be a perfect time to start this business. And I think my instinct was right. People had been spending far more time in their homes than ever before, everyone was buying (more than they needed) online, and rooms in their house were becoming mixed-use to accommodate WFH sett-ups, workouts, and online schooling.
About a year and a half later. I run a team of five people and we offer all types of organizing services. We organize closets, bedrooms, kitchens and pantries, offices, living rooms, and garages. We also offer organizing for companies. We love what we do and our team is growing, so reach out if this sounds like something up your alley.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I wouldn’t call it a side hustle as a much as it was a side passion. Whether it was my own house, a friend’s closet, or the venue I worked for in SF — I always loved rearranging and getting things organized. At one point, I got chatting with someone at the yoga studio I attended who mentioned she was moving and needed help going through all her things. I told her I could help her. After helping her, she was blown away and so grateful for the experience that she told a couple people about me. One of them reached out a year later and became my first paying customer. As soon as I had one paying customer, I knew there were other people out there that’d be willing to pay me too. But it wasn’t another six months or so before I decided to go full-time with the business.
Going full-time meant I had to no other source of income to rely on. In the beginning, I told myself to just try it out for a few months and see what happens. Then I’d say to myself, make it to six months. See what happens at a year. Giving myself these little goals and milestones to reach allowed me to stay in the process of building the business without getting to overwhelmed by the idea of building a multi-million dollar company.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

“How I Build This” by Guy Raz. Love reading about how others have done it, especially in industries different than what we’re in because it gives you a unique perspective and a new way of thinking about things.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.readysetorganize.co
• Instagram: readysetorganize.co
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getitdunn.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/positive-outlook/

Image Credits
Krtistin Bradford