Born to Organize Everything You Need to Know About a Career As a Professional Organizer

Born to Organize Everything You Need to Know About a Career As a Professional Organizer

Written by veteran organizer Sara Pedersen, this book will answer all your questions about the amazing career of professional organizing and guide you through the process of starting your own organizing business. This book is designed to give prospective and new professional organizers the inside scoop on today’s organizing industry. Its easy-to-read style will answer all your questions about this amazing career. SARA GUIDES YOU through the process of starting your own organizing business, teaching you fundamental lessons and clarifying expectations. As you read this book, you’ll: Review talent, skill, & education recommendations + Set salary & time commitment expectations + Understand your clients’ clutter tendencies + Walk through a typical client assessment & organizing session + Learn affordable, business-boosting marketing ideas + Get the inside scoop on personal & business safety + Identify a variety of small business resources + Uncover donation resources for your clients’ cast-offs + Give yourself an advantage over other new organizers. THE BOOK ALSO INCLUDES: stores that carry great organizing products; donation resources; sample assessment form, press release, announcement letter, coupons; and more! ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Veteran Professional Organizer Sara Pedersen has offered hands-on organizing assistance for countless Twin Cities residents. She helps them organize, simplify, and discover time to do the things they love. She also coaches new and prospective professional organizers and offers marketing services and products for small business owners.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Best guide
When I first started of thinking of putting together a Professional Organizing business I went looking for books to study . One of my fist choices was Sara’s book and amazingly the only one that I read completely and find myself going back all the time to references. Besides that this girl really knows what she’s doing .Her website is AMAZING and her follow up to. Now that I have my business ready to go I hope to be successful as Sara on day .

Thank you for everything …

5 Stars I’m so glad I found this gem of a book!
I love, love, love this book! What a valuable resource. Born to Organize covers not only the business start-up necessities, but also the nitty-gritty of client interaction. I’ve read the other “how to become a PO” books out there, but this is the only one that really tells how to work with clients. From the first phone call, to the contract to send out, to the assessment, to the actual client organizing sessions, this book shares all the details.

I was most worried about the actual “working with clients” part of the job. Thankfully, Born to Organize outlines an intuitive and effective organizing process to guide me through my client time. It’s so easy to use, and I look and feel professional now that I understand how to best help my clients. I was able to jump into my first session with no problem.

I’m so glad the author included a bunch of Sticky Client Scenarios. Now I’m not so scared of running into weird problems with clients. I feel comfortable that I can handle whatever comes my way thanks to this book.

The in-depth marketing advice is helpful. Even with a low marketing budget, it’s easy to figure out what to do to find clients (or rather, help them find me!) Most small business owners lack marketing know-how, so this book gives some (50 actually) great marketing ideas.

From what to wear when I visit clients, to how much to charge, to what to take along in my bag, it’s all in there. I found it a great value that will help me in years to come. (Honestly, I spend more than that on lattes in a week or a meal out, so this book is beyond a steal. It was like having a mentor right there beside me, all for under[..]) I like that the author sent me an e-mail after I bought the book. It was a personal touch and made me feel like I had a place to turn with questions. (And yes, she did respond to my e-mail. Wow!) Keep it up. Love it!

1 Star Not enough details to be helpul for me
I am quite disappointed with this book. After reading the reviews, I expected it to be helpful and insightful, especially since it was so much more expensive than most of the others. Frankly, I think it would be more effective as a brochure. It is short: 100 pages, MOST of which have tons of white space. It is overly simplistic: I was looking for details, checklists, specifics, etc and what I got was general introductory ideas to lots of important topics but none of the actual meat. I kept looking for great suggestions that I could highlight for future reference and never found any – it was all too vague and simple.

If you spend thirty minutes shared between the results of a Google search on “how to be a professional organizer” and the NAPO web site, you’ll know just as much as you will after spending thirty bucks on this book.

My suggestion would be to skip this book and buy Dawn Noble’s book, How to Start a Home-Based Professional Organizing Business, (which I bought at the same time). Noble’s book has all the details you could want and covers many more topics in much more depth – at half the price. It was significantly more helpful.

One other thought: before Pederson’s book even arrived, I got an email from the author (why the heck does she have my email address, first of all). Her email was of the “thanks for buying my book, let me tell you a little about myself” genre. In her email, she spent plenty of time telling me about the services she offers (for a fee) to help new professional organizers. I thought it was a little odd but I just deleted it and moved on. Then when I got the book, and finished reading it (which took about two hours), I realized that I didn’t really get very many answers in the book and I had an aha moment: does the author use this book as a front to sell her services to train new POs? I’m not sure that she does, but if feels a little fishy to me.

Noble’s book (mentioned above) does none of this. She gives answers, real tips and complete step-by-step advice. I wish I had saved my money and only bought the Noble book.

4 Stars Very Simplistic
This book is very easy to read, understand and is visually appealing. However it was too simplistic for me. I already own my own personal assistant/concierge business but wanted to just focus on the decluttering and organization part. Everything in this book, I pretty much already knew. But if you are new to this profession or are thinking of starting your own business, this book is for you. Sara’s writing style is like she is in the room talking to you. Lots of good ideas.

5 Stars just what I needed
incredible book.I bought it beacuse of all the books out there on ‘organizing’ this one had 12 5 star reviews. Just got it to- day and can see that THIS is what I need to be confident that I will be able to do a great job by following the guidelines.Thank you Sara

Buy/More Info