Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

As I was sitting at my messy, messy desk the other day it occured to me that I would pay someone to clean and organize my cubicle.  (Though I have a home based business--  RooKaps.com, I also work during the day full time).  Actually my home office is a mess too!

I offered my co-worker who keeps an immaculately organized work area $25 to do the same for my space.  Then I was flashed with a light bulb moment-- I bet a lot a lot of folks would be willing to pay to have someone organize their desks/offices. 

Home organization is big  business now.  I`m willing to bet that work area orginazation could take off too. 

The stumbling blocks I could see with this is tackling mounds of paper, ie., not knowing what was important and what was trashable.  Also, I envisioned going in and providing the right organizing holders and containers -- how would that be paid for or ordered?

I am really thinking about pursuing this. I have spoken with my co-worker (she is a real Martha Stewart type).  If I drum up the business and get this off the ground she is willing to provide the know how and labor.

Your thoughts please..

-------------------------

Charlotte Terry
RooKaps -- USB Replacement Caps


http://www.RooKaps.com

There are people who do this -- for both home and office. Your success will depend on your marketing and ability to make the sale.

Don`t bet the farm on guesses... get out there and do the due diligence needed. Find out the full breath and depth of your possible market before you take one more step. No point planning something that will not sell.

Once you find a sufficient market, come back for steps 2 to 31.

Good luck!

Nick
BAM

The big problems are twofold, in my opinion. The main one being whether the organizer has a clue what`s in all that paper. The secondary one being that some people are "position-" or "spatially-oriented." In other words, they know what things are and remember those things by the position in space.

Although some people might pay to have their work-area organized, I`m not convinced this would be a viable business. It`s not like organizing a house or garage.

Impossible to organize someone else`s workplace. It will look good but the person that works there wouldn`t have a clue as to where anything is. 

Dont listen to some of these people as they haven`t evaluated the whole picture or are not familiar with the areas that need organization.

As part of lean manufacturing (a hot topic nowadays - look it up for more info) one very major step is called 5s.  It has to do with organizing a manufacturing floor to improve efficiency.  You will find this concept to work in any and every office with only the implementation changing.  When these people mention "work area" they are very narrow minded to think that this term is limited to a desk with a stack of papers.  There is much more to work areas than just a desk.  Engineers have a bench, assemblers have a bench or multiple benches, machine shops have toolboxes, tool benches, and work benches. By giving someone an area to organize there items (papers, tools, etc), you have helped them with their organization problem while letting THEM do the organizing.  The other sticking part is most offices will NOT let you organize their papers (not that you should anyway) due to confidentiality (we sure wouldn`t let you).

There is a lot of money to be made in this type of consulting but there is also a large barrier to entry.  You must have a ROCK solid reputation with lots of quality references.

Hope that helped!

Like I said, do the market research FIRST!

Like I mentioned in another post that, with some tolerance for a little duplication, I`ll repeat it here for your benefit Rookaps:

1. Find a hot, HUNGRY target market.
2. Find out what they already want and are already buying.
3. Sell them more of the SAME.
4. Keep doing it until they won`t buy any more.
5. Go back to step 1.

Nick

Organizing a public space like a manufacturing floor isn`t at all related to organizing a private space like an office cubicle. Not to mention issues of legal privacy, sensitive documents, security, and that type of thing.

Then you have the problems of corporate archiving and filing, where someone leaves a job and the company still needs to know what they were working on, where in the process they were, and what`s on the "to do" list.