Organizing & Downsizing: The Perfect Business Duo – Take Two

What makes a great business succeed?  Is it the type of services a business provides?  Is it the people bringing that service to the customer?

These are the questions that today’s entrepreneurs tackle every day, especially in the topsy-turvy economic world we’ve experienced in the past few years.  But there will always be businesses that can and will, survive the bumps and challenges during difficult times.

“The key to any business’s survival is its flexibility of vision”

I believe the key to any business’s survival is its flexibility of vision. Its adaptability is based on the awareness of its customer’s shifting needs.  

The business also needs to maintain a list of services or products that allow them to both sell consistently and stay profitable throughout the year.  That often means creating a service menu with a blend of related products or services that peak in popularity at different times of the year.

The Difference Combining Organizing and Downsizing Made In My Business

When I started my home organizing and senior downsizing business over 14 years ago, I didn’t fully appreciate this concept.  However, it didn’t take long for me to realize my business’s service activity had specific patterns. While some were fairly consistent throughout the year, others had peaks and valleys.

For instance, organizing services seemed to start to ramp up in January. My guess is that it’s due to all the fresh attempts at New Year’s resolutions to become clutter-free.  But that would start to drop off during the summer, re-emerging again in the fall and disappearing entirely over the November-December holiday months.

Downsizing, on the other hand, would start to warm up in February, then steadily increase in steam throughout the spring and summer months, culminating in late October. Of course, life doesn’t always follow the calendar.  Sometimes, we would get panicked calls during the holiday period for an emergency transition because a senior had a sudden life change.

Over time, I realized the perfect compatibility between the two business models.  When one business would become slower, the other would increase, allowing a more consistent level of income throughout the year.

One Supports The Other

Of course, the other benefit to combining these two businesses is that organizing is a critical service component to the overall execution of a downsizing move. 

Pre-move organizing is essential to the overall success of a downsizing move by ensuring the clients are realistic about what they are taking.

Helping a client evaluate, purge and dispose of unwanted items early in the downsizing process makes it less stressful for them. They aren’t waiting until the last minute to make hard decisions. It also saves the client money by reducing the number of items being moved and helps downsizing crews expedite the packing process.

Organizing skills also come in handy during the unpacking phase. Despite days of purging, a client still often brings too many items to their new home.  The client also feels re-settled more quickly when they know things are largely in place by the end of the move day.

The Overall Benefits of Organizing

Organizing skills, then, are key to creating, maintaining, and executing downsizing move strategies throughout the transition process.  For instance, knowing how to evaluate a space, then effectively create a furniture space plan in advance, can ward off unpleasant surprises on move day.

So, if you are considering starting a senior downsizing business OR a home organizing business, give some serious thought to offering BOTH services as part of your business plan.

These amazing businesses truly are a marriage made in heaven. 

You’ll also find that clients that initially hire you for the downsizing side, will tend to broaden their service needs to incorporate more organizing hours and vice versa.   I’ve had clients who I initially provided organizing services for, call me back later for other services.

In addition, I’ve had families that initially wanted to handle the move for their parents. Once they saw how much easier it was with professional help, they ended up hiring me for additional services.

If I had only advertised downsizing services, I would have lost that business initially because the family wouldn’t have known that I was willing to serve in other aspects of the overall transition process.

But There’s More…

One last benefit is that offering general home organizing can widen your client base. After all, there’s no age restriction to people needing to de-clutter which gives you a higher potential for new business when the downsizing season is slower.

I do a much bigger dive on these types of service packaging strategies in my Senior Downsizing Specialist Training Program training, so if you would like to know more about the wide range of tips, tools, and resources included in the program, check out my business training programs by clicking here.

Already have an active organizer business and are interested in adding senior downsizing services to your business structure? I created a quick mini-course just for you that shows you the 7 benefits of adding senior downsizing to your existing business service menu. Check it out by clicking here.

Deborah

Have more questions about starting a new organizing or senior downsizing business? Book a FREE 20-minute consult with me by clicking here!