The organization industry, it seems, is more relevant today than
ever before. Just take a look around: Closets are bursting with
stored clothes. Offices are overflowing in rivers of paper. Living
rooms and kitchens everywhere have been swallowed up by
clutter.
In fact, the demand for managing the piles of stuff people
accumulate in their daily lives is growing--and businesses have
sprouted to meet every possible need. Some entrepreneurs become
professional organizers; others manufacture organizing
products.
According to Barry Izsak, president of the National Association
of Professional Organizers (NAPO) board of directors, membership
has doubled over the past two years--of both professional organizer
members and associate members (like organization product
manufacturers). "Public awareness is increasing," says
Izsak. "We're becoming more visible."
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Certainly, the glut of home-improvement and home-makeover shows
has helped raise the industry's profile. Shows like Bravo's
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and TLC's Clean
Sweep dedicate hours each week to improving people's living
spaces and eliminating clutter. Organization is all the rage, and
we've found a range of entrepreneurs getting in on the
action--one entrepreneur sells organization and space-saving
supplies at his chain of stores; another shares her professional
organizing expertise with her big-city clients. We even found one
company launched by entrepreneurs who designed a whole
document-organizing system. So rest your feet on that pile of
magazines on your coffee table, and settle in--it's time for
some serious organizing lessons.
Contain the Excitement
With a retail background under his belt, Abner Wright III
decided to parlay his interest in organizing into a serious
business in 1991. Says Wright, 46, "Everyone likes to get
organized. Some are always organized; some get organized every few
minutes, some once a week or once a year." Because he felt
that organization was an ongoing struggle for people, Wright saw an
opportunity to offer products that would help consumers get their
things in order.
He researched the product offerings in his area and realized
that, although some people sold a few basic organization and
storage pieces here and there, there really wasn't any one-stop
shop in his Winston-Salem, North Carolina, area that customers
could go to for all their organizing needs. He opened his first
Space
Savers store, selling, in his words, "things that
don't go out of style." Stocking everything from closet
organizers to kitchen storage supplies, Wright says there's a
constant demand for these types of products. If someone comes in to
buy a closet organizer one month, and it serves his or her needs,
Wright says that person will often come in later to shop for the
garage, the home office, the living room and so on.
"They're always looking for the final answer," he
explains.
Still, since customers are always looking for that definitive
organizing product, Wright confesses it was difficult at first to
decide what products to carry. "Trying to pick out items that
everyone likes was a big challenge," he says. "But
that's always a challenge in retailing." To combat the
hit-and-miss nature of buying, Wright listened closely to input
from all sides--family, friends, customers, employees--to see what
products sold well and were requested by consumers.
Once he got underway, Wright really started getting a feel for
what types of organization products customers wanted, and within
one year, he opened another Space Savers location in his area. The
rapid growth continued, says Wright, as he opened three more
locations in six years. Though it was challenging to train a new
staff for each store while adapting the store to the local flavor
of that particular area, Wright says it's the customer service
that sets his company apart. His employees, for instance, know to
give customers advice and ideas on organization projects--they
don't just point to the "office storage" aisle.
With the success of his retail stores, Wright decided in 2002 to
branch out into e-commerce to harness the trend toward online
buying and expand his organization niche nationwide. Wright expects
Space Savers to gross 2004 sales well into the seven figures.
Originally published in the September 2004 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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