The new year brings new thoughts of a career move. Professional organizing is a fairly new industry which means, at this time, most organizers have had a previous career. This includes me. I graduated from college with an accounting degree and became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). I still hold this certificate, as well as, a certificate as a Certified Professional Organizer (CPO). If you think about it, the two careers are closely tied. They both involve organizing information, concepts and ideas. One involves people and finances (CPA), the other involves people and their stuff (CPO). I had to pass a national exam for both, although the CPA exam was extremely difficult, the CPO exam was not.
Can you see yourself in my story…
My desire to switch careers came about in 2004 when I was working in a corporate job in an accounting department. My first job out of college was with a national CPA firm, then I worked for a public company and finally went to work for a company wanting to go public. All three companies demanded most of my time, talent and energy, which I enjoyed. I am a reformed workaholic. I love to work! But, while working at the third company, I had two children. Being married and raising children is a whole new level of work. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day for me to do both well so I decided to make a switch. I wanted to make a fast switch but didn’t know what I wanted to do so I hired a life coach. What a smart move.
Stacey Vicari, my life coach, helped me find my path in only a few months. I thought I was going to find another accounting job but that’s not how it turned out. So many things fell perfectly into place for me, I’m sure it wasn’t an accident. I saw a show about organizing on TV. I was excited but how silly of me to think that I can go from being the Controller (the leader) of a mid-size company to an organizer. Almost seven years later, here I am. We have four people on the staff, lots of clients and if you are looking for an organizer in the Louisville, KY area, you can’t help but find us. Once I determined what I wanted to do, starting a company was easy. I’m an accountant, I have a lot of training for this kind of thing.
Basically…within a few months, I went from a corporate job to owning my own business. Here are the steps I took:
Step one: recognized I was not satisfied with my current job (took years for me to admit this)
Step two: decided what would make me happy by hiring a life coach (took less than 6 months)
Step three: implemented my decision (took less than a day to start a company)
Step four: grow the business (I’ve been doing this since 2004)
Your story…
If you want to consider organizing as a career, start researching. Think about your strengths and how you can use them to help others. Look at the industry leader NAPO. Then ask around in your community. Attend a NAPO conference (it’s in San Diego, Apr 2011). Join a local chapter and network with other organizers. Network in your community, online and where ever it makes sense for you. Take a class. Practice on friends and family. Most important, believe in yourself, be passionate and know your strengths.
Utterly Organized, a team of professional organizers serving Louisville, KY and the surrounding areas.