New home stagers often hold themselves back from a lack of confidence.
It becomes a vicious circle.
The less confident you feel, the less likely you are to get hired for a home staging project because your potential clients pick up on your insecurity.
Then the longer the time goes by without a home staging job, the less confident you feel.
It’s important to break out of this cycle as soon as possible if you’re serious about having a home staging business.
Home Stagers, try these 5 steps to boost your confidence:
- Take control of your home staging business by organizing your marketing efforts.
If you’re spinning in circles and not sure what to do first, you’ll stay stuck and your confidence will continue to erode.
With a clear marketing plan, you’ll know what to do each and every day to move your business forward. And, with each step you take, your confidence will grow.
If you’re not sure how to develop a marketing plan, or you’re imagining that you have to take months to generate some huge document, cut to the chase and read my Simple Marketing Plan Companion: A stress-free approach to promoting your staging business.
- Quiet that “I don’t know what I’m doing” voice by viewing houses already on the real estate market.
You can tell a lot by looking at MLS listing photos on the Internet, but nothing beats actually getting out there in the real world.
Walk room to room and imagine what you’d do to improve the house.
By practicing a home staging consultation (even if it’s all in your head and you’re not talking to a real client), you’ll boost your confidence as you realize there are few rooms that don’t need obvious help.
Now remind yourself that if it was obvious to the home seller, the home wouldn’t show as badly as it does! That’s why people need your help!
- Exercise your own courage.
Successful people don’t get that way because they’re not afraid. The difference is they take action anyways.
If you keep giving into your anxieties and insecurities you only withdraw further and reinforce that behavior.
Taking action is the greatest antidote to fear. You can start small, for example by getting into a conversation about home staging while you’re standing in line at a coffee shop.
You don’t have to see this stranger again, so who cares if you don’t do THE best job of describing what you do. It’s all practice!
Here’s a quick story about how I conquered one of my own fears and what I learned doing it.
- Recognize that your God-given creative talent gives you the opportunity to contribute to the world.
You can actually have a significant impact on other’s lives if you don’t stifle your talent and hide behind your lack of confidence.
If decorating your first client’s home feels too scary, practice on a friend, neighbor or charitable cause.
Maybe there’s a woman’s shelter that needs your help. Perhaps, you know someone with an elderly parent who is moving to a nursing home, or a friend in financial trouble who needs to sell quickly.
All you need is one opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life and I guarantee your confidence will soar!
- Reflect on the successes you’ve had so far in your life and/or business.
When else did you lack confidence but move forward anyways? Did you think you knew everything there was to know about parenting before you had your first child?
Why do you think you need to know everything there is to know about home staging before starting?
If you want plenty of design tips and sample floor plans for staging every room in a home, check out the Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide.
These stories of Wow Moments as a Home Stager will inspire you!
Home stagers, what have you done to help boost your confidence?
Do you have an experience to share where you tried any of the above strategies? Please comment below, I know you’ll help inspire others!
Great article, Debra!!! Thanks for the boost of confidence and ideas! Your third tip really spoke to me. After being a stay at home mom and out of the work force for the past 12 years, it is difficult changing roles. Though I have so many doubts and insecurities, I am continuing to “take action”! I know if I keep going and push forward, it will get easier. Thanks for being there for those of us just starting out and keeping us motivated!!
Sheli
Hi Sheli, I’m so glad I “struck a chord” with you. I hear from tons of stay at home moms about the challenges of switching roles and the lack of confidence that comes with getting back out there to the world of work after a bunch of years. I don’t know if you’ve found me on Facebook yet, but I encourage you to visit and “like” http://www.facebook.com/TheStagingDiva When you do, you’ll be able to get a FREE copy of my guide to juggling being a mom with the demands of a staging business.
I also want to encourage you to check out the WOW moments of being a home stager at: https://stagingdiva.com/homestagingbusiness/10-wow-moments-as-a-home-stager/
I share my 10 wow moments, but I especially want you to also see the comments from others. I know they’ll inspire you too!
Thanks for sharing your comments, reader feedback is what encourages me to keep writing!
Thanks Debra, for sharing your wonderful ideas that really boost my confidence. Last 10 years as a home stager, I am just clarifying my several doubts from this post. I wish to keep this confidential boosting stories will definitely helpful for home stagers like me.
Glad I could help Tim!
I teach a very different business model than you’ll find in other home staging training courses. If you’re curious to learn more about my approach, you might enjoy a mini-course I’m teaching soon. You can grab a free pass to 5 Simple Secrets to Making Money in Home Staging here.
Debra, Thank you
Hi Debra
I appreciate your understanding of the new graduates,like myself ,who are just starting their business.I have not even done a consult yet,little anxious about it,but know I will push myself to get out there any day now! I have been a nurse for 25 years,still doing it fulltime,untill I get home staging up and running enough to switch over.Keep up the great confident boosting stories,I really look forward to them.Working in a hospital,the business is already there for me everyday,Home staging on the other hand makes you have to look for the work and sell yourself as a service. Takes some getting used too.Do you have any suggestions for getting my first couple of consults under my belt.When someone asks you ,”How long have you been home Staging”? i dont want to say,you are my first customer?Pleas help or can others share their first consult experiences with us.Thanks for your help! .
Debra, I have been so busy this spring that I haven’t had time to update you and my colleagues about my recent activities that have more than boosted my self-confidence in 2013! I can demonstrate that getting out of one’s own way and acting bolder can open you up for new opportunities, new self-confidence and new business! I’ll apologize, in advance, for the length of this post, but it’s late and I have the time-right now-to share; so I’m going for it. You and I had a couple of intensive coaching calls this past February. At the time we spoke I had just finished an interview with a writer for “Alaska Home Magazine.” The article was about the value of home staging and the magazine would be published and distributed at the Home and Garden Shows in South Central Alaska, beginning in early March. I knew I been handed an opportunity, a “gift,” to educate Alaskans about the inherent good sense and financial benefits of home staging. I also saw this gift as a chance to try a new approach that might grow my staging business! With your encouragement, and the ideas formulated during our coaching calls, I got busy and committed myself to creating a solid power point presentation (which I further refined after each of my “free” home staging workshops and I laminated & mounted 28 of my best “before,” “after,” and “facelift” staging photos onto black foam boards (great advice, Debra!). Those beautiful photos traveled with me by car and jet plane to six separate workshops that I set up in three different Alaskan communities. It has been a “whirlwind” with almost back to back workshops from mid-March to late April! I have spent long hours preparing for workshops. I gave up sleep some nights and, when I did get to bed early, I had nightmares about speaking in front of groups of people! But it was all worth it because here’s what happened: I learned to be comfortable speaking in front of groups of people and I grew more confident and articulate about my home staging passion and my business. Others saw me as an expert and this helped me to recognize the expert home stager that I am. I met and talked with 86 workshop attendees with a span of six weeks; 41 of them were seniors who attended my last workshop in Anchorage! I was invited back to Juneau to speak about home staging at the Alaska Women’s Expo! This event gave me positive exposure and free publicity. I was mentioned in the local newspaper as one of the featured speakers at an event that was recognizing women entrepreneurs. In addition to growing awareness, I have recruited 10 new home staging clients; three of which also referred friends to me who have booked consultations. One referral has offered to pay for my round trip ticket to Homer next week to assist her with setting up her professional office in her home overlooking Katchemak Bay. (Could this be another niche market?) I have also met fifteen real estate agents who seem to genuinely support home staging. Three of them are actively working to get their home seller clients to hire me and this, in itself, feels like a miracle! But the most rewarding outcome is that I have renewed my faith and confidence in myself as a home stager and as a small business owner. I have more ideas I want to try out, I have made new contacts and I grew my business. I got results because I was willing to put myself out there and I worked at it. (IT feels good!) Debra, your years of effort, work and experience benefit us all! Thank you for your guidance, ongoing support and passion.
Stacy, that’s fantastic! I’m so impressed with how you took action on all the things we discussed during our coaching calls and that you pushed forward despite your fears.
What an amazing journey you’ve been on over the past 3 months since we last spoke! I can’t tell you how satisfying it is for me to watch you grow and step confidently into your role as an expert and professional home stager! Awesome work Stacy!!
This article is just what I needed! I’m partway through the courses and really enjoying them. I know I love decorating and have been told by many people I’m good at it, and have helped several friends and family members through the years with decorating projects that were very rewarding. What I mainly struggle with is confidence and seeing myself as a “professional”. I grew up on a working farm and currently live on a small ranch in a very modest manufactured home. I have a college degree in home economics but left teaching after five years to be a stay at home mom when my first child came along. Over the last twenty plus years I worked at various part time jobs (house cleaning, in-home child care, substitute teaching, etc.) to help supplement our income, two of which were in direct sales. I loved the products I sold (one was home decor), but I hated being a salesperson, and despite the hours I put in, my income depended on people making purchases rather than me being paid for my time. My youngest child just left for college, but my oldest, who is moderately autistic, is still at home because he cannot live independently. I know I need to find a way toput my creative talents to good use, as I can only redecorate my own home so much, lol! My husband hopes to be able to retire in about a year and a half, and he is good with computers and accounting and can help me with the business end of things, so hoping that when he can be available for our son I can fully immerse myself in a staging career. Perhaps I can even get started before then on a part-time basis. Thank you for the inspiring articles on your FB page that help keep me motivated!
Vicki, thanks for commenting and sharing your story! I’m really glad you’ve found home staging because it will give you the creative outlet you’re craving PLUS give you the time flexibility to be with your son (or spend more time with your husband when he retires). Not to mention, the satisfaction of bringing in income for the time you spend with clients.
I understand not wanting to feel like a pushy sales person (which direct sales sometimes feels like). As a home stager, I see my role as educating home sellers about the difference it can make. That’s why I write so many articles for them. When you educate someone about a topic and they then decide they need more help, you’re the person they come to. So it doesn’t feel like sales, it feels like helping people. And it is!
You mentioned growing up on a working farm. It’s not something I have direct experience with but I’m in the middle of a fabulous novel,
A Thousand Acres: A Novel by Jane Smiley
. The whole story is about an Iowa farmer and his 3 daughters, their community, relationships, etc. Lots of references to farming and what they’re doing and I’ve found it fascinating because that’s a whole world I’ve never experienced only living in cities. So farming is much on my mind these days 🙂Thanks so much for your encouraging words! I have made some progress; I chose my business name…Visions of Home, and purchased the domain (.com and .net), and also registered my business name with my state. I needed to improvise on the domain because visionsofhome by itself wasn’t available, but I added “ok” to the end since I live in Oklahoma, hoping that was a good choice! I also plan to discuss with our tax accountant about whether to be a sole proprietorship or LLC. I have also visited several homes for sale, both new construction (some partially staged, some not) and an older furnished home that was beautiful but needed some serious staging, and did some web searching for stagers in my area. I have read through the courses and plan it get started soon on the audios. I know I just need to keep working at it and moving forward! Also, thanks for sharing about the book you are reading!
You’re making great progress Vicki! Good for you!! By the way the bulk of the learning in the Staging Diva Program is in the recordings themselves. Enjoy!
Thank you so much Debra for helping us start our staging careers successfully, with no fear of making mistakes. Thanks again, I really appreciate your support and time.
It’s my pleasure Farah! I appreciate you adding a comment here. Wishing you every success in your staging business and I look forward to writing about you in the future! I love sharing stories about Staging Diva Grads!