After the Just the Job on decluttering News Shopper received many queries from people wanting to break into this career. Declutter and interior designer Rachel Atkins, owner of spacerenovation.org.uk, offers some tips for getting started.

The first and most crucial piece of advice is you must be passionate about what you're doing and why you're doing it. If you simply think it would be a nicer way to earn money than being in an office, forget it. decluttering is a very new service area and very few people are earning a good full-time salary doing it. If you are serious about setting up in business on your own in this field don't give up the day job until you have done the following:

Research

- This includes researching other decluttering, and related businesses, local competition and your market. Crucially, you need to research marketing, you may not be going into business to be good at marketing, but if you don't learn how to market your business successfully, you won't have a business.

Secured financial backup

- Have some financial back-up, I would say, at least three months and preferably six months, worth of savings to live on. You are not going to start earning money straight away, and when you do, it's likely to come in dribs and drabs for the first few months.

Start off part-time

- Be prepared to do part-time work and/or temporary work whilst you're building the business up, depending on what you do, this may well be a source of potential clients for you in addition to extra income.

Have a comprehensive business plan

- Review it regularly. Be realistic about what you need to earn, what you want to earn and what you think is possible - these could all be very different.

Know your market

- Have a firmidea about your ideal clients and target your marketing towards them. You will have to spend money on marketing, especially in the early months, so be very clear about this and monitor the results.

Be flexible

- Offer a range of related services, de-cluttering alone will not give you enough work. Some people offer time management, life coaching, PA, courses, for example. I also offer interior design services and at the moment, this is the area where I'm getting most interest from potential clients.

Be sure

- Read some inspiring books to make sure this is really what you want, there are hundreds of life-coach books out there which will help. One of my favourites, specifically targeted at choosing a career is The work we were born to do by Nick Williams.

Finally remember

- At the moment there is no training currently available for de-cluttering, although apdo-uk, the Association of Professional Declutterers, is planning to provide training in the future. There is of course, training in related areas, for example, part and full-time courses for interior design are widely available.

There are no bursaries available that I am aware of, business loans are a possibility but by no means guaranteed, and will depend on your personal financial circumstances as much as the quality and vision of your business plan.