It’s not only entrepreneurs aspiring to become full-time home stagers who decide to enroll in home staging training.
Some business owners like Beth DeLozier-Hayes of Houston, decide to take the Staging Diva Program with the end goal of adding additional services to an existing organizing business.
Before enrolling in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Beth was working as an image consultant and professional organizer.
She took the Staging Diva Program thinking she could add home staging and redesign as a service to her clients and as it turns out she was right.
Beth has tripled her income since adding staging to her organizing business, Tres Chic Designs.
Beth wrote to let me know she staged four homes last month alone and that every home she has staged since graduating from the Staging Diva Program has received an offer within one month of listing.
She also reports that adding home staging services has truly enhanced her organizing business and she gets many decorating requests from her clients while she’s organizing rooms.
About the Staging Diva Program, Beth writes:
“It allowed me to enter my first home staging jobs with confidence and inspiration. Over the years Debra Gould has been in business she has worked out all the kinks for us so that we don’t have to overcome the same challenges that she had to!”
Have you added home staging services to an existing business like Beth has? Please share by leaving a comment below.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements 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.
Photo credit: Maureen Light Photography
How do you convince someone to stage their home if they don’t know anything about staging and love the way their home looks? A friend of mine knows her friend’s home needs staging, but is afraid to even tell her about my services for fear the friend will be offended.
Amy,
We’re a little off of Debra’s topic but I’ll chime in here because it’s a great question and more than likely we’ll all come across a similar situation. I am finding that a lot of people don’t know what home staging is so to help them remember, I put a brief explanation of home staging on the back of my business card and when I hand them out, I know potential clients won’t have to remember what I told them because its on my business card.
But in response to your question specifically, why not send this other individual (a potential client!) your business card with a hand written description of your business on the back of it, plus send her your business brochure and offer your “repurposing” or “facelift” services? Since nobody wants to offend anyone about their home decor, I might also check with your friend to see if she/he is interested in purchasing a gift certificate for this other friend? A color consultation gift certificate might be a non-threatening way to introduce someone to home repurposing or home staging. It could also lead to some additional services, or you may get a referral from a happy customer?
Beth,
Congratulations on good business sense and success! Hope to hear more as you continue your good work.
Stacy, thanks for some good ideas — I have an extra picture on the back of my business card with some other info, but no description of staging, so that’s a good idea, because about half the people I meet don’t know what it is, you’re right. I plan to start offering redesign services very soon, and am working on a section for my website on that. The prospect is supposedly going to call me after all, but so far I haven’t heard from her. All of my other clients WANTED staging, so convincing people (other than agents, LOL) is a whole new game I don’t like!
Amy – don’t wait for her to call. Give your prospect a call. Check in with her and offer to answer any questions she may have. You can probably anticipate questions she is going to have, so you’ll have your phone notes and scheduler are at hand – right? 🙂
Go get ’em! Let me know how it goes. I’m interested in this, too. Along the same vein, I’ll share with you that today I updated my business listing in Google pages. I offered a free color consultation to anyone purchasing a gift certificate for holiday decorating serivces. This marketing strategy shows up as an “offer” in your business listing under the Google Maps (one of the tab selections that runs along the top part of your screen when you pull up a Google search. Gift certificates for this time of year are good ideas for parents, spouses, teachers, seniors, boss, co-workers or friends. You work the decorating while they get to relax.. It’s free advertising and forces you to go through the mental and physical process of formulating your business ideas and marketing using online resources.. Debra may want to add to this post, but I believe any time you are enhancing your visibility on the Internet by adding “offers”, or tweaking and updating your sites, you encourage search engines to find you and this improves your standings on the web. Be sure to check out all the free Google tools available to you. Check them all out – it’s good technology awareness and training! You will find new tools that will generate more ideas, which will help you to implement things that will only enhance your business. It takes time, but its worth it.
Debra, I would love your input on whether chasing after prospects is a good idea or a waste of time? I don’t want to look desperate or pushy. Stacy, thanks for the info about Google listings, and I have a good friend who’s a web designer who has clued me in to many of these possibilities. I also have a local Merchant Circle account where I could offer incentives, just not sure I want to, honestly. I have a meeting with an agent I met through ActiveRain on Monday, so I’m hoping that will pay off!