Organisational skills tend to be seen as soft skills that can be applied to basically any kind of career. However, it’s entirely possible to turn it into its own career choice if you think you have a knack for it.
What you can expect in this article:
Why would people need your organisational skills?
Organising things is generally something that we expect to do ourselves. Perhaps we have a lot of work files that we need to organise, or maybe your warehouse is in a mess and needs to be cleaned up and tidied. In these cases, organisational skills are welcome because having everything sorted in an orderly manner means that it’s easier to access everything. However, we usually expect to do these things ourselves, or they might be attached to an existing job position. Rarely do we assign a role specifically for an organisation unless it’s for a large company, or if the organisation is needed regularly.
But with that said, it doesn’t mean people wouldn’t hire someone that specialises in organisation. Furthermore, there are many uses for organisational skills outside of a business use case as well. For instance, photo organising is something that takes a lot of time and effort. Whether it’s tagging photographs or just sorting out different filenames, there’s a lot involved and if you’re not comfortable with using computers, it can be fairly difficult to do this efficiently. That’s why there are professional photograph organisers that can help you do this without you needing to spend time on it.
Similarly, digital assets tend to need organising as well. Perhaps a large company creates many records and files that they need to organise for archival purposes. This might be an ongoing job because they generate a lot of files that are added to the archives, or it could be something they only need to do once every year. Regardless of the circumstances, these are excellent use cases for an organisational professional.
Specialising your organisational skills
But when it comes to organisational skills, it’s hard to apply what you know to multiple different industries and positions. For instance, someone who has experience organising digital files like photographs and documents might find it hard to organise physical items like a warehouse or archived paper records. In addition, there are nuances in something like organising photographs that won’t apply to organising other kinds of digital files. As such, it’s important to specialize your organisational skills or be able to learn and adapt to different scenarios if you’re looking to turn those skills into a business opportunity.
This all starts with identifying your skills. Ask yourself what kind of organisational skills you have and how they can be applied to different scenarios. Do you specialise in organising digital files? If so, what kind of files do you have experience with? Have you worked with different kinds of file systems like Google Drive and OneDrive? Or do you have more experience with the tagging and organising of files on physical hard drives?
In addition to this, you’ll need to figure out some kind of niche as well. This will not only help you focus on improving specific skills but can also assist in creating a business plan and marketing your services to the right people. For instance, you could establish yourself as a photo-organising expert who works exclusively on digital files. Perhaps your niche is to take old hard drives and memory cards from clients, and then help them organise all of their photographs into different folders for easy viewing and backup purposes.
Working freelance or for a company
The next decision you’ll have to make is based on who you want to work for. There are often when working for yourself is a better choice as it gives you more freedom as to who you want to work for. You can tailor your services around each specific client, and you don’t have to adhere to a strict work schedule. However, this is essentially freelancing, meaning that you’ll have to find clients on your own (or work with some kind of agency) and you’ll also need to manage your finances.
The other option is to work for a business and there are different ways to achieve this. You can work for a company that requires the services of an organisational expert, such as a workplace that requires someone to help them archive files. You can also find companies that offer different kinds of organisational services, like digitising paper records, and this will require organisational skills to some degree.
Similarly, there are entire companies dedicated to helping people organise their digital files, working with both individual clients and business customers. These types of services are likely looking to hire professionals with experience in organising files, and it’s just one way of landing yourself a job that utilises your organisational skills.
If you find that your niche can be particularly lucrative, then you might find success in starting your own business. There’s a lot more to consider when it comes to starting a company, such as if you want to utilise a flex time schedule for your employees or if you want to focus exclusively on remote workers to reduce costs. There are also many legal considerations to keep in mind when starting a company, some of which we’ll touch on later.
In short, there are plenty of ways for someone to find a job with their organisational skills. Whether you choose to work freelance or for a company, there are many different options open to you.
The legal considerations of a career in organising
Organising usually means you’ll have unrestricted access to a client’s files. For instance, you could be looking at all of their photographs, or you could have access to a company’s most important documents and files. These clients and companies can’t just trust you blindly, hence why there needs to be legal protections in place to ensure that you don’t abuse your position.
This is where the legal considerations come into play. You may be required to establish some legal structure for your business, and you might have to seek out a license or permit to run your business. If you’re going to be working with overseas clients in places like Europe, then you might also need to learn about the GDPR and how it’ll apply to your business.
Cybersecurity is another major concern that you’ll have to address to provide sufficient peace of mind to your clients. This is especially important for business clients that may have sensitive documents and records. To protect these files, you’ll need to ensure that your company has the right safety measures in place such as firewalls and robust login systems.
There’s a lot to think about here, so do your due diligence and make sure you have policies in place to give your clients peace of mind whenever you’re handling their data and files. If your clients don’t have faith in your ability to keep their data safe, then they’re not going to hire you for their organisational needs.
However, most of this will apply to the digital side of the organisation. Not all of this information will apply to the organisation of physical items which carries its own set of legal considerations. But since you’re not working with data or digital records, there aren’t as many concerns with threats such as stolen information or leaking sensitive data.
