Why You’ll Never Meet A Contractor for LMW Edits
Did you know that most professional organizers work with teams made up of independent contractors, rather than employees?
I have chosen not to do that. Whenever an LMW Edits team member enters your home, you can rest assured that they are my employee, and this is why:
1) The client experience is compromised by using contractors rather than employees.
Organizers who use contractors have a long list of folks they can call on, because they never know who’s available for what days and times. This can result in different teams for different days (or even hours!) of the project.
I find that this compromises client privacy, since in practice it means that many different people you have never met and know nothing about will be in and out of your home and touching your stuff. I also find that it compromises project quality, because it’s hard to maintain continuity and efficiency when communicating between ever-changing teams. Trust me, I know: when I first started in the business I was the independent contractor!
Having employees rather than independent contractors means that I’m putting the client experience first. My employees have set schedules, so I can always assign an organizer my clients know and trust to their projects. I train and supervise my employees, so I can guarantee my clients the highest level of service and professionalism.
2) I believe in doing right by my employees.
Independent contractors aren’t covered by workers’ comp insurance (unless they carry it themselves, which few in the organizing industry do), they don’t have guaranteed hours, and they generally are paid a set wage with no opportunity for growth.
I carry all necessary insurance on my employees, I guarantee minimum hours, and I pay well above market rate plus the potential for commission. I do this because I want my employees to feel secure, so that they’re able to do their best work every time they come to work.
3) It’s illegal to use contractors the same way you use employees.
Per California law, independent contractors cannot do jobs in the main scope of work of the business employing them, and the business cannot tell them when, where, or how to do their jobs. Well, professional organizers pretty much fail to meet this standard. When I employ an organizer, they do organizing work, which is the main work of my business, and I tell them when, where, and how to do it!
This is one of those things in life where “no one will notice” and “it doesn’t reeeealllly matter.” But it’s important to me to do the right thing, whether or not clients would hire me anyway, whether or not people would work for me anyway, or whether or not the state of California will ever care about my small business violating employment law!
It’s the expensive way, it’s the hard way, but I’ve made this decision very deliberately. In fact, I waited to hire a team until I could afford to pay for insurance and payroll taxes on top of their hourly rates, even though I could have used help sooner. And every time the team grows, it’s a huge investment in that person, and that’s definitely scary! But this strategy has paid off really well for me so far: my clients love Leslie, my amazing organizer, and my team are super dedicated, responsive, and positive.
Whenever an LMW Edits team member comes into your home, you can be assured that they are my employee, trained, supervised, bonded, and insured by me. You can’t say the same about most of the other professional organizing companies out there!
LMW
