My Organizing Business Now Makes $140K/Year [Update]
This is a follow up story for Pretty Neat: An Organizational Solution. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hello! I’m Audra, owner and professional organizer of Pretty Neat: An Organizational Solution in Oklahoma City, Ok. It is great to be back here at Starter Story to catch up in 2024.
Here is a link to our original story we did back in 2022.
Here’s our update with Starter Story in 2023.
Pretty Neat Organizing was started in 2018 and we are still going strong 6 years later. I was in the medical field for over 12 years and the majority of that I was seeing patients in their homes as a physical therapist. I saw a need and noticed how their home environments were really impacting the patient’s quality of life.
Chaos and disorganization contribute to stress, overwhelm, and difficulty physically getting around, as well as, wasted time and money looking for things you know you have but cannot find as well as repurchasing items. We are a service based company, mostly in the residential setting, that helps our clients get organized and simplify their spaces for an improved look and functionality.
Be resilient and don’t give up. Business is hard! Don’t take no for an answer. Not everyone is your ideal client. Find the ones who are.
From one room to an entire home, we can get you organized. Services we offer include: general home organizing with closet and office organizing; we also offer move management services to declutter before a move and unpacking/home set up after your move. Our services are all-inclusive where we try to do as much as we can to take stress off the client and fully meet their goals and expectations for their space.
We help clients:
- Declutter
- Sort/organize
- Source supplies such as bins and baskets
- Implement storage solutions
- Label
- and more
Business in 2018 started out slow but we stayed consistent and we grew over 800% from year 1 to year 2. I knew I had to grow a team if I was going to keep up with the demand.
We grew 800% between year 1 and year 2.
I knew there was a need for this service but we needed to be consistent with getting our brand out there and letting others know how we can help them. Now we have a team of 5 organizers currently, another team member to help with social media and online presence, and support for website maintenance and SEO for outside our company.
We have grown every year for 6 years.
We have grown in revenue each year since 2018. We bring in an average of $12,000 per month currently with our biggest month being around $18,000. Each year we strive to serve clients well and if we can do that and continue to grow each year, then so be it.
We are also proud of:
- 93 and counting 5-star reviews on Google; hoping to get to 100 this year which is a big accomplishment. Thanks to my amazing team of organizers who help make this possible.
- Help contribute to 24 articles and wrote over 80 blogs to help educate and inform how organizing can be life changing in so many ways.
Here are some blogs:
Here are some articles we contributed to:
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Over the last year, business has continued to go well and be consistent but it has also seemed a little different than previous years. I’m not sure if it is the economy and the prices of living currently and that we are more of a luxury service but it has just seemed different in 2024. There have been a little more ups and downs, which is normal in business but a little more drastic when compared to other years. But… this changes this year have also been that our new projects have been much bigger projects that have required more team power and longer hours to complete so it has seemed to balance out things comparatively.
One project that comes to mind was for a large University in Oklahoma, where we got to help organize the University President's Residence on campus. Super fun and cool project! It was one of the biggest, most all-encompassing projects we have ever done. Our entire team got to help and work together for a week before the remodel of the residence and are preparing for phase 2, post remodel, for organizing and home set up at the end of July.
These bigger projects have set us up to compete with and even rival our numbers and revenue for 2024. We will see what the next 6 months brings.
As always, I think our biggest contributor to success is consistency over time. My mindset is it is “a marathon, not a sprint”. In the slow times or the busy times we stay consistent with our message, our content on social media, our blogs, and our commitment to excellence with customer service, communication, and team work to meet our clients’ needs and goals. This is shown the most in our amount of repeat clients that have us back to complete multiple other projects.
Our biggest contributor to success is consistency over time
New things we have tried this year:
- Google ads have helped in the slow times to bring more clients our way.
- Got new help from (Diib.com) updating my website, Google Business page, and SEO to help new customers find us easier. This is a work in progress but we are seeing good results over the last few months. It was time for some of these things to be updated and revamped after 6 years.
- Looking into and exploring non-service based options to diversify our efforts such as selling digital products, organizing supplies, or even an E-book. To be determined where this will lead us.
- Adding new help with professional and consistent blogs/ newsletters with Kate the Socialite
As far as social media followers, we have been consistent in posting and educating our followers but have stayed about the same with the number of followers. This is okay with me. My main objective is to have local, potential clients to know we exist, learn about us, how we can help them, and contact us for in-home services. This is what helps grow our business. If we eventually add many more followers outside this then that will be great but not our most important goal.
Throughout this year, we have stayed steady with our team and not added any new members at this time. With the increased up and down nature of things in a service based business, it made sense to me to keep things the same and not change anything up. Plus, I have learned in previous years that the “right” team members are more important than having more team members. I truly believe that we have a great team right now and we all work together well and are knowledgeable.
The “Right” team members are more important than more team members.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Our biggest challenges this year have been:
- Staying consistent and not getting discouraged in the slower times
- Navigating larger projects than what we have done in the past
- Learning to work with more team members on site at one time
- Nailing down our processes even more so we are all on the same page as a team
- Learning to delegate and get help as the owner and leader of Pretty Neat Instead of continuing to try to do it all myself.
Each year comes with new challenges and allows us to continue to learn and grow in better ways to serve our clients, our team, and even ourselves. This year was no different.
It was a particularly interesting year with unexpected, personal medical challenges arising for me. We had to quickly pivot and have my team help me more. I have been working “on” the business more and than “in” the business recently. Day to day in client’s homes has been less for me recently. This was scary in many ways but also awesome because it showed me that my team could handle the day to day tasks with clients very well. It showed me that our systems and processes work and we continued to see clients throughout this time whether I was able to be there on site or not.
This has given me a new perspective that I wanted but was scared to navigate without a little push. I now know and understand that managing the business better means me not being at client projects every single day. It has given me a new perspective and allowed me to have time to focus on things needed to grow the business and improve it moving forward. This also let me focus on my health struggles, my family, my mental clarity, and prevent burnout as an owner. Burnout is real! And I realized If something did not change, I would not be able to continue long term. I love this business and serving others and want to be able to continue.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
My biggest lessons include:
- Ask for help and focus on what I do best as owner and leader of Pretty Neat
- I continue to learn on a daily basis, I cannot control everything. Focus on what you can control, pray about the rest, and things will fall into place.
- Be resilient and learn to pivot and make changes as needed. If you cannot do this, then your business will fail.
Things I cannot fully control come to mind with Google and with social media.
Google has made some changes with business profiles and with how they manage companies rankings etc. This was tough because our business slowed. This is where we went back to work making changes to our Google profile and our website. Getting new and increased help with SEO. Things are improving with this.
Another thing that happened that was so frustrating and beyond my control is that my personal Facebook account was removed due to hacking and a fraudulent post and therefore I lost access to my business page that was connected and has over 6 years of content.
I have been in a fight to get my account back because my business account is still up and running.This happened in October of 2023 and currently I have not had my access restored. Facebook is very difficult to communicate with but I have tried. I am waiting and praying that something can happen with this. I have done what I can do and will start another business account in the meantime.
Other than this, at Pretty Neat, we take opportunities that are presented to us. We learn, we grow, and I am pleased with how we do things, how we treat others, and how we have thrived as a business.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
Plans in the upcoming year or the next 5 years are the same.
- Be consistent with how we do things, with our brand, and with marketing ourselves and see where business takes us
- Looking and learning more about diversifying with different streams of income and how we can serve clients in other ways beyond service at their homes.
- Hire more team members if necessary as we continue to grow and I think we will. I have set up an application on my page so when we are hiring and in need of a bigger team, I will have people to call on that enjoy and are interested in organizing.
Our vision here at Pretty Neat: An Organizational Solution is to continue to serve clients well. Continuing to gain new clients and have old clients be repeat clients. If we continue to grow that is great but ultimately taking excellent care of our clients is our priority.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
The book called “Who not How” by Dan Sullivan was probably one of the best books I read this year business wise. It discusses how much you try to shoulder alone and how we should have a “who” in every area of our lives to help us meet our goals sooner and with more ease.
A big mindset switch for me was looking at these “who’s” as an investment in clarity, skill, and getting your goals accomplished easier versus a business expense. This message could not have come at a better time. I’m still a work in progress of course but I’m starting to look for help in certain areas that I did not before.
Other things I like to take in:
- Podcasts: Business Made Simple with Donald; How to sell online with Alison J Prince, The Kate Show podcast for the home industry
My likes and what I listen to change from time to time but these are some recent things I have been listening to and trying to learn from.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
My advice to other entrepreneurs that are struggling in business are many things that I have learned over the years and that I am still learning to this day.
- Know your “why” you want to do your business and how you will serve others. What problems do you solve for clients? Focus on this and business will come.
- Be resilient and don’t give up. Business is hard! Don’t take no for an answer. Not everyone is your ideal client. Find the ones who are.
- Surround yourself with people who have knowledge and can give advice or help where you are weak
- Don’t do everything on your own. Get help. It is an investment in your company, yourself, and usually accomplishing goals better than you could have on your own.
- Do things scared. This has been my motto from the beginning and is very uncomfortable at times for someone who likes to have a plan and all the answers ahead of time. I believe the only way to grow a business is to learn by doing. You can read or listen to all the things you should do but putting things into practice is the real test of if it will work for you and your business.
- Be constantly learning, improving, and growing.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are not currently looking to hire at this time but I always love to hear from others that like to organize and that are interested in working with us. You can learn more about our team at this link.
Our current team are contract workers and are paid hourly for their work to help with projects and in-home client hours. We have a team of 5 currently that are organized including myself and may need more help in the future but for now I am loving our team, their hard work, and the outcomes on our projects.
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
