For my 1,000th post in Home Staging Business Report I thought I’d discuss 3 dirty little secrets all home stagers share— whether they’re really experienced or just starting out.
I want to thank a home stager I coached this week for inspiring me to write this.
She is exactly where she was a year ago, no closer to starting her home staging business. What I heard were a lot of excuses that were really symptoms of 3 fears that she thought had to go away before she moved forward.
The biggest secret of all is your fears never entirely disappear, you just have to go after your dream anyway!
1. Stage Fright Is Part of The Process
Doing your first home staging consultation is the hardest, because until you do it you’ll worry about all kinds of things that will never happen.
A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. – John Lubbock
It’s easy to convince yourself you have no talent or that you won’t have any home staging ideas once you’re in a client’s home. Ask yourself whether you’ve ever walked into an open house or seen MLS photos that you couldn’t imagine how to improve in some way.
If you’re still unsure whether you have the eye of a home stager, download my FREE Staging Savvy Quiz. I share 10 before photos from my clients and ask what home staging ideas you would recommend. Then you can compare your answers to mine.
So here’s my little secret.
Despite staging hundreds of homes since 2002, I still get a little nervous on my way to a new home staging client. I think, “What if this is finally the one house where I have no ideas?”
If you’ve been a home stager for awhile, I’d love for you to share in the comments whether this still happens to you. I KNOW I can’t be the only one 🙂
2. Distractions Never Stop
When I started Six Elements Home Staging & Redesign, I was a single parent of a 7-year-old. I lived in an expensive city with no family around to help. I had no income other than what I could make as a home stager.
Every time I turned around it was a school holiday, or my daughter was sick, or there was something at school, or a doctor appointment, or something broken in our house that needed attention, or I had cramps, or I just wanted to veg out in front of the TV.
Running your own home staging business takes work. It’s easier then most businesses, but you do actually have to work on it!
It’s hard to put aside all the “real life” distractions and focus on what needs to get done. If I (and thousands of my students) could do it, you can too. We don’t possess any magic potion that gives us more than 24 hours in a day.
I sacrificed my social life for the first few years. Being a single parent and my business were all I could cope with on top of the usual personal and home maintenance things we all have to do. I was determined to make at least $100,000 a year by my second year as a home stager. That was an ambitious goal considering only 6% of the entire US population makes that much.
Had I set my income goals lower (or had a spouse or ex-spouse helping pay the bills), I definitely wouldn’t have worked as hard. I would have had time for more distractions and more socializing.
Nevertheless, I was able to walk my child to and from school every day and even volunteered to go on a 4-day school trip. I did not bake, though I did cook a healthy sit down dinner for us almost every night. I didn’t work evenings or weekends.
We all make choices about how we’ll spend our time. Some “distractions” can be ignored.
It’s OK to:
- Go in your office and close the door.
- Tell the neighbors you don’t have time for coffee because you’re working.
- Buy birthday cake instead of baking it.
- Host a pot luck instead of spending days cooking for 10.
- Not take personal calls or text messages while you’re working.
- Take your kids to run errands rather than doing them all while they’re at school.
You don’t have to say “yes” to everything everyone else wants you to do. Your priorities are important too.
If you’re a parent, it’s important to teach your kids about healthy boundaries — which they’ll never learn if you have none.
3. You’ll Never Feel Like a “Total” Expert Home Stager
You can put off starting your home staging business, or taking it to the next level, for years by convincing yourself there’s something else you need to learn before taking the next step.
Once you start practicing, you’ll actually master the skill of decorating houses to sell. No one is ever 100% confident before they go into their first client’s home.
You might be insecure about your home staging design sense. You might be imagining you can’t put together your home staging portfolio until you have some clients.
Perhaps, you’ve convinced yourself that you can’t have a home staging business until you know how to build your own website! As I told one home stager recently, letting a fear of building your home staging website stand in your way of starting your business would be like deciding not to become a parent until you’ve learned how to talk to teenagers. Besides, if you’re a graduate of my program, you can join the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers and not build your own site at all!
It’s not possible to know absolutely everything there is to know about being a home stager before getting your first client. Fortunately, you don’t need to. You only need to know more about home staging than they do. You only need to be more talented or creative then they are.
Or, maybe you only need to have the time to devote to staging their house that they don’t.
One of my early home staging projects was for an interior designer. I was intimidated because I have no interior design training. She had 2-year-old triplets and no time or energy to get her house ready to sell. She hired me so she could pack up the boys and head for the cottage while I took over the transformation of her city house. (A luxury I envied at the time!)
I’m proud to say her house sold within a week for $40,000 over the asking price. If I’d let my insecurity about not knowing as much about decorating as she did take over, I would have missed out on an awesome home staging project!
Even all these years later, even after writing 1,000 blog posts about home staging plus 200 newsletters and countless articles, I still don’t feel like I know everything there is to know. If I did, I would be completely bored!
How many of these secret fears or expectations do you have? Did you think you were the only one?
Do your worries about stage fright, not knowing enough and endless distractions stop you from moving forward with your home staging business? Please share in the comment section below. I know this discussion will help us all let go of what’s holding us back!
Thanks Debra for the post. I have been having a challenge of building momentum in my business lately and I can definitely relate to the post.
Thanks again and congratulation on your 1000th post!
Shelly
Thanks so much Shelly, I’m so glad you found this helpful! Hope to speak with you in our Staging Diva Dialog call tomorrow night!
Debra, big congratulations on your 1000th post. As someone who has just passed 100, I’m in awe : )
2 comments from me:
When you start out as a stager everything you do is a first – first consultation, first time you hire furniture, first agent presentation, first networking meeting, first blog, first display home, first re-design client. Every first puts you outside your comfort zone but is totally necessary, a great learning experience and (let’s not forget) can also be fun and rewarding
I get nervous every time I have a consultation and even every time I go to the furniture warehouse or complete an install. Like an actor in a play, a stager needs to give a good performance and nerves are good and a sign that you are taking the work and your client’s money seriously. I’d actually worry more if I wasn’t nervous.
Imogen, thanks so much for sharing your experience, I couldn’t have said it better!! And congrats on passing 100 posts, that’s a most important milestone!
Great article! – I need to know the first business steps to take to get going – which of your course sections covers this?
Hey Celeste, Thanks for writing. The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is broken down into 5 modules/classes.
Each one contains key components of the overall business formula I teach you to make money as a home stager. While each course stands alone, they do build on each other and you need all the pieces if you want to really maximize your profits and get your business growing faster.
Most people take advantage of the huge savings ($700 to $830) of going with one of our 5 course packages, or you can take the courses one by one.
I recommend starting at the beginning with Course 1, “Cash In Decorating Homes to Sell”, if you’re ordering course by course.
On the other hand, if you want a shortcut to ensure you make maximum profit with your very first project (and enough to pay for the entire program), you can start with Course 2, “The Business of Home Staging: What you Need to Start and How to Grow”.
You’ll find each and every course described in detail in the Staging Diva Store.
Debra,
This was an outstanding post! Congratulations!
I don’t understand why I was nervous on the first consultation I had after my Staging Diva Home Staging Business Courses. Maybe it was fear of the unknown, because it was a color consultation. The nice lady wanted a particular shade of pale blue with metallic highlights that made it gleam, for her bathroom walls.
There was nothing in my samples even close to what she was wanting.
I made a suggestion where she might find it, and she seemed okay. From there I started with her fireplace mantle, made suggestions to balance the furniture in the main living area, lowered pictures that were hung too high, and answered all her questions.
Once I got started all the butterflies went away. You see it’s not work to me. I am having so much fun creating new looks, and helping people. Staging homes is what I was born to do. I have rearranged rooms in every house I have ever been in, mostly in my mind of course!
Kay, I can really relate to you saying, “Once I got started all the butterflies went away.” I still find that too, even in homes where I don’t know what to recommend as soon as I walk through the front door. I look around, I take in the environment, I get more comfortable with the client (I’m a total introvert), and then the ideas start to flow! It’s like I only need one small idea and then it’s like a little magic door opens inside my brain and the rest of the ideas start pouring out. They are always there, it’s just a matter of trusting the process.
Like you, I’ve also rearranged rooms in every house I’ve been in my whole life. Recognizing this as the talent that people will pay you for is where the possibility of making a living from your gifts becomes possible.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with our community, I know you’ll inspire others!
Hi Debra, Congrats on the 1000 mark. I always enjoy your posts and newsletters. I have been running my home staging business in Victoria BC for 4 years now. I moved to Victoria 4 yrs ago as well so it was starting a new business in a new city. I still get nervous before a consultation,like you, I think what if I can’t find anything to say. It never happens though. When I started my business here I thought I had to have everything lined up before my first client. Because it was a new city I thought I had to know where to buy or rent everything, what trades would I need and where would I find them. Now I tell my clients I can find anything they need (even if I don’t know right now). I know i will be able to find it. What is the line, “necessity is the mother of invention”.
Thanks again Debra
Diana Zinck
The Stage Coach
Thanks so much Diana and congratulations on entering your 5th year of your home staging business. That’s a wonderful milestone. I appreciate you sharing your experience, I know it will help others just starting out! I love Victoria, lived there years ago and miss it!
Debra, well done! And thank you for the 1000 posts of insight, training, support AND encouragement that helps to steady the nerves and navigate the waters of building a home staging business. Like any artist, home stagers are no different; we fret about our creations and wonder what others will think of our work. Our creations and work are a part of who we are so it is natural to be nervous about going to new properties, meeting new clients and working miracles!
But you know what? Being on the edge and yes, making some mistakes, is how we learn and push ourselves toward our dreams of being a home stager and doing work we love. Imogene’s example of home stagers as stage performers is perfect! And I will add that the more we stage (or perform!), the more inner confidence we build and the more naturally we fit into our home stager roles. Maybe the jitters we all feel is just the electricity of anticipation; of creating and feeling alive in the process. Perhaps home staging projects – all of them – is like “opening night” and we home stagers get to step into the leading role and show what we can do!
Thanks for setting our stage and giving us the space to grow, rehearse and launch! 🙂
Wow, Stacy, so appreciate your comments!!
I’ve often thought about how nervousness and excitement kind of feel the same, its just one is labeled as negative and the other positive. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience.
Thank you for the honesty and transparency. It is very refreshing to know that other stagers face some of the same struggles that I do to keep life balanced. I do not have to be all things to all people. Thank you for the reminder!
You are most welcome Kim and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to comment. That’s what keeps me going when I sit facing the blank screen, trying to figure out what to write about, and then going ahead and doing it. Every time I hit “publish,” there’s a little prayer that what I write will make a difference 🙂
So thanks Kim and wishing you every success as a stager!
Thank you for this candid article, Debra! I have not done my first home staging project yet, but somehow, hearing that even experienced home stagers get the jitters increases my confidence a little bit and calms my fears about making everything perfect. I will remember all this advice, I am sure, when I am walking up to my first consultation and wondering “How did I get myself into this??” 🙂 Thanks for everyone’s input on this important topic, and a special thanks for your honesty!
Thanks for commenting Susan and I’m so glad I could help!
I had an hour and a half drive to my first consult. Plenty of time to drown in fear I was nervous at first. I was trying my hardest to be a confident professional. Amazingly, when it came to talking about solutions to her design needs I was in the zone!!!! I worried for nothing!!!!
Tanya, I’m so glad you shared this as I know it will inspire others. We have ALL been there, and continue to be. But once we’re actually doing what we were meant to do, that nervousness falls away and we find our “zone”. I guess it’s like a famous singer taking the stage. No matter how many years they’ve done it, how could they not have butterflies before stepping out in the spotlight. Then they start to sing and enjoy and remember why they do this and the magic happens!
Debra, thank you for your honesty and for helping me push past my own fears.
I haven’t officially started working yet but I asked a friend who was selling her house if I could do a “mock” staging. Unfortunately for me this gal is extremely organized and her home looked like no one lived there, even with a two year old. It didn’t leave me feeling very confident that I could help her in any way. She had done all the prep work of decluttering and depersonalizing and even had labelled bins for each of the kids for emergency showings that they could throw all their mess into and load everything into the van. But there are always things you can see that someone living in there own home cannot. I helped her rearrange plants, furniture, home decor and lighting to give warmth to the rooms she had emptied out. Her home had been on the market for five months, they had taken one price reduction and were being encouraged by the agent to take another but they got an offer two 1/2 weeks after our meeting and thankfully they didn’t have to. They are closing on their new home at the end of this month (2-1/2 months after they accepted the offer). My friend was getting up at 3am to start medicating for the migranes the stress of preparing, maintaining and selling the house caused along with having a travelling husband and two school age children she was driving 45 minutes each way to their new school district everyday while toting along her little one. I added all that because no matter how much it appears the home owner has it together you don’t really know the whole story and what an amazing asset you may end up being to this person.
Thersa, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE that story you shared. It’s fantastic on SO many levels.
The intimidation factor of walking into a house we “think” at first glance doesn’t need our help — and how there is always something to find anyways.
How home staging makes a profound difference in our client’s lives on many levels.
How staging is a much more profitable alternative to the endless price reductions real estate agents will request in place of ensuring the home shows at it’s best.
How a decluttered home is not necessarily a well staged home.
Thanks so much for commenting and I would love to write an article about you so this example doesn’t just stay buried in the comments section. You can cut and paste most of what you’ve written, plus add a few more details and a photo or two using this easy submission process. Then I’ll take it from there!
Debra, I printed this article off and carry it with me as an antidote against the doubt that regularly creeps in and threatens to overwhelm and derail me from pursuing a career in staging. I reread it again this afternoon along with all the comments and responses and it was the exactly boost I needed to cast the doubt aside and forge ahead with renewed energy. Thank you for all that you share.
Liane Mercier
Liane, I SO appreciate this feedback! I’m glad I could help boost your confidence. So much of our success is tied to our mindset. You might also enjoy this article, Home Staging Consultation Begins with an Idea.
I hope you also have a solid business model to follow to grow your staging business. You’ll find that boosts your confidence more than anything, because you’ll know how to make money from your talents.
Thanks again for commenting, it’s great to know when my words have resonated with my readers 🙂
I was terrified driving to my first consultation – and even more so when it came time to ask for the sale. When I got the sale I was then afraid I wouldn’t know what to do with the very unique furniture in the home. However, once I walked in and got started I “just knew” what to do. It turned out great – all the fear and worry were such a waste of time!
Lori, thanks for sharing your experience. I bet if I put 1000 home stagers in a room and asked, “Who here was terrified driving to their first client meeting?”, all 1000 hands would go up. Appreciate you sharing and also how you “just knew”, isn’t it a magical feeling!?!
Great Article! Thanks Debra. I did a staging job for my husband for his office which turned out fantastic, but nothing else so far unfortunately. I have come close but nothing has panned out yet for a variety of reasons.
I love how you said work at your business everyday a little at a time and it will all come together.
I am trusting in that and working on it and hopefully 2016 will be a fantastic year for me with lots of staging and redesign jobs. I’ll just keep plugging along.
Glad to hear other’s have similar experiences, thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.
Thanks for sharing Frances. Your business will grow if you keep taking action on all the ideas you learned in the Staging Diva Training Program. Too many people give up just as things are coming together. For a story related to this, check out Alaska Home Stager Demonstrates the Importance of Sticking to It
I literally just started my own Home Staging business. Like you, I had to put my creative ambitions on the back burner in lieu of a lucrative I. T. career. So after years of decorating my home and friends’ homes just to satisfy my creative urges, I finally decided to start my own business. My co-workers, neighbors, and friends were very persistent in pushing me toward this decision. I took the first step and formed an LLC.. Now, besides stage fright I’m uncertain of how to handle renting furniture, how much to charge, do I use my own money to pay until the client oays,, is it tacky to ask for a retainer, and is it possible to invoice the furniture and pass it on to the client???? Help!!! I have analyzation-paralyzation!!!!
Tanya, you have totally come to the right place. I tell you the exact answers to all those questions, plus questions you haven’t even thought of asking yet. What makes Staging Diva unique is that I’m totally committed to getting you up and running in a profitable home staging business as quickly as possible. When you have the right business model to follow, you won’t have to second guess any of this stuff anymore.
I hope you’ll check out all the resources I have to help you. Especially read the course description for Courses 2, 3 and 5 which relate directly to the aspects you were just asking about.
In a nutshell, I do not advocate buying your own furniture or accessories. You can be way more profitable when you don’t do that. And never use your own money. I teach you how to get deposits upfront from your clients.
Time to end that “analyzation-paralyzation” and start making serious income at this, no?!
Great post! I still have all three after 5 years in business, thanks to your awesome home staging training program. Congrats on your 1000th blog. Holy cow! Think of all the people you have helped with all that content.
Thanks Mary Ann, I SO appreciate that! And congratulations on 5 years in business, that’s quite a milestone!