5 Mistakes That’ll Hurt Your Professional Organizer Salary - QC Design School

When it comes to the professional organizer salary, know what NOT to do is just as important as knowing what to do.

This is why today, QC Design School Student Ambassador, Alexa Jorgenson, is here to break down 5 critical mistakes you need to avoid. Otherwise, your income as a designer is found to take a negative hit!

Introduction

Hello, readers! My name is Alexa Jorgenson and I’m a Student Ambassador for QC Design School. I’m currently a student of QC’s Staging for Designers Course. Additionally, I’ve also graduated from the following programs:

Within this article, I’ll be using the knowledge and training I acquired from QC Design School to talk about 5 mistakes that will negatively impact your professional organizer salary. Moreover, I’ll also share some tips and insight on how to avoid these big mistakes!

Professional organizer salary article, Aug 19 2021, Alexa Jorgenson headshot

The Professional Organizer Salary

Before we delve into potential factors that can hurt your professional organizer salary, it’s first important to better understand the sort of income you’ll be making in this role.

To start, it’s worth noting that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” figure that all professional organizers make. Where you live, the demand, your qualifications, and so much more will all affect the amount of money you can potentially make.

That said, I can give you a general idea of average incomes, based on current information available online. Here’s what I found after doing a little digging:

  • Salary.com reported that as of July 18th, 2021, the average professional organizer salary in the United States sits comfortably at approx. $47,024 USD annually.
  • If you live in Canada, Payscale found that as of March 5th, 2021, professional organizers were making an average of approx. $41,905 CAD per year.
  • As of August 5th, 2021, Glassdoor stated that professional organizers working in the United Kingdom make approx. £29,214 per year.
  • Payscale also reported that as of May 27th, 2021, professional organizers in Australia make an hourly income of approx. $58.96 AUD.

With all this in mind, let’s now move onto those 5 mistakes I talked about earlier…

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5 Mistakes That’ll Hurt Your Professional Organizer Salary

Mistake #1: Lacking the emotional traits needed as a professional organizer.

One of the most crucial mistakes you can make is to lack the emotional traits needed as a professional organizer.

Oftentimes, organizing is a sensitive task for clients. They may be going through a significant life change. Furthermore, they may feel like they have no time to get themselves organized. Alternately, perhaps they’re just feeling embarrassed by their messy space.

If you lack empathy, your clients will see you as someone who doesn’t care about their feelings or belongings. In turn, this will be detrimental to your professional organizer salary and career as a whole.

Why? Because no one will want to place their personal belongings or home in the hands of someone who appears not to care. Think about it: would YOU?

How to Avoid This Mistake

To avoid this mistake, it’s important that you really get to know your client. Asking the right questions and listening are the keys to being an empathetic professional organizer. Plus, these are the cornerstones of excellent customer service.

It’s crucial to gather as much information as possible during the initial consultation. As a result, you’ll be able to better understand the clients’ emotional connection to certain belongings. Just because an item may appear as junk to you, does not mean it’s not a prized possession to them.

So, as you approach each job, ensure to have a client-centric approach. Develop a genuine understanding for the client. Moreover, always be patient and reserve judgement.

These are all incredibly important aspects of showing empathy in this career. So long as you stick to this approach, you’ll develop a great reputation and professional organizer salary!

Mistake #2: Not getting properly trained/certified as a professional organizer.

Showing empathy, care, and understanding are essential components to being a great professional organizer. However, being properly trained and certified by an accredited design school is also significant, too.

After all, to handle a client’s belongings and organize their home with care requires the right knowledge and skill-set. Moreover, clients will always choose an organizer who’s been professionally trained and certified over someone who has not. Again, you need only ask yourself: would YOU do the same, if in their position?

Not being professionally trained and certified will make it extremely difficult to find good customers. When you do land a client, the results you produce could wind up leaving much to be desired. Either way, this will majorly limit your booking potential in the future.

And, of course, we know you don’t want that! After all, little to no bookings means little to no professional organizer salary. The harder it is for you to achieve your bottom line, the harder it’ll be for you to sustain your design career for the long haul.

How to Avoid This Mistake

To avoid this mistake, I highly advise those who want to be professional organizers to get trained and certified. Personally, I recommend QC Design School as the way to go for SO many reasons!

Firstly, QC Design School’s Professional Organizing Course comes with interactive, practical assignments. Plus, you’ll also receive instructional videos, as well as full-color textbooks that are both fun and full of great information.

Secondly, you’ll be provided with comprehensive tutor feedback after every unit you submit for grading. Your QC tutor is guaranteed to be a reputable, working professional organizer. As a result, you can be rest assured that you’re learning from the very best!

My tutor, Lianne Cousvis, was very thoughtful and helpful to me. In addition to being an interior decorating and design professional, she also happens to be a fellow QC Design School alumnus! I had the best learning experience in my Professional Organizer Course. I’m forever grateful for all I learned and the incredible tutoring I had from Lianne.

Lastly, the online student community that QC Design School offers is full of nice, helpful, and intelligent people. With that, there’s a fantastic opportunity to grow your network in the design world. Plus, you can possibly reach more clients and increase your professional organizer salary, too!

Have you joined QC’s free Virtual Classroom on Facebook yet? Even if you’re not a student, you’re still welcome for a 2-week trial! Go check it out and join today! 🙂

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Mistake #3: Not knowing how to run your professional organizer business.

Along with showing empathy and having the right professional training, it’s critical that you also have business training and know-how. As an entrepreneur, there’ll be a lot you’ll have to take into consideration. Some examples include (but are not limited to):

  • Legally registering your business name
  • Acquiring a business license
  • Overhead costs
  • Marketing and branding
  • Legalities
  • Developing your business strategy, etc.

Logically, if you don’t know how to run a sustainable business, your career as a professional organizer won’t go very far. Likewise, your salary will reflect this as well.

How to Avoid This Mistake

In my opinion, QC Design School is phenomenal for this very reason. They help you become a well-rounded professional organizer who has both proper organizing training AND proper business training. This additional training helps you learn how to:

This is yet another great aspect of QC Design School’s distance learning. Every one of their courses offers a full, optional unit devoted entirely to business training. I can’t stress enough that even though this unit is technically optional, you’d be doing yourself a major disservice by skipping over it!

To avoid this mistake, the simplest solution is to ensure that your professional organizer course includes proper business training!

  • Register your business
  • Set up insurance
  • Write a business plan
  • Draft your design contracts
  • Learn different marketing techniques
  • Create a fee structure
  • Do proper research to set up your business for long-term success

Even if you’re not looking to start a business right away, the business books and templates are still there and available to you. So, why not take full advantage of them? There’s NEVER any downside to expanding your subject-matter expertise!

Writing note showing Start Your Own Business. Business photo showcasing Entrepreneurial Venture a Startup Enter into Trade Female human wear formal work suit presenting smart device.

Mistake #4: Lacking entrepreneurial drive and skills.

Another major mistake a professional organizer can make would be to lack the entrepreneurial drive and skills needed to start and sustain a successful business. For instance, if you don’t consider all the costs that needed to operate and sustain your business, you can really hurt your professional organizer salary in the long run.

Furthermore, you also want to avoid investing in the wrong areas, not investing in the right business and marketing strategies, and being too picky about work opportunities.

How to Avoid This Mistake

Once again, we circle back to the importance of sufficient business training!

Ultimately, having an entrepreneurial drive lies within you and you alone. QC Design School is here to offer exceptional business skills and an amazing online, international network. With that, you can have access to networking possibilities with other designers from all around the world!

How cool is that!?

That said, it’s important to take the time to start, grow, and sustain your business properly. It’s also essential to use all your available resources. Give your all to each client, because you never know who may wind up referring you to your next client!

All of this will help you have a successful business, as well as increase your overall professional organizer salary.

Mistake #5: Undercutting your professional organizer rates.

The last mistake I want to touch upon is undercutting your service rates. A lot of hard work, thought, and time goes into the work of a professional organizer. With that, it’s important for you to value your work and create a fee structure that is right for YOU.

Look, I get it… When you’re just beginning your career, you might worry that you’ll scare off potential clients by setting your prices too high. But I’ll let you in on a little secret:

So long as you thoroughly research your local competitors, and get a proper idea of the current industry standard, you will NOT set your rates too high or scare anyone away!

The truth is, the right clients will be perfectly fine with paying your prices, so long as they can trust that you’re a high-quality organizer who will give them the results they want.

How to Avoid This Mistake

Is anyone surprised that, once again, the way to avoid this mistake is by getting ample business training? If you take advantage of the business training offered at the end of QC’s Professional Organizing Course, I promise that you’ll learn EXACTLY how to set your rates just right.

Furthermore, thanks to the interactive, online network that QC offers, you’ll also be able to reach out to numerous friendly people also working in the industry. These individuals are happy to help and can provide advice when it comes to creating a fee structure and all things design.

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Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading my article! I hope I’ve helped you with identifying and avoiding 5 common mistakes that’ll help you keep your professional organizer salary steadfast and strong.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please leave a comment below. Let me know any additional mistakes that you can think of, that I didn’t mention on this list.

And as always, feel free to connect with me directly in the Virtual Classroom on  Facebook!

Increase your professional organizer salary in as little as 3-6 months by enrolling with QC Design School and earning your Advanced International Organizing Professional (AIOP) certification!

Join the discussion 3 Comments

  • Daniella De Luca says:

    Great article! I think the first step in a successful career is to get professional training – it really helps set you up for success and prepares you for doing your job, starting your business and managing that business going forward – getting this training will definitely help avoid making these mistakes as you start your career.

    • Sloane Seguin says:

      We couldn’t have said it better ourselves – thanks, Daniella! We totally agree; professional training is arguably the single smartest way to build a successful career as a professional organizer (and by extension, build up/make a comfortable professional organizer salary). 🙂

      All the best,
      The QC Team

  • Fernanda Petizme says:

    I loved this article! I have been running into problems mentioned here! I’m sure these tips will guide me much better. Good Job 👏

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