If someone has decided they might want to work with you, you don’t want to make it difficult for them to get in touch. At the same time, you probably don’t want to spend your time going back and forth with someone who hasn’t provided enough information for you to determine whether you can help them.

A well-designed Contact page can do both jobs. It makes it easy for potential clients to reach you while giving you the information you need to respond appropriately.

Here are some things to consider when creating or updating your Contact page.

Make It Easy to Contact You

Even if you display your phone number and/or email address in your header or footer, prospective clients who don’t spend much time online may not think to look there. Instead, they may look for the word “Contact” in your menu.

Your Contact page should include all of the ways you are willing to be reached. This may include:

Phone Numbers

As a general rule, you only need to list your primary phone number, but if you have separate numbers for different locations or departments, it makes sense to list those as well.

If your phone is only answered during regular business hours, your potential clients will probably appreciate knowing your schedule.

Email Addresses

As in the case of phone numbers, you can either display a central email address only, or provide email addresses for each department, as shown on the Professional Organizers of Canada website.

When you publish your email address online, be aware that you are exposing it to spammers. If you’d rather not publish your email address, a contact form is another option – more on that below.

Other Options

These days, we’re not restricted to the traditional methods of communication. If you welcome inquiries via text, WhatsApp, or other online channels, these can also be listed on your Contact page.

• Text
• WhatsApp or another messaging app
• Social media
• Booking link, if you use one

Tell People Where and When You Work

Be sure to list your geographic service area and whether you offer virtual services.

If you work within a specific geographic area, let prospective clients know where you provide services.

If clients visit your location, provide the address, directions, parking information, and hours if appropriate.

Use a Contact Form to Get the Information You Need

As mentioned above, a form allows potential clients to contact you without the need to publicize your email address. That’s not the main benefit, however.

You’ve probably received emails along the lines of “I would like to know more about your services.” With no information about the client’s situation, requirements, location or budget, you have no choice but to email them back with questions. It may take several emails back and forth to actually schedule an appointment or to simply discover that it’s not a good fit.

A contact form streamlines the process by allowing you to ask key questions up front, even if it’s as simple as “When is the best time to call you?” Well-worded questions also help the client to explain their needs more effectively.

What Should You Ask on Your Contact Form?

Depending on your business, you might ask for:

• Name and email
• Location/service area
• What they need help with
• Type of project
• Preferred method and time for contacting them
• Anything else that’s genuinely useful to you

Don’t Ask Too Many Questions

Don’t make the mistake of asking so many questions that people get frustrated or feel that you’re being intrusive. Avoid asking for information you don’t actually need before responding to the message.

Make It Clear What Happens Next

I think we’ve all filled out a form and wondered when we would hear back. Don’t make your potential clients wonder! Let them know:

• When they can expect a response
• How you’ll contact them
• What happens after the initial inquiry

You might also provide links to relevant FAQs or service information.

My Preferred Form Plugin for WordPress

There are many tools available, both free and paid, to create contact forms. My favorite is the Gravity Forms form builder plugin for WordPress, which I’ve been using for over 10 years.

Most form plugins will allow you to create your own questions, but Gravity Forms has many features which set it apart from most of the others. Here are a few creative ways you can use it:

• Set up a custom thank you page that comes up after someone completes the form. This is a great way to engage them by directing them to other important content on your site, promoting a special offer, or inviting them to follow you on social media.
• When someone completes the form, invite them to join your mailing list. If they give the required consent and submit the form, their information can be sent automatically to Mailchimp, Kit, or another email marketing service. If you enable double-opt, they’ll receive a confirmation email and be added to your list after they confirm their subscription.
• Set up conditional fields, causing different questions to appear based on their answers. For example, on my Organizer Interview Questionnaire, newer organizers who have been in business less than 3 years will see different questions than those with more experience.
• Create automated and customized emails to be generated after a form is completed, with unique messages going to you, the person who filled out the form, and/or other team members who may need to reply or take other action.
• Collect payment through PayPal, Stripe, or another online payment system.
• Create a poll and allow participants to view the results.

Some of these features are available with the Basic license, while others require a Pro or Elite license. For example, payment integrations and some advanced add-ons are available at higher license levels. Check the Gravity Forms pricing page for the latest details.

For an additional cost, there are also tons of add-ons created by other developers.

GravityView is an add-on I’ve found very useful because it allows you to display information from form entries on your site in many unique ways. Since I started using it for the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, it has saved me many hours of copying and pasting!

Check out the GravityView demo to see some of the other possibilities.

Keep Your Contact Page Up to Date

Your Contact page has a very important job. No matter how well you describe the benefits of using your services, if people can’t reach you, what’s the point?

Once or twice a year, review your Contact page and make sure all the information is still accurate and any links still work.

At the same time, test your form to confirm that the automated emails go out as intended and that the wording is still the message you want to send. Test it on mobile as well as a computer.

If you use a scheduler, test it too.

Don’t Make Your Contact Page Do Too Much

You don’t need a complicated Contact page to make it effective. The goal is simply to make it easy for the right people to get in touch and to collect enough information to make that first conversation useful.

Photo by AndreyPopov / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read What to Include on Your Organizing Business Contact Page and join the conversation.

Use This Playbook to Stay Profitable

When organizing work is one of the first “nice-to-haves” clients pause during uncertainty, you don’t need more hustle, you need a tighter plan. Use this five-part playbook to protect cash flow, keep clients close, and stay flexible without scrambling.

1. Lock in a simple cost floor (and protect it weekly): List your non‑negotiables for delivering sessions: travel, supplies, admin time, and any subcontractor help. Then calculate a “minimum profitable hour” and stop discounting below it. If you want to offer relief pricing, shorten scope instead (example: a 3‑hour reset instead of a full-day package). Track your gross profit margin monthly so you can spot rising costs early and adjust pricing or packages before profit disappears.
2. Build a 90-day forecast you can actually update: Open a simple spreadsheet with three lines: booked revenue, likely revenue (warm leads), and fixed expenses. Set a 20-minute weekly review to update it and decide one action for the week (follow-up block, promo for an underbooked day, or expense pause). Add “trigger points” like “if next month is under 60% booked, shift to lighter packages and run a reactivation campaign.” This is financial forecasting that keeps you proactive, not reactive.
3. Make retention automatic with a client care cadence: Most client retention methods fail because they rely on memory. Set a routine: a 48‑hour post-session check-in, a 30‑day maintenance nudge, and a 90‑day seasonal refresh invite. Give clients a clear “maintenance menu” (1-hour tune-up, closet swap, paper reset) so continuing feels easy, and remind them that small sessions prevent expensive backslides.
4. Diversify services without diluting your brand: Service diversification works best when it’s still “you,” just delivered differently. Brainstorm add-ons and lighter offers that solve the same problems: virtual coaching, photo-based follow-ups, pre-move decluttering plans, or a “reset sprint” for high-stress areas like kitchens and entryways. Keep it tight: pilot one new offer for 30 days, track conversion rate, and keep only what’s profitable and repeatable.
5. Run your business like a flexible system, not a fixed plan: Use adaptive business strategies by setting a stable direction (who you serve, what outcomes you promise) and adjusting tactics as conditions change, pricing, packages, scheduling, and marketing messages. A practical way to do this is to use traditional frameworks for your core plan while leaning on adaptive adjustments when new information shows up (like sudden lead slowdowns or shifts in client priorities). Decide in two-week “sprints,” review results, and refine, fast.

Strengthen Business Fundamentals to Decide Calmly Under Pressure

When your profitability plan is clear, the next advantage is making decisions with steady confidence when conditions change fast. As markets evolve, local organizing businesses do best when the owner understands the fundamentals: finance, operations, and organizational strategy. Financial literacy helps you read what’s really happening in the business, operational know-how helps you run efficiently, and strategic thinking helps you choose priorities without second-guessing every move when uncertainty spikes. One credible path is earning a business degree, where you can build skills in accounting, business, communications, or management. If your schedule is already full, online business degrees can make it easier to keep working full-time while staying on track with your studies.

Listen → Partner → Share → Improve

This workflow turns community engagement into a repeatable habit, not a random burst of networking. It helps you keep demand steadier by staying close to what people need, who can refer you, and what message is landing right now.

Each stage feeds the next: listening sharpens your focus, focus makes partnerships easier, and partnerships give your marketing momentum. When you document what works and review it weekly, small tweaks compound into ongoing client relationships.

Questions Organizing Owners Ask in Uncertain Times

Q: What if people stop paying for organizing when money feels tight?

A: Many clients do not stop, they switch to smaller, outcome-focused help. Offer a “quick reset” session, a maintenance plan, or a single problem area package so clients can choose a comfortable step. It also helps to position organizing as stress reduction and time recovery, not a luxury.

Q: How do I adapt my services without confusing my audience?

A: Keep one core promise and adjust the format, not your identity. Update one signature offer and one clear result, then test it for two weeks with simple messaging. Let inquiries and objections tell you what to refine.

Q: What does risk management look like for a small organizing business?

A: Start by naming your top risks, like fewer leads, cancellations, or higher supply costs. Using quantitative risk analysis, you can score likelihood and impact so you tackle the biggest threats first. Then choose one safeguard, like a deposit policy or a referral partner pipeline.

Q: Can a community-based model really help me scale during uncertainty?

A: Yes, because the community can lower your marketing burden and raise trust faster than cold outreach. Still, community builders closing doors shows many groups are getting more selective, so lead with usefulness and consistent touchpoints. Host a small monthly Q and A, then invite people into a paid mini-series when demand is clear.

Q: When should I raise prices versus add lower-cost options?

A: Raise prices when your calendar is consistently full and your results are strong and repeatable. Add lower-cost options when you need more entry points, like a 60-minute consult or a digital checklist. Either way, be transparent about what each tier delivers.

Commit to One 30-Day Shift for Steadier Organizing Revenue

Economic swings can make even solid organizing businesses question what to cut, what to keep, and how to stay visible without burning out. The steadier path is a growth mindset backed by organizational adaptability, community-driven growth, and business owner empowerment, then turning insight into implementation commitment. When that approach becomes a habit, decisions get clearer, cash flow gets less reactive, and confidence returns. Small, consistent commitments create stability when the market feels unstable.

Photo by David Gyung / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read How Organizing Businesses Can Thrive Through Economic Changes and join the conversation.

Backups

Backing up your site regularly is most important, because if anything goes wrong, the backup can usually be restored to bring everything back to the way it was. If you don’t already have a backup system in place, you need to get on that as soon as possible.

Set up a backup system using a WordPress plugin or third-party service. Backup services may also be available with your hosting plan, either as a standard feature or paid add-on. (It’s included with my Hosting Plans – schedule a meeting to see if we’re a good fit!)

Make sure your system allows you to schedule automated backups. I recommend daily backups for most sites, more for active ecommerce sites or blogs. An old backup won’t do you much good if it doesn’t include your latest changes, blog posts, or sales from your ecommerce store.

It’s also advised to run a manual backup before you make any changes to your site.

It’s essential that you know how to restore a backup, in case you don’t like the changes you’ve made or if anything goes wrong. You just never know when a plugin update will create a conflict with your theme or another plugin, causing certain functions or features to stop working, or bringing your site down entirely.

WordPress Updates

I recommend logging into your WordPress dashboard every week to deal with any notifications or other messages. This will usually include plugin updates, and may include theme updates, WordPress core updates, or notices of other actions to be taken. If you’re not sure what something means, ask someone before you start clicking on random links.

Before updating a plugin, theme, or WordPress itself, make sure you have a current backup. For important sites, you may also want to check whether the update has any known compatibility issues before installing it. At the same time, review the front end of your site to make sure everything still displays correctly. This is especially important after running updates.

If anything is going to take more time than you’ve scheduled in your weekly routine, add it to your task list or hire a pro to look after it for you.

Unused Plugins/Themes

Inactive plugins and themes can be a security risk. Clean them up!

Security

A good security plugin is your first line of defense. Regular scans can help identify and fix security issues before the unthinkable happens.

Users

Limit admin access to those who truly need it, and remove any users who no longer require access to your dashboard.

Forms

Test regularly to make sure people can submit the form and that you receive any email notifications.

Remove unused forms to streamline your dashboard.

Mobile Responsiveness

With more and more people using phones and tablets to access the Internet, having a mobile-friendly site is essential.

Don’t assume your website still looks good on phones just because it did when you first launched it. Check your key pages periodically on a phone, paying particular attention to navigation, forms, buttons, images and text size.

Links and Navigation

Ensure a smooth user experience by making sure all links go where they’re supposed to, whether it’s a page on your site or an external site.

Broken links are frustrating for website visitors and can even harm your SEO ranking, so it’s a good idea to check them once a month.

Performance

Slow loading times can frustrate visitors and harm your SEO. This problem is often caused by web hosting limitations and/or uploading large photos. If your site seems slower than it used to be, investigate rather than simply adding another performance plugin.

Site Health

Sometimes the Site Health screen in your dashboard reveals issues not listed above. These often have to do with your hosting service and may or may not be critical.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to keep an eye on, but you don’t have to deal with everything at once. A regular review of your website can help you catch small problems before they turn into bigger ones.

If you’re not sure how to check something or how to resolve an issue you find, don’t simply ignore it. Ask someone who knows WordPress, or hire a professional to take care of it for you.

Although Benjamin Franklin didn’t know anything about WordPress, he had a point when he said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Photo by scanrail / Depositphotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Is Your WordPress Website Healthy? A Simple Maintenance Checklist and join the conversation.

For the next Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, I’m looking for ways to simplify the things that take up our time, energy, and attention.

You might write about a change you’ve made in your own life or business, a strategy you recommend to clients, a simple approach to an organizing challenge, or practical ideas for making something less complicated.

For example, you could write about:

• Eliminating unnecessary steps from a process
• Simplifying a home or office organizing project
• Making digital files, email, or other technology easier to manage
• Rethinking routines, systems, or habits
• Helping clients simplify their spaces, schedules, or businesses
• A tool or technique that makes an everyday task easier
• Knowing what to stop doing, delegate, or let go of

The change can be big or small. The important thing is to share something that might help someone else to simplify everything.

This is a fabulous opportunity to grow your network and bring new traffic to your blog! Many contributors return month after month, earning special ranks like Star, Superstar, Megastar, or even Ultimate Star Blogger. Check out a few past editions to see the kind of posts that get featured.

Here’s how to participate:

• Write a blog post on this month’s topic. Already have one? Great- most of your work is done!
• Submit your post using the form at the end of this page by 11:59 PM ET on Wednesday, October 14th.
• Once the Blog Carnival goes live, I’ll email you the link so you can check out all the great submissions and get ready for comments, shares, and new connections!

Still wondering if it’s worth it? Read what Ultimate Star Blogger Linda Samuels has to say in The Wonderful Benefits of Participating in Blog Carnivals.

Know another blogger with insights on organizing or productivity? Please invite them to contribute too! Participating in the Blog Carnival helps everyone grow their reach and connect with new readers.

Before you submit your post, please review the submission guidelines below.

Guidelines:

1. You may submit a post you’ve published on your own blog, written as a guest on someone else’s blog, or hosted as a guest post on your site.
2. Multiple entries are welcome if your site features posts by different authors – just make sure each submission has a unique author.
3. All submissions must relate to the theme Simplify Everything.
4. Submission deadline is 11:59 pm ET on Wednesday, October 14th.
5. Please use the form below to submit your post.

The Blog Carnival will be published on Thursday, October 15th, 2026.

That’s all you need to know! Thanks for being part of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival! I’m excited to see what you’ll share and look forward to helping you gain more visibility for your blog.

By participating in the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, you agree to receive Your Organizing Business once per week and From the Desk of Janet Barclay once per month. You will be able to unsubscribe at any time.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Call for Submissions: Simplify Everything and join the conversation.

If your email address appears on a website, you probably receive lots of spam.

Even if you’ve put a form instead of your email address on your contact page, you probably get spam through that too.

And then there are all those spam comments on your blog…

It’s not only annoying; it’s a ridiculous waste of time!

There are many tools available, both free and paid, to help combat spam sent through your website. Some are more effective than others, but I never found one I’d swear by until I tried CleanTalk.

The Spam Problem

Many of the websites I’ve created have a contact form, usually created with GravityForms. Most of the measures I’ve implemented have been relatively successful in keeping the spam to a manageable level.

But one client has a special secure form connected to her Hushmail account. All went well for several years, when suddenly her Google CAPTCHA stopped working and she started receiving a daily onslaught of spam submitted through her form.

The Spam Solution

Many of the web industry experts I know swear by CleanTalk, and since they offer a free trial, I figured we had nothing to lose.

Although there were some obstacles at first, CleanTalk support was excellent, never giving up and extending the free trial as long as necessary until they got it working correctly.

How CleanTalk Works

Okay, I confess – I don’t really know how CleanTalk manages to block spam from contact forms, registration forms, comment forms, and more.

I don’t need to understand all the technical details, but essentially, CleanTalk checks information about each submission against its cloud-based spam detection system and decides whether to allow or block it.

What I do know is this:

1. For me, it was much easier to set up than CAPTCHA.
2. It’s less intrusive to your website visitors than traditional CAPTCHA. There are no checkboxes, puzzles, or other hoops for legitimate visitors to jump through.
3. You can access the logs, so if an IP address is blocked erroneously (as far as I know, this hasn’t happened yet), you can delete it from the blocklist.
4. You can also manually add an IP address to the blocklist, if a spam message happens to get through.
5. The cost is relatively low, considering how much time it will save you.
6. It works on contact forms, comments, subscription forms, and others.

What’s unique about CleanTalk is that it’s not just for WordPress sites. They also offer spam protection for Joomla, Drupal, and other types of sites.

If you’re wasting valuable time dealing with spam coming from your website, give CleanTalk a try!

Photo by peshkova / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read CleanTalk: The Answer to Your Spam Problems and join the conversation.

I asked my readers to share their insights about a tool that’s been a game-changer for them or their clients, and the result is this list of expert recommendations for paper management tools, digital apps, and specific organizing strategies.

When you read one that resonates with you, please connect with the blogger on social media and/or share it with your own network. (I’d love it if you’d share this post as well!) While you’re there, why not leave a comment and let the blogger know you found their post here on the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival (POBC)?

Big thanks to all who participated this month – you are appreciated!

Are you ready for October’s Blog Carnival?

The topic for the next Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival will be Simplify Everything. All bloggers are welcome to  contribute a post any time before 11:59 PM on Wednesday, October 14, 2026.

Interested in reaching even more readers?

If your product or service would interest professional organizers, productivity consultants, or their clients, consider sponsoring an upcoming edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival! It’s an excellent way to maximize your exposure and support this growing community.

Explore More Organizing Tools

There are so many organizing products out there that it’s not always easy to choose the right one.

My Organizing Tools & Resources Guide includes additional recommendations for planners, organizing products, and digital tools to help you and your clients keep things organized.

Photo by HayDmitriy / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Tools That Truly Help – Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival and join the conversation.

You naturally want to help people, but you can’t help everyone! There’s only so much of you to go around – and not everyone can pay your fees.

Online courses allow you to:

• offer an affordable option to clients with smaller budgets
• support clients who prefer to work independently
• create an additional stream of income
• continue supporting clients if the physical demands of in-person organizing become difficult

You can also offer a free course as an incentive to sign up for your mailing list.

Before you create a course

I’m not going to lie to you – developing an online course is a lot more work than creating digital products like e-books or standalone recordings. You’ll definitely need to apply your organizing skills to this project, and unless you have a background in education, you should take time to learn more about it and make sure it’s right for you before you dive in with both feet.

Here are just a few of the things you’ll need to figure out before you even decide if it’s right for you:

• What do you know that could be delivered as an online course? Is there a demand for training on that topic?
• How much time will it take you to develop the course material? Do you have that much time?
• Can you afford to invest in professional help to get everything up and running?
• What type of platform would best fit your budget, required features, and level of technical ability?
• How much will you need to charge to make a profit? Is this in line with comparable courses?

Even if you already have a business plan, I recommend creating a separate plan for your courses. Although you’ll be building on your existing business, it’s quite possible that your courses will have a different target market and/or competition, and it may require different marketing strategies.

To be profitable, your income from course registrations needs to exceed your expenses, which may include:

• Domain registration and website hosting (unless you’re building the course on your existing website)
• Fees for a hosted course solution or premium WordPress plugins
• Outsourcing fees to qualified contractors to help with various aspects of the project

Nate Johnson of Fly Plugins covers this topic in detail in his post, How Much Time and Money Does It Cost to Create an Online Course?

Choose a topic for your first course

You need to choose a subject where you have expertise and for which there is a demand.

To get your course on the market quickly, I suggest you look at material you’ve already created.

• Have you written blog posts, articles, or e-books that could be developed into a course?
• Have you delivered teleclasses, presentations, seminars, or workshops that could be repurposed as an online course?

If you’re combining content from multiple sources, ChatGPT or another AI assistant can help you get it into a more usable format much more quickly than doing it all manually.

If you don’t have anything to repurpose and you’re not up to creating something from scratch, look into PLR (Private Label Rights) content, which is pre-written material you purchase the right to use. Content Sparks offers a number of packages that might be a good starting point for courses related to productivity, organization, or other topics. There are many other PLR sellers out there, but not all of them offer quality products. In my experience, the lower the price, the more time you’ll need to spend rewriting the content.

Choose your online course platform

There are many options to choose from, so make sure you don’t rush through this decision.

Important factors to consider include:

• Upfront costs
• Ongoing costs
• Ease of use for yourself and your students
• The level of support available from the developer, other users, and/or experts

All-in-one Course Platforms

There are many standalone platforms designed to host and sell online courses, including Kajabi, Kartra, Teachable and Thinkific. Compare current pricing, features, integrations and support carefully, and take advantage of a free trial or demo when one is available.

eLearning Plugins for WordPress

If you already have a WordPress site, you can add course functionality with an LMS (Learning Management System) plugin. Options include LearnDash, LifterLMS, Sensei, and WP Courseware.

I’ve tested LearnDash and WP Courseware and found them powerful and intuitive, but there are a lot of moving pieces so it’s definitely not a matter of install your plugin and you’re all set. Both of these are highly rated and widely used, so there are lots of people out there to help, whether you need to ask a question, purchase addons to perform specific functions, or hire expert help.

To learn more about these and other eLearning plugins for WordPress, read Conquering Course Creation: Top WordPress LMS Plugins Compared.

The plugin that’s best for you will depend on what you need it to do, beyond simply restricting content. Popular features include:

• integration with WooCommerce or another payment system
• integration with email services like Mailchimp or Kit
• time limits on how long they have to access the content
• recurring payments for ongoing subscriptions
• interaction between members or students

Simpler Approaches

If all this sounds like more than you want or need at this point, rest assured that you can offer courses without investing in an e-learning website.

You deliver a simple course through an email marketing platform such as Mailchimp or Kit. For example, you could use an automated email sequence to deliver lessons, with links to videos, worksheets or other resources.

“For those just starting to sell their own organizing resources, don’t let the technical aspects, such as setting up an online cart or automating payments, hold you back. You can begin with a straightforward, manual process and introduce automation once your sales volume justifies it. What matters most is getting your expertise out into the world and helping people get organized!

Julie Stobbe, Mind over Clutter”

When sales on her course site didn’t justify the ongoing costs of maintaining it, Julie decided to transform the material into four structured packages, complete with worksheets and targeted information. When a client decides on a package, they simply email her, and she sends an invoice along with their selected materials. This approach keeps the process personal while ensuring that every customer feels supported.

Market your course

Once you’ve developed your course material and set it up on the platform you’ve chosen, you still need to market it!

“Build it and they will come” doesn’t work for regular websites, and it definitely doesn’t work for online courses. If you already have a decent mailing list and social media following, it will help, but you have to actively promote your courses. A single blog post announcing that you’re now offering a course isn’t likely to garner much attention.

There’s a wealth of marketing advice here on Your Organizing Business, but How To Build An Audience And Move Beyond Client Work includes marketing strategies that will be especially helpful when promoting your new online course.

Resources

• A Step by Step Guide to Creating Your First Online Course – a blog post including helpful advice, including eight steps to marketing your new online course
• 5-Day Online Course Challenge – a free program that includes daily emails, videos, and checklists, access to a private community, and even a brandable, done-for-you mini-course on time management that you can use to set up your first course

There are lots of other programs designed to teach you how to create online courses, ranging from free to hundreds of dollars.

One of my clients completed Jeanine Blackwell’s Create 6-Figure Courses® Virtual Bootcamp and reported that the material was excellent but the support was rather limited.

As with any investment, do your due diligence and speak with your colleagues or search for online ratings and reviews before you open up your wallet.

I hope this gives you a better idea of what’s involved in creating and selling an online course, and helps you decide whether it’s something you want to pursue.

Acknowledgements

The following individuals helped me cover this topic more thoroughly than I could have done without their input.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Creating and selling online courses: what you need to know and join the conversation.

Charlotte and her team proudly serve homeowners and businesses throughout the St. Louis metro area, including St. Louis, Clayton, Ladue, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Brentwood, Creve Coeur, Chesterfield, Des Peres, Frontenac, Ballwin, Town & Country, Manchester, Richmond Heights, Fenton, Crestwood, Ellisville, Sunset Hills, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, and the surrounding areas.

Welcome, Charlotte! I’m happy to have you here. How did you come up with your business name?

I wanted a name that felt personal and reflected the heart behind the business. “CHAR” comes from my nickname, and “CO.” represents the team and the community we’re building together. Organizing isn’t something I do alone. It’s a collaborative process, and every project is about working alongside our clients to create a home they truly enjoy.

How did your training and experience prepare you to become an organizer?

My organizing journey started long before I launched CHAR & CO. After selling my medical supply business, I began simplifying my own home and discovered how life-changing the organizing process could be. Inspired by Marie Kondo‘s approach, I dove into learning everything I could and eventually joined Sacred Space Organizing, where I gained hands-on experience helping clients throughout St. Louis.

Since then, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients, refining a practical, judgment-free approach that focuses on creating systems people can actually maintain. Every home and every family is different, and that experience has taught me how to meet people where they are and help them move forward with confidence.

What’s your specialty?

My specialty is helping busy families and individuals create organized, functional homes that are easier to maintain and more enjoyable to live in. While every project is different, I especially enjoy whole-home organizing, decluttering, packing and unpacking for moves, and creating simple systems that make everyday life easier.

My approach is never about perfection. It’s about understanding how each client lives, helping them let go of what no longer serves them, and designing organizing systems they can realistically maintain for years to come. I meet every client without judgment and focus on creating spaces that reduce stress and support their lifestyle.

What other services or products do you offer?

In addition to home organizing, we offer:

• Packing and unpacking services for moves
• Move support and pre-move decluttering
• Business and office organizing
• Holiday decorating, including Christmas tree styling, decorating, takedown, and organized holiday storage
• Closet, pantry, kitchen, garage, home office, playroom, basement, laundry room, and storage space organization
• Donation drop-off services as part of many organizing projects
• Personalized organizing plans and product recommendations when storage solutions are needed

Whether someone needs help organizing one room or an entire home, our goal is to create practical systems that make life simpler long after we’re gone.

How do you approach a new organizing project?

Every project starts with listening. Before we move a single item, I want to understand how my client lives, what’s frustrating them, and what they hope to accomplish. From there, we create a plan and work through our Signature 5-Step Process: prioritize, categorize, minimize, organize, and systemize.

My goal isn’t just to make a space look beautiful. It’s to create simple, practical systems that fit each client’s lifestyle and are easy to maintain long after we’re gone.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered about running an organizing business?

The biggest surprise has been realizing that this business is so much more about people than it is about stuff. Clients often invite us into their homes during major life transitions like moving, downsizing, welcoming a new baby, or caring for aging parents. Building trust, listening without judgment, and helping someone move forward is every bit as important as organizing a closet or pantry.

What is the biggest challenge you currently face in your business?

One of the biggest challenges is simply managing the schedule. There are times when we’d love to help everyone who reaches out, but we can only take on so many projects at once. I’d much rather take on fewer clients and give each one the time and attention they deserve than rush through the work.

How are you marketing your business?

Most of our growth comes from word-of-mouth referrals, online reviews, and our website. We also share organizing tips and before-and-after transformations on social media, stay active in the St. Louis community, and build relationships with local businesses and professionals who serve many of the same clients we do. Our goal has always been to educate, build trust, and make it easy for people to find us when they’re ready to get organized.

What professional communities or organizations support your work?

One of the most rewarding parts of my work is finding new homes for the items my clients no longer need. Through our Blessing Our Neighbors Initiative, we’ve been able to connect furniture, household goods, and other donations with local families and organizations throughout the St. Louis area.

Outside of CHAR & CO., I enjoy staying involved in the community. I’m an Ambassador for Catholic Charities of St. Louis, Co-Chair of the Women’s League at Our Lady of Providence Parish, and have volunteered with organizations including Connections to Success and Our Lady’s Inn. Helping people, whether it’s through organizing their homes or serving the community, has always been meaningful to me.

What’s your favorite organizing product?

I’m actually not someone who believes every organizing project starts with buying products. Decluttering and creating the right system always come first.

That said, I love clear bins, quality drawer organizers, and labeled containers because they make it easy to see what you have, keep similar items together, and maintain the space over time.

The best organizing product is the one that fits the client’s home and how they naturally use the space.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

I love spending time with my husband, son, daughter-in-law, and my three grandchildren. I also enjoy traveling, especially with my girlfriends, serving my church, and volunteering with local charities. Staying connected to my family and community is something I truly value.

What else should we know about you?

I truly believe an organized home can change the way people feel and live. It’s incredibly rewarding to help someone let go of the stress that clutter creates and replace it with systems that make everyday life easier. Through our Blessing Our Neighbors Initiative, we also make sure many of our clients’ donations find new homes with local families and organizations, so the organizing process continues to make a positive impact even after a project is complete. Helping people, whether in their homes or in the community, is the most meaningful part of what I do.

Want to be featured in an upcoming Organizer Interview on Your Organizing Business?

It’s a great opportunity to showcase your business, share what you’ve learned, and help others in the organizing community.

Fill out the questionnaire to be considered!

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Interview with Professional Organizer Charlotte Slankard and join the conversation.

You love to organize and even have fun organizing your friends or family members. What about organizing a stranger’s kitchen or garage? Will you be able to listen and seek to understand what ‘organized’ looks and feels like for each client?

There are various personality types, barriers to organizing, and mental health issues to navigate and understand to organize others successfully. Working with clients who are chronically disorganized, who have ADHD, or who hoard requires specialized training and experience.

Mistake #2 – No Clear Process for Organizing

Organizing is easy for you. It is just something innate that comes naturally. So, how will you communicate that to someone who doesn’t understand “everything has a place”? This is the key to working with clients.

As a Professional Organizer, our goal is to transfer skills to our clients. Having a tried and true process will not only give you the tool to communicate organizing skills to your clients, it will provide you with confidence.

Mistake #3 – Not Establishing Boundaries and Managing Client Expectations

It is essential to communicate at the beginning of your relationship what you expect of your client and what your client can expect from you as a Professional Organizer. Prepare a Letter of Agreement between you and your clients and business policies that will help you to establish and communicate clear expectations.

Mistake #4 – Performing Tasks and Working with Clients You Are Not Skilled or Trained to Work With

There is a heightened awareness of the need for Professional Organizer services due to reality TV shows such as Hoarders. Watching these types of shows, you may be thinking, “That’s what I want to do. I want to work with people who hoard and make a difference in their lives.”

The question to ask yourself is, “Are you skilled and trained to work with them?” Working outside of the skills, education, and experience you have can do more harm than good.

Mistake #5 – Working Beyond Your Physical Limitations

I have been working as a Professional Organizer for 16 years. Before working with clients, I didn’t realize how physically demanding this work is. When I organize for myself, it is usually small projects that take a maximum of one hour. Working with clients for three or more hours requires a great deal of physical stamina. There is constant lifting, twisting, and bending. You can spend hours on your feet or, worse, criss-cross on the floor sorting papers. When you do this day after day, year after year, it takes a toll on your joints and overall skeletal structure. It is vital to stay in top physical condition and pay attention to your body.

There are many more mistakes you can make working with clients. If you can think of any others, please share them in the comments.

Photo by AsierRomeroCarballo / DepositPhotos(opens in new tab)

Visit Your Organizing Business to read 5 Critical Mistakes to Avoid Working with Clients and join the conversation.

I tried several different apps, but the one that worked best for me eventually became cumbersome.That’s when I discovered Todoist, which I’ve been using for nearly 10 years. Here’s what I love about it.

Projects and Tasks

Every task is assigned to a project. This feature is great for actual projects that consist of multiple tasks that won’t all be completed at one time. But it also works for just grouping similar tasks together, such as Client Work, Social Media / Blogging, Admin, and Self-Care.

You can even put the projects in whatever order you choose, so the most important ones come up at the top of your screen.

Templates

Todoist offers a wide range of templates covering everything from grocery lists to launching a product, as well as popular productivity methods such as The Pomodoro Technique, Time Blocking, Getting Things Done, and more.

These hadn’t been introduced when I started using Todoist so I haven’t made extensive use of them, but they look like a great way to get off the ground quickly.

The Blog Post template looks especially useful, guiding you through a similar process to what I outlined in How to Save Time Blogging.

Of course, the templates can all be customized however you like!

And if your projects usually consist of the same tasks, you can even create your own templates so you don’t have to start from scratch every time.

Priorities

Each task can be assigned a red, orange, blue, or white flag. Todoist suggests using it like the Eisenhower Matrix:

• Red: Urgent & Important
• Orange: Important & Not urgent
• Blue: Urgent & Unimportant
• White: Unimportant & Not urgent

My system is similar, but I think of it as:

• Red: Do today
• Orange: Do this week
• Blue: Do this week if I can
• White: Do whenever

I rarely use the white flag for current tasks. Instead, I assign “someday maybe” tasks to their own projects, with the white flag and no due dates. When I have time, I can easily choose one based on my current objectives and time available.

Recurring Tasks

This feature is priceless! I can’t think of a better way to keep track of all those things that just keep coming up, like sending out invoices, emailing my list, or completing yearly reviews for my clients. It’s also excellent for forming new habits, like daily walks.

Due Dates, Deadlines and Reminders

Setting due dates is intuitive. I can use the calendar widget to select a date, choose Tomorrow, Later this week, This weekend, or Next week, or type a phrase like “1st wed in dec”.

I set the due date as the date when I plan to complete the task (though sometimes I have to carry over to another day). I can enter a different date as a deadline, so I don’t have to worry about missing any tasks that are time-sensitive.

For recurring tasks, I can simply type “every 3 weeks starting tomorrow” and it figures it all out.

If something needs to be done even before I start my workday, I set a reminder for 5:00 AM so it’s the first thing I see when I pick up my phone. I rarely need reminders for anything else, but it’s good to know I have the option.

Synchronization

I use the web-based version while I’m working on my laptop, but with apps for my phone and tablet, I can easily take a quick look at what’s coming up, or add ideas that pop into my head when I’m not at my desk.

Integrations and New Features

They’re continually adding more features and integrations with other apps, including ChatGPT.

I haven’t checked all of them out, but I encourage you to explore all of Todoist’s features to see what it can do for you.

Summary

Todoist is so flexible that I’m sure you can adapt it to your (or your client’s) needs and workstyle.

I started with the free plan, but upgraded to the Pro Plan when I wanted to create more projects and access additional features. Visit their website for current Todoist pricing.

Using Todoist is so natural for me now that I probably forgot to mention something, so if you have questions, please ask!

Explore More Organizing Tools

There are so many organizing products out there that it’s not always easy to choose the right one.

My Organizing Tools & Resources Guide includes recommendations for planners, organizing products, and digital tools to help you and your clients keep things organized.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read I Couldn’t Run My Business Without Todoist and join the conversation.