The Business of Uncluttering
For years,
would-be entrepreneurs have been advised to "find a need and fill
it." Sometimes those needs are hiding in plain sight. A couple of
summers ago, I decided to spend time uncluttering my life. I planned to
go through every file, drawer and closet and get rid of anything that
no longer seemed useful or fit my current lifestyle. If I told people
what I was doing, there was an almost unanimous response. "When you're
done would you come to my house and start in on my stuff?" I was
repeatedly asked. Clutter, it seems, is a nuisance that afflicts nearly
every one of us.
Helping others
get clutter under control is, it would appear, an opportunity whose time
has come. The motivations for leading a less cluttered life are varied.
Some people hope that more order will lead to increased serenity and efficiency;
the environmentally conscious are motivated by eliminating human wastefulness;
for others, a life transition means a change in priorities and reassessment
of their material wants and needs. Whatever the reason, living a less
cluttered life may require the services of others to bring about the order
and balance we seem to crave. If organizing is a strong point of yours
or you share concerns about a crowded planet, creating a business that
helps make a dent in the problem may be a natural for you.
Reduce.
Forty years ago, efficiency experts were all the rage. The new version
of that occupation is the professional organizer. Although most organizers
develop a specialty (i.e., law offices, home offices, personal environments),
their aims are similar: to bring order out of chaos, to help their clients
work and live more efficiently, and to reduce the accumulated clutter.
How does one
get started as a professional organizer? Michele Hockersmith, owner of
Creative Business Consulting International, says she began offering this
service because it came naturally to her and it also fit in with the other
services her business offers to small and home based start-ups. Eventually,
she developed a very intentional science that she uses to help clients
systemize both the tangible and intangible aspects of their business. Hockersmith emphasizes that she does not impose a system on her clients;
rather, she watches a person to get a sense of their own natural organizing
process and then fits the system around the client. The result is an organizing
system that makes sense to the client and is easy to implement and maintain.
Whether it's
a business or a home that's being organized, being a professional organizer
involves a twofold approach. Initially, the organizer's work may be hands-on
— sorting, purging, filing. The client also needs to be involved
in the process and educated about keeping order once the consultant has
gone.
Reuse.
There's another huge opportunity growing from our desire to live less
cluttered lives. Reselling unwanted or unused items is an increasingly
popular enterprise. Clothing, books and antiques have long been the staples
of consignment sellers. In our Reuse It culture, the idea of reselling
items has taken on a wider scope. Toys, computers, records and compact
discs, as well as sporting goods are showing up in stores devoted to selling
previously owned goods.
Christine
Fontaine ran a consignment shop for home furnishings. Her funky and eclectic
store acquired inventory in a variety of ways. One source was what Fontaine
called "decorator faux pas," meaning special-order furniture
that didn't work out in the space for which it was intended. She also
stocked samples from sales reps, as well as goods purchased from the general
public. "I aim for furniture that is too good for garage sales,"
she says. Also unique to her shop were handcrafted decorative items made
by local artisans who recycled materials to create new and beautiful things
for the home.
Another variation
of this type of business are those which specialize in organizing and
holding estate and/or household sales. The key to success in this kind
of business seems to be having a tight focus, both in merchandise and
market. Although eclectic antique and junk stores are still popular, reselling
merchandise with a newer history seems to work best when the product line
is narrow and clearly defined — such as baby goods or exercise equipment.
And, of course,
eBay has made this an easy profit center for anyone to start.
Recycle.
While most of us think of recycling as being environmentally responsible,
businesses devoted to recycling the throwaway clutter of our lives are
also enjoying renewed popularity. A story on the evening news featured
two college-aged brothers who started a business recycling newspapers
after their community program was abolished. Using rental trucks to pick
up the papers and hiring college friends to staff the business, the brothers
are earning thousands of dollars weekly, in part because the price of
newspaper has skyrocketed from $20/ton to $150/ton. At the same time,
their business fills a necessary void in community service.
The new interest
in environmentally conscious businesses is reflected in a poll that cited
that a third of all Americans said they would buy recycled products if
they had the opportunity. As more people rethink their buying habits and
experiment with simpler ways of living, the market for used and recycled
goods continues to expand. There's also a growing opportunity for inventors
and entrepreneurs to apply principles of sound environmental management
and saner technologies to their work. This, too, opens the door to numerous
new business possibilities.
So whether
you're a committed environmentalist or a person who wants to relieve the
stress caused by clutter, finding your business niche should be easy —
at least until we have the entire planet cleaned up and running smoothly.
There's
more where this came from.
Order Winning Ways now!
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