Good morning everyone,
Great to see that the world is moving right along. Oil prices came down a bit. Gas prices didn’t. I read in a article somewhere that America gets its’ oil from America for the most part, so why is it we are so linked to the international oil “crisis”? It’s a deep subject for me because I pay very little attention to this type of thing. I pay a lot of attention to my clients however and they worry over me driving long distances to see them or flying to see them.
I want to discuss today a method for people to get help without having to have someone come to their home or office.
The method is called Virtual Organizing.
Some of you may have heard of having a virtual assistant or virtual secretary. You may have even read articles or books on outsourcing and how it is supposed to help you to stay focused on what’s important while someone else does the grunt work for you.
Well, Virtual Organizing is a step further than having an assistant that is not in your office.
A Virtual Organizer works with you to achieve your organizing goals, but she or he works from her or his office while you are in your office or home.
I can see your brow furrowing and your skepticism from here. But you see, this can really work.
A few months ago I worked with a family in the Netherlands. You should realize this was a home organizing job for a military family that had no closet space. Most European homes have very little built in closet space. Something most Americans would cringe if they walked through a home without basic storage.
I worked with them by phone, by instant messaging and by emails. Once a week the client and I would sit down together and instant message each other about problems, progress and she would upload pictures for me to see. Her busy schedule was the reason for this approach as opposed to me calling their home in the Netherlands when she was trying to put the children to bed, etc.
So how does this work for clients here in the U.S.?
It requires discipline on both my part and the client’s part to maintain a working relationship. I assess the situation, then I make recommendations. If I am helping you with data entry on a project then I can log into your computer and do the data entry while you are telling me file names, locations etc for you in your software, or your Paper Tiger software system. Or I will be sitting and looking at your photographs and talking to you by phone about each of the items and the space as well as how to increase your space from those photographs.
Working virtually keeps costs down also. If I or any number of organizers come to you the cost may increase in direct proportion to how much it costs us to drive or fly to you. A new client asked me yesterday how I charge. I had to tell her specifically that the cost would include travel charges. She lives about five states away. This is something that can be eliminated by working virtually.
So if you believe that you need help, but don’t seem to have the time to work with someone coming to your office or your home. I can show you a way to do the de-cluttering, and organizing virtually. A half hour to several hours at a time with little to no hassle of having someone coming to you is a new fangled idea and some people can’t wrap the idea around them, but for those who can it cuts costs and makes organizing virtually painless.
Knowing that you would be receiving help, and knowing that a less intrusive way of getting that help is out there is important. So hopefully you can make a decision that will positively affect your future!
That’s it for the moment. Think about virtual organizing and let me know your thoughts. Do not hesitate to write back. I want to know what you are thinking!
Denise
