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Prerequiste /Session 1: Introduction to Professional Organizing - Understanding the Professional Organizer Industry Associations and Credentials
Description: This session we will define the profession of organizing, provide an overview of the history of the organizing industry and of NAPO, identify the characteristics of a professional organizer and characteristics of a business owner, explain the benefits of NAPO membership, and review the requirements for industry certification.
- Professional Organizer Definition
- How You Can Enter the Organizing Profession
- Characteristics of a Professional Organizer
- Characteristics of a Business Owner
- NAPO History and Overview of Industry Trends
- NAPO Membership
- NAPO Code of Ethics
- NAPO Membership Benefits
- BCPO Certification Requirements & Preparation
- Other Industry Associations and Resources
Unit I/Session 2: Assessing Your Skills as a Professional Organizer and Business Owner
Description: This session will review your skills, prior experience and education as it relates to the field of Professional Organizer and discuss why you want to be a Professional Organizer.
- How Can Your Background and Education Work For You?
- Why Do You Want to be a Professional Organizer?
- What Professional Organizer Characteristics Do You Possess?
- What Business Owner Characteristics Do You Possess?
- What is a typical day like for a Professional Organizer?
- What is a typical day like for a Business Owner?
Unit I/Session 3: Writing Your Business Plan Designed to Focus on and Attract Your Key Client
Description: Your business plan is often an after thought if it is ever addressed at all. In this session you will learn the value of writing a business plan and how it can save you from costly mistakes and how to attract your key client.
- Define your business concept
- Develop your mission statement
- Determine who is your client and how will you attract them
- Describe what services and products you will offer
- Research who your competition is
- Define your goals and objectives
- Financial Plan covering start-up costs and ongoing expenses
- Detailed Action Plan - Everything you need to do in your first year in business
- Identify your resource requirements
- Perform a S.W.O.T Analysis
Unit I/Session 4: Rate Structures – How to Charge for Your Services
Description: Establishing your fee continues to be the one area where many Professional Organizers undervalue their services. Learn how to determine a reasonable market rate and earn the income you desire and how to communicate your value to clients.
- Hourly fee vs. Project Fee
- Selling Your Value
- Initial consultation - fee or free?
- Travel fee
- Materials
- National Average
- How to determine a reasonable market rate
- When and how to give yourself a raise
Unit I/Session 5: Business Basics - Start-up Forms, Equipment and Materials
Description: We will provide a detailed list and review of
- Office Space
- Office Equipment
- Record Keeping
- Business Forms
- Client File
- Supplies
- Marketing Materials
- Field Materials
- Tool Kit Components
- Materials for Paper Management Systems
- Materials for Closet System Installations
- Resources for products, web site development, books and periodicals, and space planning tools
Unit I/Session 6: Determine Legal and Insurance Needs as presented by an Attorney (Seminar only)
Description: This is one of the most critical decisions you will make as a business owner. Our expert speaker, Anne Koch will explain the different business entities and help you choose the right one for your situation and goals.
- Types of Ownership Structures
- Sole Proprietorship
- Limited Liability Company (LLC)
- Corporation
- S Corporation
- Issues for all entities
- Understanding business licenses, registrations and insurance coverage you will need.
- What goes into selecting your choice of business entity?
Unit I/Session 7: Name and Register Your Business for Maximum Impact
Description: People make an impression in the first 2 seconds they meet someone. If your name is the first way to introduce yourself to a prospective client, what impression will you make?
- What’s in a name?
- What do you want to project?
- What first impression do you want make?
- How to search for business names
- How to search for internet domain names
- How to register your business name
Unit I/Session 8: What You Need to Know to be Tax Savvy as presented by a CPA (Seminar only)
Description: Our expert speaker, Julia Fitzgerald, will guide you through the labyrinth of tax details a small and home business owner needs to understand and comply with.
- Getting Started – select business name and type of entity
- Registering with state and federal governments
- Selecting software to track you business records
- Deductions for you home business
- Business use of your home
- Business use of your automobile
- Business travel
- Family members as employees
- Estimated taxes
- Payroll taxes
- Local taxes and licenses
- Filing form 1099’s for professional services
- Retirement plans
- Tax forms listing
Unit I/Session 9: Marketing & Branding Your Organizing Business
Description: You will learn how to create a comprehensive marketing plan including:
- Creating your brand
- Writing a winning marketing message communicating your value
- Your elevator speech
- Developing your Network of Strategic Alliances
- Developing a successful website
- Developing a successful blog
- Content for 12 months of e-newsletters
- 100 Marketing Approaches
- 30 minute marketing formula
Unit II/Session 1: Initial Client Contact - Your 30 Second Hook
Description: Preparing you for when the client calls
- What to say when the client first calls
- Developing your 30 second hook
- What you need to know from the client - client intake checklist
- Scheduling your needs assessment consultation
Unit II/Session 2: How to Effectively Conduct a Needs Assessment and Create an Organizing Plan of Action
Description: The needs assessment discoveries will be your roadmap to clearly identifying your client’s goals, needs, barriers and expectations. This session will provide you with questions to ask your client that will help you to best assess their organizing needs and from there develop an organizing plan of action.
- Residential Needs Assessment
- Business Needs Assessment
- Environmental issues needs assessment questions
- Emotional issues needs assessment questions
- Client expectation needs assessment questions
- How to conduct an assessment without giving away too much information
- Creating an organizing plan of action
Unit II/Session 3: Scheduling the Job With Your Client
Description: We will explain the components of a job agreement and provide you with a form template that you can tailor to meet your business needs including:
- Services
- Fees
- Payment Policy
- Cancellation Policy
- Materials
- Travel
- Product Procurement
- Limitations of Liability
- What you will not provide
Unit II/Session 4: Our 5 Steps to Organizing® Process
Description: A time-tested process that will not only give you a method for organizing your clients but also teach them the skills they need to maintain after you leave.
- 5 Steps to Organizing® process details
- 5 Steps to Organizing® process client application
- 5 Steps to Organizing® process client skills transference
Unit II/Session 5: Client Follow-up aka Preventative Backsliding
Description: Recognize backsliding and effective ways to address it with a client
- Follow-up practices
- Maintenance Plan
- Client Satisfaction Survey
Field Trip: Storables Tour
- How to select products for every room
- What questions to ask your client to select the right containers
- Select materials for your client project
Unit II/Session 6: Working With Clients on the A.R.T. of Paper Management
Description you will learn how to work with clients on organizing their household paper information including:
- How to create a paper processing center
- How to identify what paper to toss and what to keep (and for how long)
- The A.R.T. of paper management (Action and Reference systems)
- How to make files and use file system products (FreedomFiler™, FileSolutions®, Paper Tiger)
- Products that can help track finances and financial papers (Quicken®, QuickBooks, Scanalizer®)
- And many other useful paper information management practices
Unit II/Session 7: Working With Clients on Time Management
Description you will learn how to work with clients to manage their time efficiently including:
- Defining their roles
- Identifying if their time is spent on urgent activities or important activities
- Discover time robbers through a time mapping technique
- Learn how to categorize and group activities to effectively manage your clients time
- Identify and choose “one” time management system and tool that is right for your client; and why
Unit II/Session 8: Working with Clients on Clutter Control
Description You will learn how to help your clients deal with clutter by asking simple questions about what they really need and about their relationship with clutter. You will learn how to identify what their stumbling blocks are to letting go, how to move through them to achieve a clutter free space, and how to create a visual plan of what you want your client’s space to look and feel like. Learn how to teach your clients to stop cluttering and start organizing!
- Learn what clutter is
- Learn why clutter happens
- Learn the costs of clutter
- Learn the benefits of eliminating clutter
- Learn about your client’s relationship with clutter
- Learn how to create a visual plan of what your client’s want their space to look and feel like
- Learn how to teach your client to stop cluttering and start organizing
- Learn the key to staying organized
Unit II/Session 9: The Challenging Clients You Will Meet – Case Studies
Description: Challenging can mean so many things— difficulty focusing, an inability to maintain organizing systems due to chronic disorganization and ADD, students learning organizing skills, seniors and fatigue, and safety issues to consider. This session will prepare you for those more challenging clients with an in-depth look at real client case studies.
- Depression
- Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
- Chronically Disorganized (CD)
- Hoarders
- Students
- Seniors
- Safety Issues
Unit II/Session 10: Your Client and Their Situation
Description: You will be introduced to your client via before pictures and an overview of their situation. This will give you an opportunity to ask lots of questions to prepare yourself for Unit III – the client
practicum.
Unit III: Client Practicum – an entire day spent at your client location with your co-participants (Seminar Only)
Description: This day is focused on putting into action everything you have learned in Day One and Day Two with a real client. This is an energy intensive day where you will demonstrate your learning over the past two days, unique approach to organizing, skills and teamwork. You will leave with increased confidence knowing you have what it takes to work with clients and inspired by the transformation you will make not only in the client’s space but in the client as well.
- Team meets the client and completes the Needs Assessment Questionnaire
- Team creation of the Organizing Plan of Action
- The team will complete every step of the 5 Steps to Organizing® process
- Client Project Debrief
- What did you learn about yourself?
- What fears did you overcome?
- What were you surprised by?
- What would you do differently?
Unit IV: Room by room residential organizing approaches and techniques
Description: Professional Organizer Training™ program provides you with a 5 part series on Room-by-Room Residential Organizing. This series will educate you on the basics of organizing each room of a home including how to apply my 5 Steps to Organizing® process, keep-let go criteria to help you through difficult decisions, 6 challenging stumbling blocks to letting go and how to overcome them, and for each room the typical problems (habits) that cause disorganization, how to create zones, product solutions from budget to extreme, new organizing habits to establish, estimated time for organizing, before/after visuals, and a basic maintenance plan to keep you organized.
Note: Unit IV Sessions are currently offered by Webinar and Self Study only
Unit IV/Session 1: Learning the basics for organizing each room of a home including how to apply the 5 Steps to Organizing® process, keep-let go criteria to help you through difficult client decisions, and 6 difficult stumbling blocks to letting go and how to overcome them.
For Sessions 2-9 we will cover for each room the typical problems (habits) that cause disorganization, how to create zones, product solutions from budget to extreme, new organizing habits to establish, estimated time for organizing, before/after visuals, and a basic maintenance plan to keep you organized.
Unit IV/Session 2: Organizing the kitchen, launching and landing pad, and command central
Unit IV/Session 3: Organizing the home office
Unit IV/Session 4: Organizing the craft room and closets
Unit IV/Session 5: Organizing the garage and other storage areas
Unit IV/Session 6: Organizing the family and media rooms
Unit IV/Session 7: Organizing kid spaces
Unit IV/Session 8: Organizing the bedroom and bathroom
Unit IV/Session 9: Organizing the laundry room
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