Episode 5: Organizing for Growth with Liz Jenkins
Liz Jenkins has a knack not just for organizing other people’s stuff, but putting the time and effort into organizing her own business for sustained growth.
Jenkins is a certified professional organizer, and started her business A Fresh Space in 2005 in Franklin, Tennessee. Yes, she was a solopreneur at the time.
Over the last 13 years, Liz has grown her business into a successful 12-person company, focusing on residential organizing, move management and business consulting. They have recently added a handyman division. Her National Association of Productivity and Organizing professionals contributions include chairing the 2015 NAPO conference in L.A, speaking at several NAPO conferences including the Ask The Organizer panel and a breakout session, nearly every board position in NAPO Nashville, and is currently the chair of the special interest groups.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Insights on growing your business from solopreneur to multi-person company
- How staffing frees you up to improve processes AND gets jobs done faster – happy you, happy client
- Factoring in profit from employee labor as well as project costs
- Growing a business means doing what you do well and learning to delegate the rest
- Why trying something, making mistakes and learning is far superior to standing still
- Facing and addressing those things in your business that scare you
- Tips on managing and offering perks for part-time employees
- Why it’s ok to post pricing so potential clients know what they are getting into
- How to avoid spinning your wheels on things that don’t increase customer satisfaction or the bottom line
The Golden Nuggets:
“I realized I loved organizing, but I loved running my company more. I love managing my team and looking at ways to make my company successful, more than I actually love organizing.” – Liz Jenkins
“When I saw that I was scaling small – taking smaller projects that I could manage on my own – when my clients would be asking for something larger scale – I could either be there for days tackling the big project, or I could grow my personnel to scale up to client demand.” – Liz Jenkins
”What you’re doing is, you’re setting the stage. I can work more jobs, I can send employees independently to make money without me, and now you’re growing your client base.” – Liz Jenkins
“I think we do a really good job, but I also recognize that we always need to reevaluate. We reevaluate things all the time and I really encourage people to not be afraid of that.” – Liz Jenkins
“With pricing I want to make sure that they are very aware of the project scope – how long it will take, and how much it will cost. When I’m communicating with a client, I want them to see it on the website, I want them to know what the pricing is going to look like.” – Liz Jenkins
“When I first started organizing, it was really, really hard for me to talk about money. Really hard. I would avoid it, but then a client would get an invoice and be surprised by something. So get comfortable talking about the money!” – Liz Jenkins
“Often, as organizers, we become such perfectionists that I think we spend too much time spinning our wheels on stuff that really doesn’t impact the client’s satisfaction or our bottom line.” – Liz Jenkins
“Don’t be afraid to reach out to clients. You really have to reach out and be comfortable with it. If something’s not right, give them the opportunity to tell you, so you can fix it quickly.” – Liz Jenkins
“Going with your gut means recognizing if something’s not working and then changing it so that it does work and not being afraid of that.” – Liz Jenkins
“Too many of us fly by the seat of our pants, where every day it’s like everything’s new again. You can’t grow if that is how you’re running your business. You cannot. You need to implement good policies and procedures. You need to invest in things like project management software.” – Liz Jenkins