From Solo Organizer to Team: What Actually Changes in Your Business
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When you’re working as a solo organizer, everything runs through you. You’re on every project, talking to every client, doing the work, and making sure everything gets done the way you want it. For a while, it works. But eventually, you hit a point where you can’t take on anything else and start to feel burnt out.
Bringing on a team feels like the obvious next step. And it is, but what many organizers don’t realize is how much your role actually changes once you’re not the one doing everything anymore.
At first, it seems like growth just means more projects. But in reality, your time starts shifting pretty quickly. Instead of being on every job, you’re spending more time scheduling, texting clients, coordinating your team, and making sure everything is running the way it should.
You’re not just focused on doing the work anymore, you’re focused on making sure the work is getting done right across the board. That’s a different kind of responsibility, and it takes some getting used to. You start paying more attention to how projects are set up, how instructions are given, and how consistent everything feels from one job to the next.
This is where systems really start to matter. When you’re solo, you can keep a lot in your head. Once you have a team, that doesn’t work anymore. You need clear ways of doing things, how projects are scheduled, how clients are communicated with, and what the expectations are for each job. Without that, things can feel all over the place pretty quickly.
Communication also becomes a bigger part of your day than you might expect. You’re going back and forth with clients, answering questions, checking in with your team, and making sure everyone’s on the same page. Small things can turn into bigger issues if they’re not handled early, so staying on top of it matters.
One of the harder parts is letting go of control. When you’re used to doing everything yourself, it’s tough to step back and trust someone else to handle a project. But that’s part of growing. It’s less about doing everything yourself and more about setting things up so the job still gets done right, even when you’re not there.
Over time, your role starts to shift. You’re not just organizing anymore, you’re building something that can run without you being at every single job. That’s what allows you to take on more clients and create something more consistent long term.
Making the jump from solo to a team isn’t always smooth, and it doesn’t happen overnight. But once things start to click, it opens up a completely different level of growth.
The biggest shift is this, you’re no longer doing everything yourself, and at first that can feel uncomfortable. But over time, it’s what allows the business to actually grow.
Want to talk to colleagues about growing a team – or anything else?
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I think expanding to a team is really the best way to grow. One person is limited, especially in a business that primarily offers the service of time.
Structure and communication are indeed critical for expansion. What one person can do on the fly doesn’t work well with multiple people involved. In the organizing profession, many team workers are part time, and scheduling can be a challenge (anyone had a client want to change their time slot??).
I do think doing it all yourself can lead to burnout, and I know many in my field who have moved to the team model!
My organizing business never grew to the point where I had to consider this, but it’s something I’ve had to deal with as a VA and a website manager. Recruiting and managing employees is a big undertaking that can bring about a whole new set of stressors, but it’s necessary if you want to grow beyond what you can realistically accomplish on y our own.
When you’re a solopreneur who is used to doing everything yourself, it’s good to know the ways expanding to have a team will change the nature of your role. Olivia did a great job of explaining how things shifted for her and her business when she made that transition. As Seana said, I’ve seen many of my colleagues grow into the team model, and have been very happy.
In the 30+ years I’ve been organizing, there have been several times when I thought it was time to make that transition. But for a variety of reasons, I never did. I like the directness of working with my clients, rather than managing other people. It’s not that I don’t love working with teams. There are many advantages. But at this point, I’m happy to be a solopreneur.
It would be interesting to hear from someone who started to grow a team but realized it wasn’t really what they wanted. If you know anyone like that, I’d love an intro!
I came from being a manager before I became a PO. So it wasn’t something I wanted to do when I worked with clients, so I didn’t expand with employees. Besides, there weren’t many PO people in my area when I was considering expanding.
But I get it, it’s a great way to expand a PO business.
I can see the benefits, but it’s definitely not the same role as when it’s just you.
Olivia explains this all so well. I agree with everything this post says, and yet the idea of doing any of it makes me queasy! Yes, systems are essential. Yes, if you want to expand your business, you need to bring on staff and accept that you’ll lose some element of control. And that’s why I’ll never do it. 😉
I left one industry (television) where I had staff that directly reported to me and other staff that indirectly reported to me. I hated it. I knew enough to know not to micromanage, but I hated that I couldn’t depend on some people whose jobs, if they failed to do them practically perfectly, would literally ruin my life. (Television is very exacting, not in the way neurosurgery is, but mistakes that goes out over the air can lead to FCC fines, huge losses of money, and firings; I’ve seen it lead to violence!)
That was a quarter of a century ago, and I still shiver at the idea of anyone working under me. I made the conscious decision when I started my business that I would never expand or grow it to the point where I couldn’t do everything client-facing, at least, and almost everything on the management side. When I’m done, I’ll walk away rather than sell, and that’s the only way I’ll be able to keep my peace. I’d rather stay small and in control.
Julie, thank you for sharing that – wow! Building a team definitely isn’t for everyone, so it’s great that Olivia and the commenters have highlighted things that someone might not have thought about.
I had not planned to hire any organizers until a woman in my early morning yoga class asked me if I would consider her. As it turned out, she did not end up being a good fit, but the whole experience got me thinking about who would be a good fit, and then I hired some pretty awesome new organizers to support me.
At this time I have two active organizers in the DC metro area, while I live in Colorado. Had I not brought on a team, all the hands‑on support in that DC metro area would have been lost.