I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Stephanie Sikora from Sikora Solutions about her decision to join Reset Your Nest as our Denver region. We chatted about what joining Reset Your Nest will look like for her and her team as well as how difficult and lonely it can be to run an organizing business on your own. You can watch our Instagram Live or read more below!
Reset Your Nest Welcomes Stephanie Sikora
Jen Martin
I have a really exciting announcement to share! This has been a long time in the making and is part of my biggest dreams for Reset Your Nest. For everyone who is part of the Reset Your Nest community, I would like to introduce you to Stephanie Sikora. And Stephanie, I’ll let you make the announcement, since I feel like this is more your announcement.
Stephanie Sikora
It’s always much more fun when other people say it. Thank you so much, Jen, for having me! And an extra special thank you for inviting me to be a part of Reset Your Nest, we’re super excited! So Sikora Solutions is a Denver-based organization company. We’ve been here for six years. And we are now partnering with Reset Your Nest and we’re super excited to be part of your family. That’s the news!
Jen
Yes! That’s the news! Stephanie and I met last fall at the How-To Summit, which we can talk about later, but we loved the How-To Summit and there was a connection. My CEO Tori was there as well and we both fell in love with Stephanie. As Tori’s and my vision of what we’re hoping Reset Your Nest grows into developed, we really found the need to find organizers who are already finding success and Stephanie is the epitome of that. She’s just amazing at what she does. She is a boss and she has an amazing team operating out of Denver and they've been killing it.
After lots of conversations and talking and easing her into this idea, because this is her baby (Sikora Solutions) she has built from the ground up and she has done an incredible job, but she has now decided to join with us to create what we’re hoping is something that’s bigger than Stephanie or myself could have ever created or envisioned on our own. We’re just so excited to have you! It feels like a big day!
Stephanie
I’m really excited! Like Jen said, it’s been a lot of conversations and there’s been a lot of emotions and I’m so happy to be landing on the excitement. And I’m so grateful that we met. Backing up, this is our sixth year in business and I, first, never thought I would be a business owner and then never thought I would have this opportunity to join you and grow even more. So we’re just so excited and it’s such an opportunity and I’m really excited for what’s to come together.
Jen
Me too! If you’re okay, Stephanie, I want to ask you a few questions because I think this is such an interesting concept and not one that is really done in the organizing industry. So often we start as a solo entrepreneur and even if we grow to have a team, there just aren’t enough companies–it’s not really a thing to come underneath someone’s umbrella, if you will. I would love to know what drew you into this idea of being part of Reset Your Nest when you’ve already been so successful on your own, and why you felt like this was a good fit?
What made you decide to join Reset Your Nest?
Stephanie
That’s a really good question. Like I said, it was never part of the plan. I remember, we first had dinner and at dinner Jen was like: “We wanted to talk to you about this opportunity.” And I was like “What?” I was not expecting it at all. But I was so flattered because you’ve built something so fabulous and to trust us to join you and carry on your brand and represent you, we’re very grateful. So thank you for that.
As a solo entrepreneur, like you said, especially as a hardworking woman you just figure that you need to grind it out and do it yourself. And that’s how I spent the first three years of my business. I was like “I don’t want a team, I’m never going to have a team, I can do this myself”. And then I started having a team and I was like “this is the best thing ever! Why did I wait so long to do this?” And then I realized that we were very successful and we could continue to have success year after year after year and have an amazing client base and amazing team.
What I realized, and it wasn’t really until we started having the conversation at dinner, was that I we’ve kind of outgrown our business structure, we’ve reached success with what we have and if we want to continue to be successful we had to do something. Something had to change and I didn’t know what it was. And I didn’t know that this is what it was. I could have changed and done something else or we could have done this. The universe works in such crazy ways that this just presented to me. This is what it is, this is how our team is going to continue to grow. This is how we’re going to continue to serve people, and even more people in even better ways. And most importantly, serve my team.
I realized that I didn't know if I could bring to them what you are able to or what we’re able to together. So it was not only serving our clients but also serving our team and serving myself as well, which sounds kind of selfish. But it’s hard, you know it’s hard to run a business and to do it yourself. It’s really, really hard. Even when you have a team, still so much lands on your shoulders. And I will just say, when I made the decision to join I literally felt like 100 pounds just came off my shoulders. And I just felt like there was so much opportunity and a lot less weight, which was amazing.
So it never was in the cards but the way it was just presented I was just like this is what it is. I could have gone a different route, and I don’t know what that would have been, but I was like no this is it right here. This is how my team is going to grow, my business is going to grow, and how we’re going to serve more people. So we’re very excited.
Jen
That’s amazing! I love hearing you talk because, really, as you were talking, those of us who have started any business but especially a home organizing business, it can be so isolating. We’re in such a relatively new industry, we’re still figuring it out. It kind of feels like we’re inventing the wheel even though in so many ways we really aren’t. But it’s hard to know who to go to for resources and there’s so many cool things that are popping up like Master Classes and Summits and Conferences and whatever it is just to help create a community where there is education and knowledge and yet still very lonely.
There’s no real structure and there’s no baseline and I think we are all just going at it alone. The hope when Tori, my CEO, and I tried to envision what could Reset Your Nest be if it wasn’t just me and my little team in Utah. Could we really make an impact on the industry, on the care economy, on women, on a lot of things. What would that even look like and how do we go about making this something that could really help more lives? We’re still figuring it out but we’ve had some amazing steps. Like region managers that are already working with Reset Your Nest are just phenomenal and they’ve taught us so much.
But I really feel like, Stephanie, you are bringing this vision together where all of a sudden it’s clicking where it’s like “Oh, this is what we do.” We find women like you, Stephanie. You’ve been so successful but there does come a time in any business where either you’re struggling and you’re trying to figure out how you need to pivot so you can be profitable or you’re super successful and there’s always going to be that question of “what is the next move?” I just love that this is a fit for you because I know that together it's going to be really great.
Stephanie
Well, you bring up two really good points. One is that, it’s so fabulous that there’s so many resources now as it is a relatively new industry, the organization industry. There’s Master Classes, there’s Summits, but then we still have to go back, like you said, you still have to go back to your own little desk in your own little business and you’re doing it. And we’re still working in silos. And I realized that there’s so many silos, which is great because I know some people love to do that. And I realized that that wasn’t going to help me continue to grow.
And to your point also, at every level of business there’s new challenges. So yes, we’ve been very successful and very profitable, we deliver a great product. But there’s a whole new set of challenges. So for me I was really like “what’s next? What is there?” Because you’re successful but you’re working all the time. Like, all the time. Like we all know when you own your own business, you’re always working. Yeah, I think you messaged me at ten last night. I was asleep. But yeah I felt like this was an opportunity for me to grow but without carrying the load and weight all by myself.
And the energy that you get from others; when I came up to Salt Lake City to spend time with you, we were just like “and this, and this!” You just had so many ideas and I’m just so excited to have someone to help implement those ideas and not feel so alone all the time. And reinventing the wheel, so many of us organizers talk about “I didn’t know you were working on that.” We’re all working on the same things but we’re all going in different directions so if we start to come together and do it collectively, it’s such a better use of resources. Overhead is less, we’re not paying for all those platforms separately. I just think there’s a lot of things that can happen and will happen.
Jen
It’s amazing! I know when you introduced yourself you talked about how your entire business is coming on to join Reset Your Nest as the Denver region. But then you are going to be acting as the VP of Processes and Growth. We get so excited when we talk about: “What does this look like?” “How do we grow?” “How do we make things even better collectively?” But when I think about your region and now we’re saying Sikora Solutions is powered by or in partnership with Reset Your Nest, I’m sure there’s going to be other organizers that are wondering “what does that even look like?” Do you just drop everything that you’ve built over the last six years and now you become a clone of Reset Your Nest? What do you envision that looking like? Because I know we’re still figuring this out together. But I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
What will joining Reset Your Nest look like?
Stephanie
So far it’s been, we still get to do the same great things that we’re doing and then leverage the tools that you’ve already created. Jen has created, looking at the back end of things I’ve just been amazed at the design guides, the look books, the style guides, the labeling guides. You name it, Jen has created it and it is done so beautifully. And I’m nerding out just reading all of it and sharing all of it with my team. So it’s doing what we’re doing and that’s what I loved about it because you weren’t like “we’re going to come in and want you to start doing things this way the way we do it.” You’re like “you’re doing great, keep doing what you’re doing, and then here’s some tools to really enhance what you’re already doing.” So far it’s been wonderful and it will continue to be wonderful.
You would think often in these situations that’s how it would be because that’s traditionally how acquisitions go like that. But you’ve just honored what we’ve built and obviously it’s worked for us so we get to continue doing that, and again, leverage a lot of the tools that you created but also a lot of the administrative things with bookkeeping and insurance. I can’t even tell you how relieved I am not to be like: “is our contract solid?” “Is our insurance correct?” “1099 versus W2?” And all those things that keep me up at night and take away my creative energy. It’s just so nice to have that support, all the legal stuff, everything, and bookkeeping is supported. So we have that support and then we have all the amazing tools that you’ve already created and then we just continue to do what we’re doing and serving our clients.
Jen
It really is so amazing! And hearing you talk, I feel it too! I mean, when I started, as most, as solo entrepreneurs you’re doing everything. And there’s just so much going on. I’ve talked to some organizers who actually love the numbers part of it, and some really love the business side of it. I know you, Stephanie, love the processes. For me, I always loved organizing and I actually have grown to really love content creation. But I know so many organizers who hate content creation. They create beautiful spaces but they do not want to touch Instagram with a ten foot pole. So we all have these little pieces we like on the back end and we all come together for a love of organizing.
What I love about this and even where I’ve been able to focus on that last year and a half since really building my team is that I don’t really have to do the things that I don’t like doing anymore. We can let our amazing CFO, Ashley, handle all the numbers and all the money, and all invoicing, and collections, and the things that are really hard. We even had an organizer get in an accident a month ago and it’s been really, really hard and I’ve been able to care for her as a friend and not have to worry about worker’s compensation and insurance because that burden is carried by someone who is on my team.
It feels so good to have a support system because it really is so much when you’re thinking about clients and you’re thinking about supporting your team of organizers that work with you and just everything that goes into running your own business. So I feel it too and it’s a really nice place to be, I think, to lean on each other and do the things that we love doing the most.
Stephanie
Yes, absolutely! Like you said, the social media piece, because you love that and I gave a sigh of relief again because I don’t have to worry about that so much.
Jen
You don’t! And your social media is beautiful! But now we can come together and we get to take the beautiful pictures and create the content for you.
Stephanie
Pictures are the easy part.
Jen
They are, it’s all the other things. Well, this has been fun! I hope this has been helpful. I know there are going to continue to be a lot of questions. I feel like in this community of followers we have on Instagram, so many are here to enjoy great tips and share a love of organizing and then we also have a really great community of professional organizers from around the country that I’m just so grateful for. I feel like we’ve become online friends and then have opportunities throughout the year to see each other in person. One of those is coming up next week at the Organizer’s Collective, I’m so excited!
I think there will be a lot of questions because we’re still figuring it out but this is relatively new and I hope this helps answer some questions. And even for those who look at Stephanie and think “why did you do this? You had a great business, why did you join Reset Your Nest?” This is such an exciting opportunity for both of us so I think it’s just fun to talk about that. Is there anything else you would like to share or talk about before we sign off?
Vice President of Processes and Growth
Stephanie
Again, I’m excited about this and excited to share with others how this journey evolves. Part of my role as Vice President of Process and Growth is helping the existing regions that are already a part of Reset Your Nest and really help them to be successful. And then look at how we expand and other organizers that are interested in joining versus doing it alone. That really excites me because that’s part of what I’ve loved over the time that I’ve had my business is not only the organizing but the development of individuals and the team members and the team and what that looks like. So I’m just really excited to support others. I’ve had that opportunity these last few years and people would reach out as they do with you: “Do you have any advice?” “Can you help me with this?” And I think that’s the benefit of being part of this. The definition of a team has changed and so just being able to support each other in that way, whether you’re part of Reset Your Nest or not. Just to help others not feel so alone. So I’m excited that I get to focus on that in this role. It’s just going to be exciting. It already is!
Jen
I’m so glad, you’re going to be amazing! I think wherever anyone is at in their organizing business, it’s easy to connect with the things that you’ve shared. It’s just a lot. There’s a lot to think of and it’s hard. But I love this community of organizers. We really are here for each other, whatever stage of business we’re in. I love that this is how you and I, Stephanie, are trying to help this community of organizers, making it bigger and offering support for those who want it in this way.
Stephanie
Thank you so much, thank you for having me join. And Jen, thanks for having me. This is such a great way to kick this off!
Jen
Yes, thank you! Okay, the news is out! So celebrate with us and you’ll be seeing a lot of posts this next week of some of the amazing work that @sikorasolutions has done and is continuing to do in Denver. We just can’t wait!
If you have any questions, please comment below or DM us on Instagram!
Jen is the founder of Reset Your Nest, a Professional Home Organizing business in Utah (Salt Lake City, Park City, Ogden, Logan, Utah County, and St. George), California (Bay Area, Los Gatos, Hillsborough, Atherton, San Jose), Denver, CO, and Phoenix, AZ. She loves creating order and systems out of chaos. Her specialty is finding a way to continue the aesthetic of any home to every cupboard and drawer. She shares her tips and tricks on Instagram @reset_your_nest.
