Being in business for oneself is not as easy as it might look. You have to work through that feeling of wanting to give up that many business owners, including home stagers, experience in that first year or two in business.
I came across a quote recently by an unknown author that says:
“Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.”
It reminded me of my own metaphor of giving up a block too soon.
Alaska home stager Stacy Goade is the first Staging Diva Graduate in Alaska and she’s a great example of why you should never give up on your dream.
Besides marketing your services, you also need a positive mindset and a strong belief in yourself as a home stager to be successful or else you never know what you might miss out on.
Stacy recently wrote me about the great note her business ended on last year.
On December 29, the very day 
that she was feeling so discouraged that she contemplated giving up the staging business she started a few months ago, her phone rang not once but twice in 20 minutes.
The calls came from two different Realtors®, one wanting Stacy’s help to stage a home that would be listed in the new year and the other asking her to speak at a team meeting in March.
Stacy mentioned that those real estate agents contacted her from her profile page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, and through relentless networking efforts using her professionally designed home staging business cards.
About feeling discouraged, Stacy writes:
“I reflect on the advice and insights you have shared with me and other Staging Diva Graduates. Don’t give up your dream, things happen when you least expect it, a web presence is essential, search engine optimization is even more essential, find your opportunities and your niche, keep at it, be business smart, and focus on the positive.”
Stacey adds:
“Running your own business is a lot of work and a testimony to your attitude and fortitude! Debra, thank you for your ongoing support and patience, sharing your insights and advice, your incredible business savvy, and for being invested in our success by availing yourself to us for individual help and encouragement.”
This story proves that you never know where your next home staging project may come from and why you should not be so quick to give up on yourself and your dream.
I can so relate to that feeling of wanting to give up because I had it weekly in my own first year as a stager.
Home stagers, have you ever had an experience like Stacy’s where something amazing happened in your business around the same time you were thinking of giving up? Please share by leaving a comment below.
Editors Note: I wrote another story about this Alaska Home Stagers TV Debut!
I, too, was thinking of quitting my staging business, or more realistically getting a part-time job this January to augment a very slow business, but at the end of November through December, my phone started ringing a lot. I now have two staging jobs, and two more “in the wings” for in the next few months, plus more importantly, I have become the “go-to” stager for a pair of local agents who never considered staging until someone whose house they listed two years ago asked them to call me! Now they have another project for me to start next week as well — my second vacant property through them! So I agree, hang in there, keep persevering, and your efforts WILL pay off eventually, it just takes time as a new stager. I’ve been a stager for exactly a year, and I feel confident now that I can really have a business with fairly steady clients!
Go Stacy!
It’s good to know there is a fellow stager in Alaska!
I started my business last year and was off to a great start, but found out last August I had stage 3 breast cancer! So……..I had to put the staging on hold. But, I recently finished treatment (including alternative) and have made fantastic progress (thank God) and am ready to jump back into it with both feet…..My dream started, got put on hold for a bit….and now back within reach! I’m not giving up! Staging is way too much fun and profitable!
Susan: I’m a cancer survivor, too — I was diagnosed less than two years ago with non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma, and went through chemo for 3 months. With my second lease on life, I decided to “go for” my dream of becoming a stager. So kudos to both of us for getting through these tough times and still being able to pursue our dreams!
Wow Amy and Susan, thanks for sharing that and supporting each other. I’m so pleased to hear that both of you are finished your treatments and approaching your post cancer lives with optimism and a focus on living your dreams.
I wrote this article called the “Heroes of Home Staging” which you might find interesting too:
https://stagingdiva.com/homestagingbusiness/heroes-of-home-staging/
Amen Amy! I’m so happy for you!
Amy and Susan,
Thank you for your kind encouragement and support; especially the enthusiasm both of you share after having more serious things to feel anxious about! Am so glad both of you recovering and looking forward to getting “back in the saddle” as they say. Keep me posted on how business progresses.
After Debra posted my story, my vibrational frequency must have been on the high end as I received a call from a Real Estate Broker whose company won my staging consultation gift certificate (the realtor won it in a drawing this past December). I expect the real estate associate was “trying me out,.” At the end of my first staging consultation, she mentioned that she had a client she would like me to meet with in early March. Although I am excited, I will have to see what transpires. But just “breaking the ice” as a small business owner and a home stager does wonderful things for self-confidence!
Stacy, I hope you have Google Alerts set up to see how many times Google is finding you all over the place because I wrote about you. The more your name is out there, the more you will hear from people, especially since you get links back to your Directory listing. 🙂
It is very encouraging to hear how many home stagers fit into one “Big Boat” and we don’t sink it! By nature, I’ve never been one to give up easily, yet my one big dream of having and running my own business has “teetered” on the edge of quitting several times in a short period. While I am determined, I’m not aggressive so when I stopped in at an “open house” one day I was shocked by my own behaviour when I walked up the front steps and into the home to meet the agent! I was so close to leaving without going inside, I even had my hand on the key! Something inside me took over and I said to myself “this is it! 2 feet, Jump in! These folks need you!” Well was I shocked when the agent said “I recognize your van. I’ve been meaning to call you.” Can you imagine how things would’ve turned out had I just drove away?! The reason the agent recognized my van was because of the very bright and bold logo I had just had professionally installed. Since then I have done a consultation for him and he recommended me to one of his colleagues and I did a consultation for her too, all in one week! Thanks to Debra and the comments of others like yourselves, I remain inspired to persevere!
Thanks, Susan and Stacey! Jackie, I’m very impressed you summoned up the courage to do that — I haven’t quite made it inside an open house yet myself, mostly because I always fear a negative reaction from agents as well. Good for you that it turned out so well! Reminds me I need a new sign on my car — mine fell off in a car wash and got destroyed last week! I hate not having one, especially when I’m staging all day like yesterday with my car parked in a street and no “free” advertising going on, since I do occasionally get inquiries from it.
Amy, when I pulled up in front of that house I forgot entirely that I have that sticker covering the entire back window! It was a good reminder to me! My intention was to “sneak” in and view the home and just play a little game with myself trying to determine what I would do if I had to stage it. I could see from the street that someone was walking around inside the house and wouldn’t you know there wasn’t just one agent in there but 2! My stomach flip-flopped when I thought about how close I was to just driving away! What an impression that would’ve made! I live in a very small town and the idea of home staging is off to a slow start. Apparently there are 4 or 5 stagers in the area but they mostly work outside of town. I find I’m really bursting outside my comfort zone lately (open-house a case in point!) and I’m finding it way easier than expected to sell the idea of home staging because I truly believe in its value. My only regret is not finding Debra and her course sooner! So glad to hear that you’re back “in the saddle”! All the best to you in your endeavors!
Debra,
I was SO pleasantly surprised to see that you did a story on me! Thanks so very much. I have a piece of paper sitting next to my computer, reminding me that I need to set up Google Alerts! I will do that tonight. Since our last communication, I had another real estate agent contact me to stage a newly constructed, vacant home and condo for a March real estate “parade of home!” I am a little frantic, and I remember being so amazed to see how my hand and ink pen were shaking as I placed a return call !
Jackie, like you I have been a little nervous about open houses. The first open house I went to I pulled into the drive way so I COULDN’T leave (because I felt as though I might chicken out at the last minute!). The real estate agent inside was polite and after I viewed the home; she listened to me explain my home staging services. When I finished she said that I most home sellers don’t see the value in home staging and a lot of real estate agents set up a mini-living room as part of their “staging.”. Gulp! My stomach did a little flip-flop and I felt my confidence drop, but I handed her my business card and a couple of articles from anyway. The articles were from the “Staging Diva Chronicles,” directed toward real estate agents about the value of home stagers. Hopefully, that real estate agent will come to see a different view of staging. Thanks for sharing that you, too, are as human and nervous as the rest of us with a dream! That in itself takes away the biggest fear of all – “nobody else must be feeling the way I do!” 🙂
Susan,
Please contact me since you are in the “valley” and I typically prefer to stage in Anchorage proper. I would like very much to meet with you as the real estate season begins!
Are there any of the rest of you who live in places where the snow isn’t gone until late April and you are working to add “curb appeal” to the outside of a yard still frozen with snow?! I would love to recommend hanging baskets and I won’t every recommend “artificial” anything! Would love to get ideas….
Today is one of those days that I could just throw in the towel and give up! Patience has never been one of my virtues and this is a real test for me! 3 weeks ago I staged (if you can call it that-I’ll explain) a vacant home. The builder did not include staging in his budget but saw the value of it. I gave him a quote anyways. He rejected the quote but asked me to help him “stage” using borrowed, leather furniture from his parents house…it fell off the trailer on the way to the house! It was damaged but not noticeably so. There was no coffee table, end tables, lamps, etc. Long and short, I’m missing my coffee table and end table from my own living room and his furniture was not to scale with the room. I “peppered” other areas of the house with lovely accessories (which look pretty out of place without furniture!) and so far a couple of “lookers” but no bites. 2 other consultations for local agents has not produced any results in 2 weeks and despite the agents’ very positive feedback, I am beginning to feel a bit anxious. And to top it all off, today I met up with an acquaintance who has also started a staging business and she had just come from a consultation for a “whole home makeover!” for a local “big-business” resident! and then she asked me how to charge for her services! Arrgh! I think I’ll click on the link for inspirational quotes!
Jackie,
That builder project has bad news written all over it. This is not the kind of client you want to spend your time on unless he learns from the results of this “staging on the cheap” experience. Sometimes using an analogy with someone like that can help. I’m sure he can relate to what happens when a builder only uses the cheapest of materials and the cheapest trades he can find.
As for the agents, not that unusual. That’s why it’s always best when you can work directly with their clients and not do any free consultations. These may still turn into projects. There could be all kinds of reasons for the delay that have nothing to do with you, you just don’t know them since you’re not in contact with the ultimate clients. Be patient, follow up with the agent every 10 days or so and then wait and see.
Your acquaintance won’t be in business long if she’s got a huge project and no idea how much to charge for her services. Doesn’t sound like she was doing actual “business” with this client as no one will hire someone who can’t actually quote their rates.
Keep at it, you’re only at the very start of the spring real estate market. Yes time for some inspirational quotes! Here’s where you can find some to get your started:
https://stagingdiva.com/homestagingbusiness/category/inspirational-quotes/
This page is a list of the inspiring quotes blog posts I’ve written, you can click thru to each one from there.
Hi Stacy!
I realized with the posting on Staging Diva that you were the same person that contacted me almost a year ago!
It’s great to hear from you and know how good you are doing!
I went to your website and the pictures look great! I took one look at them and said: “Oh yeah, she’ll do fine!” You have the knack for it!
I”m super happy for you getting your business off the ground.
As I said on Debra’s website, I had to put my business on hold because of my health concerns. But I”m SO ready to start again, and already have 2 possibilities. Both are in the “valley” and are new construction or vacant homes. I’ve yet to stage one where the people are still living in it. But all the homes have sold in less than 30 days and as quickly as 24 hours after being shown. One home sold just off the pictures on the realtor’s website!
As far as outdoor decor in the winter. I usually don’t do anything outside except make sure the driveways, porches, decks, etc. are NEATLY removed of snow.
When spring comes, I like to put at least an outdoor chair with a colorful pillow or something on the front porch if there’s room, then slowly add (sometimes fake green plants that don’t look fake) about April, then come May, go for it! I put out real potted flowers, hanging baskets, etc. especially before an open house to welcome buyers. (You may have to bring them inside the garage at night though if it’s still cold).
If people already have furniture on the porch left from the summer, I would make sure there isn’t too much and that it is arranged neatly and looks welcoming.
It is hard when we live in the “frozen North” for so much of the year, but then Alaskans understand this and don’t expect flowers in the midst of snowstorms!
Good luck and keep up the good work!
Susan Gillespie
Gillespie Home Staging and Design
Stacy —
I was wrestling with this exact same problem for a house I just staged, since we still have LOTS of snow here in northern NJ, and there are two cast iron pots on the brick front steps. I cut down the dead “sticks” left over from mums from the fall, but couldn’t figure out what else to do with the pots. I thought of white branches, but this is a Jewish neighborhood and I wasn’t sure if that would look Xmas-y. The owner didn’t want to pay for anything more, like two small evergreens, so I just left the dirt-filled pots. Ideas?
We have to deal with snow and frozen ground too for a good chunk of the year. I’ve talked about planted urns in various Staging Diva newsletter articles, but perhaps it’s time for me to blog about it here. Thanks ladies for sharing your comments/questions on this issue!
Jackie,
I agree with Debra on every point. I also have several possible projects from three completed consults or bids, all brought to me by agents (boy, is that a turn-around from where I was just a few months ago, when I never heard from agents), and anticipated projects in March and May, but nothing is a definite yet. Even if people SAY they are going to use me, I don’t believe it until it actually happens! So much of what we have to do is convincing sellers (and agents) of our value, and like anyone who has to “sell” their services, it can get very frustrating. But today I heard from someone I did an estimate for back in December, because I sent her a link to some new staging photos, and she told me she decided not to put her house on the market after all. Another prospect called to tell me his house went under contract before I could meet with him! Just keep networking and marketing, and try to be patient — I always believe SOMETHING will come through, and it always does . . . just some times are slower than others.
Amy thanks for sharing that. I know it’s helpful for my readers to hear from my other readers as I think sometimes people forget that I’ve been in the trenches too 🙂
Jackie,
I, too, am realizing that although it’s so easy to get excited when calls from REAs (real estate agents) come in, most of them seem to be calls of interest/inquiry at this point. As Debra points out to us, it is still early in the real estate season and sometimes connections don’t pan out until a later date for various reasons. Like you, I pull up Debra’s inspirational stories and then dig in my “inspirational information” file folder to keep me focused on my business with a postive intent. I find that when my intent is clear and I fully commit to my intent, things begin to happen. I also know that when I am wishy, washy and not confident about my ideas, things don’t happen for my business. On march 1st, I will give a power point presentation to a team of real estate agents and I plan to blow them away! The information Debra continues to provide to us, along with all the stories, examples and support from my fellow stagers, like you, grounds me and inspires me. It’s so important to have an “anchor line” is it?! As a staging diva graduate, I feel affirmed when I can be an anchor line to others, and I feel less afraid when all of you are mine. Float on!
You guys are the best! Stacy best of luck with your REA presentation, do let me know how it goes!
Stacy, I am so impressed! Can you tell me, did you teach yourself “power point” If I can be so bold as to ask, what kind of material are you including in your presentation? I am almost 44 and rely on my high school kids to keep me “schooled” in the ways of technology. Since I can’t afford a website right now, I’ve been learning some new things by trying to set up a wordpress and blogspot blog, I’ve even put in a couple of links to the “Staging Diva”! . I was considering hosting an information session following our local home & garden show. I get pretty excited about home staging but I don’t think my enthusiasm alone is going to hold anyone’s attention for too long. I’d really appreciate it if you could give me some pointers…how did you “land” this potentially big “fish”? Were you invited or did you just “grab the bull by the horns”? Like Debra, I too would love to hear how you make out and Good Luck!…
A , quick note to Debra, Thank-you so much for being so “self-less” in your encouragement and sharing so much of your expertise with us! I can’t tell you enough how much I look forward to reading your comments and pondering the questions you put forth! Without you, I would never be able to compare notes with my “fellow” stagers nor would I be able to keep inspired! Cheers to all and here’s to a busy Spring 2011!
There are plenty of online resources to learn Power Point or you can buy a good old fashioned book. I’m afraid we sometimes get too pre-occupied with the tools though.
Power Point is a side issue, it’s like asking an artist what brand of paint they used. The paint isn’t the key thing, it’s the talent they used to put it onto canvas, the colors they chose, the brush strokes, their composition, etc.
The real task is the actual content of the presentation — not just what you say, but how you say it. That’s where marketing know-how comes in. It’s very important to get that right or it doesn’t matter how fancy your Power Point slides, you won’t sell anyone anything or inspire them with your point of view.
Jackie, I’m pleased you’re getting so much out of this blog and finding support here. That’s excellent, and is certainly my goal! Please know however, that you are only getting small parts of the story. The bigger picture for how all this works and how it all fits together is only shared with my students (many of whom you’ve met here).
Jackie — If you can’t afford a website, set up a blog on WordPress — I have heard good things about it. Also, join LinkedIn and check out all the sub-groups for stagers — I am active in many of them, especially the Home Staging Professionals group, and they are very helpful as well!
I agree that setting up a wordpress blog is the way to go (for a whole bunch of SEO reasons primarily), but make sure you have your own domain and host it on your own server. In other words don’t go to wordpress.com, instead go to wordpress.org. I could write an entire guide on why, but since this is just a blog comment, let me summarize by saying you must OWN your content. You should not have it as part of a domain you don’t control.
BTW, this is a wordpress blog, hosted in a sub-directory of my main domain (stagingdiva) which is an HTML site. That’s why the address is: https://stagingdiva.com/homestagingbusiness. For other examples of my own wordpress blogs see:
http://www.debragould.com
http://www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com
http://www.sixelements.com
http://www.debragouldhomecollection.com
I mention all these so you can see that the general category of “wordpress blog” can be used in many different ways.
Amy,
I am have a wordpress blog, a blogspot, I’m on Linkedin AND I have a facebook page! Sadly, I’m not using them effectively enough (for which I’m following Brian Moran author of “Get 10,000 fans! for facebook) I try to look at other home staging websites for content inspiration. I know my stuff and I’m passionate about it (my friends say I could sell ice cubes to Eskimos) but I don’t want to lose my potential clients’ attention by too much “preamble” in my content. I am working on “chopping” it down to the important stuff. I have to check out Debra’s suggestion too, the wordpress.org. I am just learning so much about the technology end of things but it takes so much time! How do I get to the “sub-group” for home stagers from Linkedin? Thank-you for your comments and suggestions Amy and Debra!
Jackie, I can do a one-on-one Website Checkup with you during which I’ll review an existing site for content, photos, links, how it’s built/SEO and you can also combine with a very specific discussion that answers your web questions. I built my first site in 1999 so I’ve been at this a LONG time. I also invest at least $1000 a year on continuing training/education in this arena.
If you’re interested in learning more about picking my brain and learning all the highlights to improve your web presence, look at Staging Diva Website CheckUp at this link:
https://stagingdiva.com/homestagingwebsitecheckup.html
Jackie,
Go to “LinkedIn sign in” and then to the groups directory tab — I think it says “groups you may like.” Scroll down to find the Home Staging Professionals group (or other staging/decorating groups as well). Sounds like you’re way ahead of me in the FB department! You really have to pick and choose what you can do, a little at a time, because you’re right, there is so much to learn about SEO and social media, as well as all the other aspects of dealing with clients, agents, and solving design problems!
Amy, thanks or responding to Jackie’s question about the Linked In Group! I’m a member there too, though I confess I spend more time here on my own blog writing and answering questions/comments.
Facebook: I also have a business page on Facebook and there’s a FREE REPORT, that you can’t get anywhere else, for you if you “like” the page:
http://www.facebook.com/TheStagingDiva
Debra and Amy,
Thank you both so much for your input, we are a busy bunch aren’t we?! I’m off to another colour consult right now! That’s 2 for this week! Let’s hope the traffic continues! I sure am glad I’ve “stuck to it” ! 3 weeks ago I did a consult for a local agent; she had a listing that had been on the market for 2 months with no action. She called me and told me that she was going to have a professional come in and do a virtual tour and wanted to know if I could give the home owners some suggestions. The house sold on Monday! I must develop patience, I must develop patience, I must….
Jackie, congrats on that success and those projects. Way to go!!