Celebrating 20 years in business – How we grew from a one-woman show to a robust team of 17.
Fresh off the boat after living in the former soviet union for 9 years, we moved to New York City. My kids were in grade school at the time and I was looking for a part time job. I had a friend who casually mentioned that professional organizing was becoming ‘a thing’. My kids were in a small school where parents had to volunteer their time. The school admin asked me to organize the school supply attic which was a disaster area of school supplies. Within a few weeks, I had it organized with labeled containers and shelving. I donated my time to the school’s silent auction and from that winning bidder, a business was born.
I had a few wonderful clients in New York but within a couple of years, we moved to the Philadelphia area and I decided to take on a few clients while completing my undergraduate degree at Penn. My life took a drastic turn when I went through a divorce and found myself financially struggling with no college degree and realistically no way to support myself. I fast tracked my college career and thought I was going to go into publishing only to realize the only job I could get was an entry level job that at 43 years old wouldn’t support me and my kids.
It was then I decided to give my professional organizing career a chance. I told myself that I’d try to make a go of it for a couple of years and if I couldn’t make it succeed, well surely someone would hire me with my fancy ivy league diploma! The rest is history as they say. I also realized that the professional was tailor made for me. I love helping people and I also love the challenge of growing a business and working with a team. Within a couple of years, I had more clients than I could take on myself and I would hire my first couple of employees. It then snowballed, more employees meant more clients who told other clients and we simply experienced a snowball effect.
As the team got larger, we were able to take on increasingly larger projects which is how we got into move management and then senior move management. Having moved myself every 3 years on average over the previous 25 years, I understood the stress and challenges of moving. Move management is now more than half of what we do at The Organizing Professionals. I consider myself incredibly fortunate. I love what I do. We have the most amazing team and If you’d have told me 20 years ago, I’d be running a thriving business that had helped well over 1,000 clients, I wouldn’t have believed it.
The featured photo is our team celebrating at a Philadelphia Phillies game!