Most people do not enjoy tidying up and organising their homes, offices and other spaces, yet to function efficiently, there has to be order. If you are such a person, then it may be prudent to hire the services of a professional organiser.
Faith Muthoni, 38, runs such a company - Faith The Organizer. Faith’s love for organising spaces started when she was a young girl. She loved neat places and would find so much satisfaction in just arranging cupboards, rooms, and her bed, which was always neatly spread, a trait she carried into adulthood.
Her venture came about five years ago, the aim to provide a peaceful and relaxed living area in homes and offices.
Once she gets a client, she starts by identifying the client’s organising needs, after which she recommends the solutions, and once she comes to an agreement with the client, she mobilises her team and together they carry out the assignment.
She recalls a day when her friends visited her in 2017, and noticing how neat her home was, they suggested that she earn from it. With encouragement from her husband, she started the venture as a side hustle, where she would tidy and organise homes, starting with her relatives’ and friends’ homes and would be paid Sh500 per job.
In 2019, she lost her job at a stock broker firm where she had been working since she graduated from USIU-Africa with a Bachelor's in International Business Administration, Finance, having worked for this particular firm for 11 years. She began running her business full time, and through referrals from friends, family and a few repeat clients, her business grew, becoming a real organising business.
According to Muthoni this being a service-based business, she started with no capital, but in the course of running the business, she realised that she needed organising containers, which cost from Sh500 per container. Using her savings, she bought containers worth Sh10, 000.
“Everyone goes through those moments when you feel that your spaces are too crowded, too cluttered and not tidy at all. Sometimes people don't know the options available for organising spaces, I come in by giving organising solutions which largely include decluttering, categorising, arranging, designing and installing wardrobes and kitchens while planning those spaces,” she explains.
Muthoni says the reception of her business in the first month was slow as people did not know that there was a difference between deep cleaners, interior designers and organisers, saying that she would get one or two clients in a month. A month after launching, she made Sh28, 000, enough to cater for business expenses such as transport, labour and materials.
The business has grown such that currently, Muthoni serves at least 20 clients in a month depending on the workload, and employs five full-time staff and six casual workers who she engages when needed. She charges on hourly basis for her services, with the cost starting from Sh1, 200 per hour depending on the workload, earning more than Sh100,000 in a month.
“Some thought I was joking when I introduced my business, therefore the biggest challenge I encountered was to convince my clients that my services were worthwhile. Besides this, I also had to grapple with delayed payments and low payments as well.”
She adds: “Initially, clients thought of the service as too domestic, which made them willing to pay only little amounts, but with professionalism and the value we added to the clients’ homes and lives in general, they saw the true worth of what we do.”
Generally, they organise spaces by removing unnecessary items, sort what's left, categorise them and arrange them in or on the designated storage points. They also help home-owners get rid of unnecessary items in their homes, the end result being to create a tranquil environment for living and productivity.
They also plan, design and create storage areas in homes, such as cabinets, wardrobes, shelves and rearrange the various spaces in homes, shops, and offices.
Apart from that, the business offers professional moving services, which cover packing, moving the items, unpacking, arranging and professionally organising the new home or premises, they also mount the TV, galleries and decor as required by the client.
The company also conducts house helps trainings, home managers trainings and potential professional organisers training where they teach organising techniques.
Muthoni’s clients are mostly mothers with busy schedules, working people who hardly have time to look after their homes, families moving into their new homes from rental properties and want a new fresh feel in the new spaces, and business people with offices crammed with documents and equipment.
"When a client books our services, I normally do a site visit first to ascertain the kind of materials I will need - we have different containers with different holding capacities, which also determines their cost,” she explains.
She markets her services through various social media platforms and also relies on referrals from repeat clients. Her office is located at Membley, at the Milestone Business Centre.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 led to low bookings as clients were reluctant to allow strangers into their homes, however they kept advertising, checking on their clients and even offered virtual consultations.
And with that, they had to be innovative for the business to survive, focusing on virtual consultations and selling organising items through social media.
“The biggest challenge we face are cancellations, sometimes done at the last minute,” says Muthoni, explaining that her biggest achievement was when she was interviewed by the BBC , which gave her international exposure and opportunity to network with other organisers from around the world.
