As I celebrate the twentieth year in my organising business, I reflect back on how it all began. The scene was a lot different. One of the biggest changes over the years has been the technology.
When I first started out, I quickly realised that I needed something I could take to clients to schedule future sessions. I have never been a diary kind of girl. I find them too bulky for my handbag. Along with my Nokia “dumb” phone, I invested in a PDA. No, not a “public display of affection” or “pathological demand avoidance”. It was a PalmPilot personal digital assistant. It did exactly what I wanted it to. The calendar and contacts functions made doing business easy.
Another investment I made in the early years, but not right away, was my website. When I first started in 2005, small businesses like mine didn’t typically have a website. They were for the big players like banks, department stores, car companies. But a couple of years later, it became clear that customers expected an online presence. So, after several months of help from a friend, my first website came alive. It was simple but fairly static. Luckily I quickly learned a bit of code so I could occasionally update the text with new offers, or different marketing as my ideal client became clearer.
Next, I started a blog. It was hosted separately on a free WordPress site and linked back to my website. I called it Organised Thoughts. To my surprised and delight, it’s still available online. Here’s a little sample from 2008.
I can’t remember which came next, my first smartphone or my second website. This far down the line it doesn’t matter. But they were both significant investments, as well as gamechangers for my business.
I had learned lots from my first website. I learned that I wanted full control. I learned that writing a blog was a great way to connect with my ideal audience. Through Organised Thoughts I had learned that I liked using WordPress. The next step was obvious. It was time for a paid WordPress site where I could host my blog and be in full control. Mind you, I still rely on my “techy person” to do the hard behind the scenes stuff that is beyond my capabilities.
The next big technological development for my business was online training. I had been delivering professional organiser training in person for some years. People would travel from interstate to attend my five-day and then three-day professional organiser training. I even had students from Thailand and Germany. Converting that training into an online course made it possible for people to access the training from anywhere, and for me to provide training without setting aside three weeks each year.
Once I had the online platform for training, it was a natural next step to create The Professional Organiser’s Edge. There are over 120 recordings of classes and other resources available to members in the online library of resources. Even that has evolved over the years. It started out with teleclasses, and when webinars became possible, I used various technologies to deliver those. These days I have landed on Zoom as my preferred platform to present and record any classes or webinars.
As far as apps go, I try to keep it simple. Just now, as I was writing this article, I checked to see which apps I had on my phone for business, I was able to delete four of them. Hooray for a digital declutter! To my surprise I still had Skype installed on my phone. A couple that I really like and of course did not get deleted are FastScanner and SimpleMind.
When I look back over twenty years of technological and business growth, I see there are also several things that have not changed. I still prefer to take client notes using pen and paper. I tried using an iPad but found I could scribble much faster. My trusty Dymo is still my preferred labeller. I had to buy a new one a while ago but it was essentially just a newer model of the old one. I wrote about how I made my choice here.
Things have come a long way since 2005, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it. There are not only the advancements in technology but also the advancements in the professional organising industry. I wonder what’s in store for the future?
