As the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program celebrates it’s 10th anniversary, I’ve been catching up with many of our Graduates to see how their home staging businesses have grown.
Stacy Goade of Alaska Premier Home Staging celebrates her 5th year as a home stager this month so I asked her to share some of her latest business highlights.
These will inspire you with ideas for your own home staging business, and let you see what is possible when you follow the home staging business formula I’ve laid out in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.
This year Stacy completed 38 separate projects from her home base in Anchorage Alaska. These included 33 home staging projects and 5 redesign projects.
She’s earned every bit of her success because she kept at it and employed so many of the business strategies I recommend. From refining her pricing strategies, to fine-tuning her online presence, and getting media coverage, to hosting free talks in various locations to position herself as a home staging expert.
Home staging is more than a way to use your creativity to help people. It’s an outstanding way to earn a great income while being your own boss.
Home Staging Income
Stacy gave me permission to share publicly that she earned up to $7,000 in a single month from her staging business in Anchorage. How awesome is that?
To give you an idea of how that breaks out on a project basis, Stacy made $2,480 staging a vacant luxury home priced at $950,000. Now this sales figure doesn’t include rental furniture because Staging Diva Grads don’t purchase their own inventory.
That’s $2,480 in earnings for her time, not an inflated sales figure that includes rental fees.
She also earned $2,535 assisting a retired couple completely de-clutter every room in the house before staging and listing. Each phase took 3 to 3.5 days to complete.
So if you do the math, that means she made somewhere between $422.50 and $362 per hour for her time! How is that possible? It’s all covered in Course 2 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.
Stacy earned a referral fee of $795 recommending a professional paint company to one of her home staging clients. This is a strategy covered in Course 5 of the Staging Diva Training Program, “Over 50 More Ways to Make Money in Home Staging.”
There are many ways to boost your home staging income and I share them all in my training. It’s high time women (especially) started to earn what they’re worth!
Home Staging Media Attention
My students learn how I got media coverage for my own home staging business in CNN, Wall Street Journal, MoneySense, Women’s Day, Style at Home, CBS radio and more. It’s such a great way to build your reputation as an expert home stager and get known by a wider audience.
Plus it’s totally free and gives you much more credibility than running a paid ad.
Stacy adopted my strategies and her media coverage includes an appearance on the CBS Morning News in Anchorage, for a feature story “Home Sale Season Tip: Home Staging.”
She has also been featured twice in Alaska Home Magazine, “Staging for a Speedy Sale” and more recently, “Resale Redo.”
And in an unusual media twist, Stacy was hired by the First Alaskans Institute to stage their “stage” for the Elders & Youth Conference broadcast on statewide TV.
Stacy says:
“My website continues to be my #1 marketing tool; bringing me home staging jobs but also opportunities. I just finished interviewing for my 3rd magazine article last week for an Anchorage magazine called 61 Degrees North. The article will be released next month.
I’ve traveled to 3 different Alaskan communities where I held 7 free home staging workshops. I created a Power Point presentation that I tweak for each workshop. My event has been held in a Title & Mortgage Company, a library, a coffee house with a community meeting room, and a privately owned Senior Living complex. Thanks to the Staging Diva special report, 14 Marketing Ideas to Rev Up Your Home Staging Business which I used as my guide for this business strategy.”
On one of our monthly group coaching Staging Diva Dialog calls, we talked about the unusual things you can run into as a home stager. Stacy mentioned that she was about to start a project for a home seller who had 21 cats. I remember saying, “Ah yes, the crazy cat lady. Those projects can be a challenge!” So I was delighted in our interview this week to learn the results!
Her “crazy cat lady” (my term, not hers!) house had been on the real estate market for a full year.
During the home staging consultation she discovered the seller had 21 cats and was not open to kenneling them off-site while the property was on the market. In spite of that, the house sold in 10 days after Stacy staged it. That’s an incredible outcome for a home that had been on the market for a full year and the obvious challenges of that many cats. Talk about proof home staging works!
Stacy concluded our interview by saying:
“All of these successes are a result of carrying out your ideas and recommendations. The business model used in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and all the training materials, resources, monthly Staging Diva Dialog calls, and our annual one-on-one coaching calls. Staging Diva offers a wealth of materials and is the reason my self-confidence and self-assurance have blossomed these past 5 years. Because you have done all the necessary work!”
I want to thank Stacy for candidly sharing her results and allowing me to share them with you. Too many people are afraid to talk about money or business specifics. I think we do ourselves a disservice when we’re too secretive. We should be proud of our accomplishments. Plus, in sharing them we allow others to see what’s possible for their own lives.
Please join me in celebrating Stacy’s success by sharing your comments below. Also, if you’d like to share your own Home Staging Success Story, please see this easy-peasy process I’ve created for you. I’d love to give your home staging business some free publicity too!
Editors Note: Stacy later decided to retire from home staging after her husband was transferred to a remote location in Alaska. She had her business for many years and tells me she will always look back at that time as a creative and profitable adventure.
Wow Stacy!! You are amazing and an inspiration!! So impressed with all you have accomplished and totally inspired as a fellow Alaskan stager that it can be done! Congratulations on following your dream and making it come true!!
One day, I hope I will also be a member of this community sharing my success stories of being a home stager. I am not ready yet, but please Debra keep sending me you emails to inspire me and support me in my endeavors and dreams.
So nice to hear from you Elena! I’m glad you’re here 🙂
Congratulations Stacy! Has it really been 5 years already? I remember when you started on the Dialog Calls. I was impressed with you from the start and I’m not surprised at your success. You’ve worked hard and earned it. Again, congratulations!
Debra, thank you for the great recount of my successes. 2013 was the year my business and I began to grow. 2014 was a year of incredible “first’s” and already 2015 has brought me new Realtor contacts, new clients, and a steady revenue.
Susan – thank you for your validation. I remember being SO impressed with you when I started my own home staging business 5 years ago. You were an inspiration to me! Wonderful how we encourage and support one another. I still admire you, BTW. 🙂
Mary Ann, I am so pleased you called to get my opinions about home staging programs, but extremely pleased that you chose the Staging Diva Training Program to be your business model and support. I promise this – you made the BEST choice! After having lunch with you in Anchorage, I knew I was going to enjoy watching you grow into a successful home staging business in a neighboring region of Alaska. I look forward to being a support and a resource. Welcome, and BRAVO!
I really love this Staging Diva community! All of you guys inspire me too!
Thanks so much for commenting, it means so much!
Thank you Stacy! I’m blushing…I say it’s time for an Alaskan road trip!!! Who’s game? 😉
A road trip IN Alaska is what you want to do! Fly here, then have time to see some spectacular things and places. Fly into Anchorage and drop here. 🙂
My parents were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Alaska – one week on the water, one week on land. They were blown away by the beauty. Maybe that’s what I should do for my honeymoon? Hmmm…Alaska. Good idea!
A road trip IN Alaska is what you want to do! Fly here, then have time to see some spectacular things and places. Fly into Anchorage and I will personally get your rollin’! 🙂
Opps! Not good to take phone calls in the middle of replying to posts, hee-hee.
CONGRATS Stacy on your home staging anniversary. Keep up the good work
That is fantisic Stacy. AND EVERY ONE THINKS NO ONE LIVES IN ALASKA. LOL!!
great story and a well earned acknowledgement
Stacy, great story on your successes and congratulations on your retirement!
Many thanks to Debra for ‘catching up with you’ and sharing it with us!
I am about to embark on opening a Home Staging business and am looking forward to the rewards of seeing homeowners and home buyers ‘fall in love’.
My online presence is still a WIP as I am presently taking workshops through CEED and ENS (Employment Nova Scotia) to learn how to start and run a small business.
Kind regards,
Cathryn
Thanks for commenting Cathryn. By the way, your online presence will always be a work in progress 🙂 In fact, I’m about to completely rebuild my own website that has served me well for a number of years, but it’s time.
I always applaud continued learning, just keep in mind that if you already have the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, you have what you need to learn to start and run a small business, specifically created for home stagers, rather than a general business 🙂
Congrats, Stacy! This story is encouraging.
Fantastic reading about Stacey’s story. I’m so excited to have found my new beginnings. Stacey not only created a successful business by following your course, she also created her own freedom. Can’t wait to start.
Libby thanks for commenting and I’m so glad you found Stacey’s story inspiring! You can read plenty more like hers here.
I’m looking forward to supporting you on YOUR journey of becoming a successful home stager. Have you signed up for the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program yet? If so, we’ll be getting to know each other inside the Staging Diva Network, our private student-only discussion group!
I love Stacy’s success story! I am interested in starting my own staging business. I’ve been asked my numerous friends to please set up their homes! Design is my passion, no doubt! Thank you for sharing her success and for your course! I’m inspired!
So happy to hear that Angi and I look forward to welcoming you into my inner circle of Staging Diva Students and Grads. No doubt I’ll be writing about you too in the future!
Memories are a special present I think, I also think, the strength and courage it takes to follow your dream and all the wonderful things that come out of that is something to be cherished. Stacy will be my latest encouragement since I am almost finished with the course myself, thank you for letting Debra share your success story and I can only imagine how many times you will be restaging or redisigning your house in your new location with your husband, hope you don’t drive him crazy, like I’ve done too mine on a regular basis, lol!!!! Congratulations I’m very happy for you take care.
Debra!!! I cannot wait to purchase your program. I just don’t have the cash right now! I’m trying to secure a full time Home Health Nusing Position as I am between jobs right now, staying afloat trying to pay bills and the mortgage! I enjoyed taking your staging test, it was really fun and I got everything correct! I know I’m good, I also have a real estate liscense. In 1996, I helped sell and stage my sister’s home and we got full asking price which was $25,000 more than the best home listed in the subdivision. That house even had a finished walk out basement, an extra full bath in the basement, and a 3 car garage instead of my sister’s 2 car garage. When I opened the house to my realtor peers for a walk through, they said, “You can decorate like this and your selling real estate?”
I absolutely plan to start a staging side business, something I’d like to start before I retire from Nursing in 12 years!
What I’m most interested in about your program is the business sense you bring to the project, your experience, and your masters degree in marketing training! I wanted to start a business like this 20 years ago and didn’t know where to begin!
I’m totally sold on your product and have no doubt you can help me! I just have to secure this real job thing and be good at it before I make the Staging package purchase. I am honestly excited about the opportunity and can’t wait! In the mean time, I’m purging my own home and preparing a home office for future indeavors! Taking pictures too so I’ll have a brag book to work from! (See, there’s a better word for it-I need the lingo! I’m talking about something with pictures that you present to prospective clients to show them your work.) Real estate agents utilize this kind of thing in personal presentations!
Hi Christine, Thanks so much for commenting and I’m excited for your future as a home stager. Clearly you have the talent for it. What stands between where you are now and where you want to be is my step by step business model to follow.
A couple of observations of what you’ve said (I hope you don’t mind):
I get the need to find a paying position right now if you have no money coming in and bills to pay. That said, don’t put an artificial barrier in front of yourself either. Yes go get the nursing position if that’s what you need to do, but don’t underestimate the significant income you can make in a single staging project or two. In fact, most students make back the cost of their training with those first one or two clients… everything after that is profit.
So don’t feel like you have to wait until you retire from nursing in 12 years!
Life is too short not to do what you love. Get your nursing position and start staging on the side. You don’t have to buy any furniture or accessories when you follow my business model. You’ll also learn how to make money doing home staging consultations where all you do is go in and give your advice for a few hours and the home sellers do the rest themselves.
There are plenty of resale homes filled with furniture (that’s mostly in the wrong place) and clutter, and they just need you to tell them what to do.
In other words, don’t make the idea of starting a “home staging business” bigger in your mind than it needs to be.
Even ONE home staging consultation a week could earn you anywhere from $13,000 to over $50,000 a year when you understand what I teach you in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.
What that looks like is you being in a client’s home for 2, 4 or (rarely) 6 hours walking around giving advice and then leaving with your money! Nothing to do later, no work hanging over your head, no reports to write.
So glad you’re working on your home staging portfolio (or brag book) as you work on your own home. That’s exactly how I got started too. I’d like to recommend you read the Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide. It will really help you out how, even if you’re not ready to dive into the whole training program yet!