At some point in your home staging business, you might decide you need some help. For example when you have to stage a vacant home and all the setup needs to be completed in a day.
It takes time to dress all the beds, get the wrinkles out of the new shower curtain and hang artwork. These home staging tasks are much easier when you have an extra set of hands.
Hiring an ineffective home staging assistant, or bringing the wrong person to your client’s home, can be both frustrating and costly.
Here are 5 key qualities I look for in a home staging assistant:
1. Integrity
There’s an astonishing lack of integrity these days. People who say “Sure, I’ll meet you at 2PM” and then cancel at the last moment, or chronically show up late.
Or people who pretend they’re working when they aren’t. Or people who commit to send you something by a certain date and don’t get around to it.
This is not the kind of behavior you can have on your team and it will make you look bad in front of your home staging clients. Not to mention the pitfalls of hiring someone who might steal from your client’s home when your back is turned!
2. Attention to Detail
There’s a ton of detail that goes into home staging. From getting all the wrinkles out of a pillow case to ensure all the lampshades are straight in your home staging portfolio photos.
Some people have a natural eye for detail and others don’t. You’ll need to find a way to assess this skill if you don’t want to micro manage every little thing your assistant does on a home staging job.
3. Positive Energy
Now that you run your own home staging business, you get to decide what kind of people you want to have around you.
Your home staging day will be much more pleasant when it’s free of Drama Queens, Complainers and people who just seem to make you want to take a nap after a conversation with them.
Look for a home staging assistant who is positive, enthusiastic and has high energy— without being hyper.
4. Able to Remember and Follow Directions
You don’t want to have to keep repeating yourself because that gets really frustrating and wastes your time and energy.
You should be able to give your home staging assistant a list of what you want done and then let them go do it.
Ideally, you want them to follow a long series of steps without having to check back with you to dole them out one at a time.
I don’t mind if someone takes notes while I give instructions, but it drives me crazy when they don’t and have to ask me to repeat myself every 10 minutes.
5. Creativity
Perhaps you expected “creativity” to be first on my list? Perhaps it would be higher up in the ranking (though still behind “integrity” and “attention to detail”) if I were hiring someone to take over a home staging project from start to finish.
When I’m hiring an assistant to just help me out on a project, “creativity” is definitely last behind the other qualities I’ve mentioned. As the head of my own home staging business, I really see my role as that of Creative Director and Project Manager, so I need someone who is better at following my directions than coming up with their own creative solutions.
I do look for more creativity if I’m sending someone out to shop for accessories for me on behalf of one of my home staging clients. While they pay me to shop for them, there’s nothing wrong with delegating some of the legwork to an assistant.
Please don’t call me if you’re looking for a home staging assistant job (though I am hiring for other roles). I don’t employ any full-time home staging assistants. I prefer to contract out to people by the hour on an as-needed basis. This keeps my overhead very low, plus I still make extra profit on their services using the formula I share in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.
If you’re wondering why I don’t need a whole bunch of home staging assistants despite staging hundreds of homes, it’s because I don’t own my own home staging inventory. This also keeps my overhead low, and profits high.
Home stagers – What do you do in your own home staging business? Do you hire people? What qualities do you look for in an assistant? Did I leave out anything in my top 5? Please share in the comments below to make this an even better and more complete resource for our fellow home stagers.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice of Possibility Group Inc.
Home Staging expert Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and has taught over 8000 students how to do the same. She is the author of several guides including the Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans.
While not a quality, but more a skill set, I look for someone who is comfortable with the computer and various programs. This is usually a given skill with younger people but not with older ones. I also look for someone who is a self-starter – don’t just stand there, look at what needs to be done! – I don’t want someone who thinks they’re the boss, but I don’t want a robot either. Also, resourcefulness is another quality I look for. Where else can I find this? What else can I do to solve the problem? Who else can I call? While I want someone to follow directions, it would be nice if they could think on their feet a little.
Donna, I love what you’ve added here! I especially relate to your pain about non self starters. I too have experienced wanting to say, “don’t just stand there, look at what needs to be done!”
And resourcefulness, absolutely! I’m amazed at how un-resourceful people can be, not only “assistants” but some stagers themselves. The number of times someone emails or calls me with a question that could be answered in two seconds on Google is astounding. I guess that gets back to your “comfortable with the computer” comment 🙂
Thanks again for commenting!
Donna and Debra – you both add important qualities to Debra’s original article. I learned some valuable lessons this year when I contracted an “experienced home stager” to help me during some large vacant stages! Though it could fall under Debra’s “attention to detail,” I think another important quality for any assistant is the ability (and willingness) to keep accurate records on their hours worked, miles traveled, inventory used, etc. The person I contracted with didn’t have a system for this and I found myself spending time going back over these important details with her because it was questionable, and because I was paying her good money. I ended up creating my own form for these important details and will now require it be used.
This post also makes me think of what I can do to get the kind of assistant that fits my criteria; since I tend to believe that people around me generally want to do the right thing if they know what I expect. I’m going to create a list of staging assistant interview questions using Debra’s article and additional qualities shared by fellow home stagers in these comments. Why not – they come from experts!
Stacy, I really appreciate you sharing your experience, most helpful to our community! It’s amazing the things you “think” would be general common sense and then discover they aren’t to someone else. I’ve made that mistake myself and discovered you can rarely assume anything.
Thanks for commenting!
I am interested in the Home Stager assistant job and I find this article very useful.
I am very interested in becoming a staging assistant. I am retired and love being creative. I think this would be right for me. I am excellent at multitasking and following directions. Worked for 25 years as a manager/supervisor at Family Court.
Good for you Jean, why not use your creativity to earn money?
Have you ever considered having your own staging business? Instead of making close to minimum wage, you could be earning what most people make in a whole week in a single home staging consultation or two. If you’d like to learn more about the Staging Diva Program, which happens to be on sale this week, check out:
https://stagingdiva.com/store
You mentioned being retired. I don’t know all my graduate’s ages but I can tell you most Staging Diva Students are in their 40s, 50s and 60s. There are 4 at least who took my program in their 70s!
Hello my name is Laura Dehnel,i have been in the fashion industry for about 15 years. I am very interested in making home staging a career. I, have a significant amount of experience in visual merchandising. I have so many ideas and really want to branch out in this industry , these are some of my strenghths, paying close attention to detail, how to color coordinate, mix match patterns, perfectionist . Although I don’t have a degree in design I feel like I would bea great addition to this industry .please contact me I am based in Salt Lake City Utah and I know there is a lot of opportunity here.
Laura, you have the perfect background and your visual/presentation skills and attention to detail will serve you very well in home staging, color consulting and interior redesign. By the way, I have no degree in design either, and that’s hardly stopped me (or thousands of my students).
As a first step, I hope you’ll join me and grab a free pass to a course I’m teaching by conference call. You can get the details here.
Hi Debra,
I am actively trying to pursue a career in home staging. I don’t have any experience so I have been applying for staging assistant position jobs, I’ve been on 3 interviews and constantly get denied through emails saying I have a lot of passion but not the right fit.
I have a little bit of decorating experience and recently redecorated a commercial office (specifically for the experience) I have plenty of customer and merchandising experience but still get denied. Is there something that I should try doing to stand out from others applicants? I’m very passionate about staging/design. I always get great compliments on my decorating but it seems that employers just don’t see the potential in me. Do you have any advice?
Thank you!
Honestly Kam, my best advice is stop trying to get someone else to hire you and learn what you need to know to get your own home staging business off the ground.
I didn’t have any “experience” either (other than staging my own homes) when I walked into my first paying client. That was hundreds of homes ago. Had I let my fear stop me, I wouldn’t be where I am today and neither would the 10,000+ home stagers I’ve taught. I don’t think any of them worked for another home stager before starting their own business. It really isn’t necessary.
In the time you’ve invested so far in trying to get hired, you could have learned my entire business model.
If you’d like to start making a living from the talent and passion you already have for staging/design, I hope you’ll check out the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.
Thanks for commenting!
Thank you! That is my ultimate goal but I don’t have the merchandise yet! But I will definitely take your advice into consideration!
Thanks for the response!
Kam, you don’t need any of your own inventory of furniture or accessories when you follow the business model I outline in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, that’s the beauty of it! That’s why I’ve written so many articles on this blog about how you don’t need your own merchandise.
As a first step, I suggest you check out this special report, 7 Massive Mistakes That Can Kill Your Home Staging Business. It’s only $20 and you can find it in the Staging Diva Store.
I have a quality/design that is appropriate in today’s look and style/idea of open/creative space. I was born to walk into a space and automatically redesign it. I don’the know exact ally why, but I love this! I’very been to art school, with my mind on fashion illistration/design, however the money was in corporate environments. I can’text stand to be in a cubicle any longer! I need to use the talents I have to reach my potential, and see if it was conducive to what I belive I have to offer.
Maryann if you were born to do this, then don’t wait. I can totally teach you how to make a great living from your talent! Please check out my courses at this link: https://stagingdiva.com/homestagingcourses.html
Hi Debra,
Have you had a lot of students start out in the industry as assistants, or did most of them jump right into their own business and then hire assistants?
Great question Jennifer! No my students don’t start out as assistants. They don’t need to because the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program completely prepares them to start making a solid income from their very first client. They would be crazy to go in as an assistant making less than a tenth of what they could make on their own 🙂
And very few of them actually “hire” assistants, except on an as needed basis. My business model is designed to let you run your business without needing to hire other people. So for example, when I need help, I generally hire a stay at home mom who would like to make some money while her kids are at school. She’s happy to make $20 an hour, meanwhile my client will pay me more than 3 times that for her time (because even at that rate, it’s half what they are paying for my time). See what I mean?