Everyone said I was crazy when I quit my high-level job and started my first business, a marketing consulting firm, in the fall of 1989-just at the start of the 1990s recession. I knew that with change comes opportunity and that there is much less security in working for others than in working for yourself.
I was right. While my fellow MBA graduates were being laid off from their corporate jobs, I was earning more than I’d ever made working for anyone else, with the added satisfaction of knowing I was creating my own opportunities and I was in control of my own destiny.
Rather than sitting around an office wondering when my company would announce cutbacks, I was out marketing myself and getting business.
Now, I didn’t have the comfort of a spouse to support me. In fact, I was paying a mortgage on my own and later supporting a child too. I didn’t even have the luxury of having my family around to help with childcare. If I didn’t keep my business going, we would be in serious trouble.
I have to admit that I never took my success for granted-quite the opposite. Even when I was earning $125 per hour back in the 1990s as a marketing consultant, I still spent time calculating how long it would take to become homeless in case I never got another project. Looking back, I call this my “Bag Lady Fear Phase.”
By the way, now that I’ve been an entrepreneur for 20 years, I don’t think about this anymore. I’m not as nervous as I was back when I was first getting accustomed to the idea of living without a guaranteed paycheck every week.
So if you go through your own “Bag Lady Fear Phase” as you start your home staging business, don’t let it scare you into thinking you’re on the wrong path or that you need to run back to the “security” of working for someone else.
Download a copy of the free Ask Staging Diva Report: “Can I grow a home staging business in a depressed economy?” for lots of information about the economy and it’s effect on real estate and the home staging industry. You’ll also learn ways to become financially secure, and where to find money that you could put towards starting your business.
At the end of the day, you must take a deep breath, try to calm your fears and keep going!
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging businesses. There are currently over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates around the world. Debra encourages anyone concerned about starting or growing a home staging business in today’s economy to download her free special report: “Ask Staging Diva: Can I grow a home staging business in a depressed economy?”
[tags] fear of starting a home staging business, home stager, home staging, entrepreneur staging diva, debra gould, home staging training[/tags]
Thanks for that uplifting info….A friend and I are seriously thinking of starting our Home Staging business. We have some steps we need to take before it is up and running, but we are excited. This is a career we want to start for ourselves in addition to taking care of our children and family life. We thought it was perfect due to the flexibility of the business. I will keep reading your posts for the vital information you give to be successful in this business.
Lisa
That was a good article!!! We do feel like maybe we won’t be getting a call and won’t be able to pay bills etc. when you do it full time. I like the Title you gave. “Bag Lady Phase” Also, to take a deep breath to calm our fears at the end of day. Also, you show how without a husband to help you with finances and children, you conquered your fears and moved on showing how things can be tough but if you keep trying things will happen for the good!!!
Hi Debra
I am sitting on the edge and just can’t seem to make the leap into doing this full time. I have never taken a course but I have staged several properties already.
The listing agent asked who had staged my in-laws home for sale and when she told them her daughter in law, she asked for my number and has used me for several other properties. Do I need to be “licensed” in some way or take a course
to really make a go of this? There is so much information online I am a bit overwhelmed. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you
Lynne James
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
905-842-6478 home
905-815-7017 cell
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I’m glad you find my free articles and newsletter helpful.
Home staging is a completely unregulated field so there is no such thing as licensing, certification or accreditation. Some companies promise this because it sounds good when you’re trying to sell a course, but there is no credential that is officially recognized by any independent third party.
In my opinion, the only reason to take any training is if you think it will increase the chances of your success in business, assuming your goal is to make a good living at this. Research any company you’re thinking of taking training with before parting with your cash, as in any field, there are good ones and bad ones.
Not all training is offered by people who have actually had a successful staging business, in fact quite the opposite. Fortunately you can do your own Google searches to see what the track record is of anyone you are thinking of learning from.
I’m a big fan of following your passion and taking charge of your life. I do consider it a personal mission to help people do that and that’s why I share so much free information in this field. More than most people as you’ll find as you start researching.
However, I do save all my best secrets for success for my paying students of course! Members of the Staging Diva inner circle are the only ones who get the full story on how I went from nothing to earning up to $10,000 per month staging homes within my second year as a home stager.
You can take a few years and figure out a whole bunch of stuff on your own, or you can take a short cut and learn what I figured out the hard way. Many of my students earn thousands of dollars with their very first client, money they would not have made if they hadn’t learned what I have to teach. You can read student comments here.
Hi, I still would to be able to do home staging.
But I only work 4 months in the summer and will have to save the amount for 5 courses.
A friend of mine who has a wonderful gallery and gift shop where I work part time, she just finished this course.:)
I mentioned to her I want to take the course this fall and she incouraged me because she said I would be great.
While working in her shop I do staging with items for gift ideas, and they sell.
My question is how do I find enough folks to start?
That part is the scariest part.
I am a pet food rep and have not had any luck signing people up or to be even interested in buying the food.
I hope this course will teach me the ropes I need desperately to be successful
Beverly’s question “how do I find enough folks to start?” is simply a marketing challenge. I spend 2 full hours on marketing in course 4 of the Staging Diva Training Program , though a marketing orientation is woven into the entire program. I have an MBA in marketing and have been applying what I know on this subject since 1982. Because I have been a full time entrepreneur supporting myself from my home office since 1989, I know exactly what it takes to build a business from scratch, to get the word out about your service and to attract “enough folks” to make a great living. I started my home staging business, Six Elements Inc. in 2002, before then no one had ever heard of me as a home stager!