For Emily and Marisa Berman, sisters-in-law and co-owners of the Neat Method’s Philadelphia franchise, Jewish values and business are intertwined. The Neat Method helps to organize spaces for families who might need help doing so, but it’s about more than that for these two, Emily explained.
“Being a Jewish mother and creating traditions and values in the home, and creating the home as the focal point, matters to us,” she said. “The business is all about creating a space that’s peaceful and calm in a beautiful way.”
The Neat Method is a nationwide company that operates more than 90 franchises, but Philadelphia’s iteration is special. With two Jews in charge, Neat Philadelphia has been especially appealing to many Jewish clients in the Delaware Valley. Make no mistake: Neat’s other franchises can handle similar jobs, but there is something special about one Jew helping another. Especially when, for example, a house has kosher constraints.
“Every system is custom. [Being] kosher for certain foods, we understand. If you have a child with allergies, we’ve done that before,” Marisa Berman said. “Whether we’re moving someone into a new home or creating a nursery for a baby, one of the most exciting parts of the relationship is [being a part of] those big life moments.”
Most of the clients that they serve live in Center City or on the Main Line, as Marisa and Emily do too, respectively. This helps keep things relatively easy for the duo, who are raising kids in addition to running the business. Marisa Berman said that there is another Jewish value that comes into play for them: tzedakah.
“As a business, we’re always looking for ways that we can give back to the community, whether it be through Jewish giving or other causes that are near and dear to our heart,” she said.
They have donated to secular organizations, like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Jewish ones, like Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options. They also work with Jewish communal agencies and are synagogue members. Emily and her family belong to Main Line Reform Temple, while Marisa and her family attend Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel.
The two are married to brothers, which is how they met. The Berman brothers have four other siblings, making family gatherings huge, loud and endlessly fun. Emily joked that when she and Marisa first started this endeavor, her husband framed it as if it may end up being more of a hobby than a business. The numbers, Emily said, speak for themselves.
“There’s a lot of competition out there. There’s a lot of home organizers. What we do is not necessarily a novel idea, but we really want to be number one. [We want to be the] go-to company where people think of organizing and service, providing the top-tier service to our customers.”
Their market share has risen since beginning last summer, and the two Bermans said that their goal is to crack the top 10 of all Neat franchises before their first anniversary.
Emily said that the two first got introduced to Neat as clients, and their nature as organized people themselves made getting into the business an attractive idea. Both are hard workers and are often aligned on the vision for the brand. In fact, they said they have yet to have an argument in a professional capacity. That’s another reason that the business has been successful.
They had to learn how to best cater to each person’s needs, but that’s part of the fun, Emily said.
“It’s a completely separate skill set to go into someone else’s space, understand how they live and understand their needs and priorities, and be able to take action from that and create a system that works for them,” she said.
Whether it’s celebrating Chanukah or Passover, organizing a home or just hanging out as relatives, Emily and Marisa are often together. When they take on a job, each one gets the same level of care. As they continue with Neat, they will maintain their Jewish values and customs. As they said, there is no project that is too big or too small. They’ve organized pantries in an afternoon, but they have moved a family of four and all their belongings from Villanova to King of Prussia.
“So while, yes, we can come and just organize one space, we can do much more than that. And I think people often feel judged by how their spaces are kept and feel embarrassed to reach out,” Emily said. “But those are the spaces that are the most enticing, and the ones that we want, because the transformations are just so remarkable and really where we can add the most value.”