I came across an interesting article recently about a home stager who has come up with a new way to package her services over the holiday season which is traditionally a slower time of year for stagers.
She has started offering holiday home staging parties and I hope this story inspires you to think about some different ways you can be packaging your talents!
For these holiday staging parties, a free consultation is held beforehand where the host(ess) decides which room is to be staged and what the budget should be (the stager does her initial consultation for free but charges for materials and labor). At this time, the client also shares their preferred color palette, favorite types of fabrics and gives their general style preference to the stager.
Clients are also asked what purpose the space will serve over the holidays and whether or not they will be using their own items or if rentals and accessories will have to be brought in. (Read this entire holiday home staging article here.)
The holiday staging party actually takes place in the room that’s being staged while the stager gives a presentation as she decorates. The home stager transforms the space as the gathering goes on around her.
You know I don’t agree with home stagers giving free consultations, but besides that, this is an interesting way to get additional business at a slower time of year. At the end of the evening, the stager has exposed her business to all of the guests in attendance, the homeowner has a room made over for the holidays and everyone has shared some holiday cheer and will come away with some new holiday decorating ideas.
As a home stager, your natural talents and skills are very valuable and appreciated by anyone who doesn’t share them! Why not do something a little different? Can you think of some ways you can broaden your market by packaging your talents in a different way? Please feel free to share your ideas by commenting below.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love while helping others at the same time.
[tags]home stager, home stagers, home staging, home staging business, holiday home staging, free estimates, staging diva, debra gould[/tags]
Thank you for sharing this article with us. Kudos to the home stager for being creative. Its like having those ‘ tupperware’ or ‘ Avon ‘ get togethers from yester years which were always fun and often resulted in sales 🙂
Well done !
This article got my creative juices flowing as to how I can use this idea to meet some of my neighbors who’s homes are for sale in my neighborhood. I would feel really bold to go to their door and offer my services. I am thinking about doing a cookies and coffee open house. There are five homes in walking distance of mine for sale. Any ideas?
Great idea! A way to meet more prospective clients and to do a staging job!
Surprisingly, I’ve been busier this season for some reason…I wouldn’t think people would put their homes on the market now, but not only are they staging -they’re selling! One of my staged homes sold in under 2 weeks! Another took a little longer – 3 1/2 weeks, but even in this economy, homes are moving.
This is a great job!
Kay, just some random thoughts…
Stop by each house with your invite that says something like ” I know what will sell your house faster, come over, enjoy coffee and cookies and find out” (no purchase necessary)
Then when they come tell them what you do and show them your before and after pictures. Maybe have a drawing where they all get to draw a prize. The prizes would be things like; 1 free staged room, $25, $50, $75 and $100 off a staging package. (to cash in they must book a staging package) hard to refuse something for free. Maybe you’ll get 5 staging projects! Just think how much fun it would be for all of them to have Open Houses on the same day! Or if you only stage one home and it looks great, like we know it would, and it sells…the others would have you work on their homes too, no doubt!
Anyway, Good luck to you! What an opportunity!
I started my home staging business in March 2009. In April I took advantage of an opportunity to market my staging business in-person by renting a booth in a market near my home & on the waterfront. There are a variety of booths in the market selling used & new items and it is popular with residents and visitors to the Coast. We all take turns covering shifts, which works out to 3-4x/month. I had never worked in retail before, so I have had my challenges with the cash register and hitting the right keys! However, it has been fun so far.
I carry decor items and some furniture. I have the opportunity to interact with customers as often as I want & I can keep my decorating skills fresh by transforming my displays regularly. This also gave me an in to the wholesale market; so I have been able to get decor items to use in client’s homes for very good prices, which often means they end up purchasing them. If something I purchase doesn’t sell, I then have the option of putting it on sale or adding it to my inventory.
For $240/mo., less than the cost of 1 ad, I have on-going advertising and interaction with potential clients, and I have been making money to tide me over while my staging biz catches on.
The West coast of BC is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics in February and our Coast B&Bs are booking like crazy. We will have visitors from all over the world here in February and I am ready with Olympic hats, mitts & blankets, along with my regular decor items. Word is that there may be a spike in local home sales: I’m ready for that too!