Do you focus on your ideal level of home staging business success up ahead on the horizon?
It’s great to have a vision for where you want to go, since it will certainly help you get there. But this has a dark side too.
When we’re always focused on future home staging business success, we can end up feeling like a failure despite all the achievements we’ve already had.
It never feels like enough and this can make us miserable! There’s always more that we can do. There are thousands of ideas and choices.
We don’t say to our 5 year old “How come you can’t read a book yet?” Instead we say, “Wow, you tied your shoes today. That’s awesome!”
We recognize that our kids have to learn, and grow and develop as they start to go out into the world. The same is true of you and your new home staging business.
If you’ve been a home stager for awhile, you’ve probably had many successes in your business, but you could still be beating yourself up for not achieving more.
You still have too many home stager to do items and you haven’t yet lived up to that ideal level of success you can see on the horizon.
I’ve fallen into this “gap” many times as my business coach Dan Sullivan calls it.
“Mind the Gap”
“The gap,” in this case, is the space between where you are now versus where you ultimately want to be.
When you’re focused on the gap, you can’t see or appreciating how far you’ve come.
But if you compare where you are right now to where you were yesterday, last week, last month or last year, you realize that actually you have made a lot of progress.
This assumes of course that you have productive times when you stop procrastination and get things done.
One of Dan’s suggestions for getting out of “the gap” is to write down three “wins” from the day— every day.
Sometimes, depending on what is going on with your life, your win might be a bigger or lesser thing, but it is a win for whatever stage you are at right then.
Home Staging Business “Win” Definition Changes
When I was at the early stages of recovering from surgery recently, three “wins” for the day became as small as showering, getting dressed and walking around the block.
The fact was, I really didn’t feel like doing any of those things. I just wanted to stay in bed and watch Netflix.
Two weeks of that and “wins” became slightly bigger.
Cooking a healthy meal and hosting Staging Diva Dialog, my small group coaching call for new and established home stagers.
Now I’m up to writing blog posts and doing media interviews.
I even managed a home staging consultation because it was in my neighborhood, which meant I only had to be strong enough for the meeting without having to cope with travel.
Next week, I’ve got a paid color consultation with a client booked because I’ll be strong enough to actually carry my full color kit up and down the stairs.
All I’m saying is that what qualifies as a win will change depending on where you are and what is going on in your life.
Wins can be personal and professional.
Perhaps you finalized the name of your new home staging business which will now let you move forward with your business cards.
It might feel small if you’re comparing that home staging business success to making $100,000 a year as a home stager, but we all start with that same point.
You can’t get to $100,000 a year in your home staging business without having a business name and a professional looking home staging business card!
Find 3 Home Staging Business Wins Today
Try to find three wins from today and everyday and write those down.
Thirty days from now when you find yourself saying, “I didn’t get anything done. I’m such a failure. My business isn’t what I thought, etc.,” you’ll be able to escape that negative spiral.
You’ll pull out your list and look at the 90 awesome things you got done. It will be clear how far you’ve moved towards your dream.
My goal is to keep you moving forward in your home staging business. When you feel inspired and find that forward momentum, you’re going to be amazed at how far you’ll progress.
Before long you’ll be collecting your own wow moments as a home stager!
I’d love for you to share your feedback on this article. Please take this opportunity to declare 3 wins you’ve had so we can all help you celebrate them and find our own inspiration in what you’ve achieved.
Great article. I’m a sleep deprived single mum to a toddler who doesn’t sleep and just a few months in to my business. We’ve both been sick with colds and flu on and off for months and I feel like I’m on a treadmill with everything just repeating the most basic daily things to get to night time and not making and progress at all! A friend recently suggested a win of the day approach, after reading this I do feel likeIve had some small wins and maybe theres light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you!
Meqa, I can totally relate. I had my daughter on my own and she didn’t sleep through the night until she was over 2 years old. There were many days that it seemed impossible to form a coherent thought, let alone build a business. Now she’s off at university and it really doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was in your shoes. Hold onto your dream and definitely keep track of those small wins along the way to keep you going. Thanks for commenting.
Debra, as always you are so right! A year ago, I did not have the confidence to add redesign services to my offerings. After meeting with several interior designers at the end of 2012 who, like you were incredibly encouraging, I decided to go for it. Right now, I have several redesign projects in progress and I recently had a past staging client call me to help in their new space. The wife said, “we didn’t know what to do with this room so we said, let’s call Lori, she’ll know what to do”. That made my year! : ). The path to here, though, was paved by those little wins you talk about along the way which I wish I had noticed and paid homage to along the way. So listen to Debra, everyone! She’s always right!!!
Hey Lori, now you’re made MY day! Congrats on those redesign projects, they’re a great way to extend the relationship with clients and also even things out between staging “seasons.” I’ve found that so many people who would never dream of hiring an Interior Designer (because they think that’s for “other” people), hire me for redesign knowing I’m a home stager. Someone we seem more approachable/less intimating I think.
Thanks for commenting and that endorsement, much appreciated!
Hi Debra, I’m Danish, living in Copenhagen. I started my staging business eight months ago and it has been and still is an uphill battle. Mainly because the thought of staging is so foreign to the Danes – the simply don’t understand why it is necessary. I am staying positive as there are signs of life out there and I now have a wonderful opportunity to establish myself as an expert in my field 🙂 I have been interviewed a couple of times and have transformed houses. I have an English husband and am now tapping into the large expat market of English and American. I’m am constantly stressing over not making enough money but just by writing this little post I am realising I’m doing well. 🙂 I’m now translating my website into English as well to cater to the foreigners.. Thank you Debra for your inspiration. I’m loving your guides and help. You are an inspiration.
Hi,
I wrote a comment to your article yesterday but it looks like it has been removed. Can I only post comments if I am a graduate or American?
I posted a comment from Copenhagen?
Cheers Birgitte
Hi Birgitte, Anyone can post a comment to my blog, except spammers. To avoid spam comments I have it set that I approve comments before they’re published. So you commented on a Saturday and I just hadn’t got to it yet 🙂
Congratulations on your new staging business and on identifying a target market. This is so important!
It takes time to build awareness, this is completely natural. The idea that home staging is a “foreign” concept is true in many markets, even in the US and Canada where I’m guessing you assume everyone knows about it.
Being the one to educate your market about something that will make them money is not a bad thing. It positions you as the expert and as awareness and understanding grows, you become THE go to person for your market. I discuss this at length and how to use it to your advantage (for example, how you can be the most expensive stager and not have to worry about new competition) inside of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. With students already in 22 countries (including locations as diverse as Spain, South Africa, Australia, Alaska, Israel, The Caribbean), I know you’ll find the program helpful to you in Copenhagen.
Thanks for commenting Birgitte and I hope you’ve signed up for the free report (on the right side of this page), I know you’ll enjoy it. Besides, it’s got a high value coupon tucked inside that I know you’ll be happy to have!
Hi, thank you for your answer to my comment. It totally makes sense what you wrote 🙂 I am sure I will do the staging program at some point as I already have nearly all your reports and can really see the value of them. I keep reading your newsletters and your tips.
Have a lovely Easter. Winter still has its firm grip on Demmark with snow everyday. I can’t wait to see the daffodils in my garden but it will be a little while yet.
You are most welcome Birgitte and Happy Easter to you too! Our snow has finally melted and I can just barely see the tips of the leaves of my daffodils poking out of the ground.
Wow.
Okay Debra! Since I first entertained the idea of becoming a re-designer (and interior designer) my confidence was so low. I knew you were for real because I corresponded with Donna Dazzo and yes- she is the real deal too. You are both amazing.
Anyhow I didn’t think I could possibly do it – (yeah, with the toddler and all) Yet I had been in the field for years. I worked for an influential designer in college, worked at Ethan Allen for years and yet was terrified of going out on my own.
I had no business savvy.
I took your course, am a Staging Diva Graduate and finally figured it out. Business, business, business. I needed to know how to present a consultation, a quote, an invoice, keep track of receipts etc. You gave me a lot of confidence- even personally back and forth on your online discussion group.
Anyhow, now I am in the 2nd, sometimes 1st position on Houzz in my town for interior designers, have a major account with the property management division of a huge real estate company and an affiliation with the biggest money-maker real estate company in my niche in my area. I have decided to create and stick with a specific niche… more on that later.
I re-design – because I don’t want to hold inventory, go bankrupt and lose my mind (you warned me about that, thanks Debra!). I can help clients work with what they have, get a feel for what they have and before long they’re saying – ‘hey, maybe you can help me with that in my new place…’. the things is – I LOVE what I do . I dream about it. I am going after jobs because I HAVE to have them – I have got to put the right furniture in there or I won’t rest. I use staging as a foot in the door for design work… and it’s working. Besides, I can decide if I want to work with a client before I commit to a bigger project.
Anyhow, I’ve got lots more to share. I’m going to send you some pictures of my work etc.
The greatest thing that has happened to me recently though, is that someone referred a new stager to me for advice. I am, somehow ‘the seasoned professional’, in 2 1/2 years’ time! Anyhow, after all the social media recommendations I instructed her to get involved with you!
Have a great day and thanks so much!
Daryl, congratulations on all your success so far and I appreciate you sharing it with our community of home stagers.
I know others will be inspired to let go of the fears holding them back and take action when they see what is really possible.
You are so right that the business knowledge is key because that’s what enables you to keep doing what you love. I’m glad I was able to solve the mysteries of that for you so that you could turn all that wonderful creative talent into a money-making business.
Thanks again for writing and sharing your journey, your passion for it shines through and inspires me to keep doing what I do too!
Daryl, your comments inspired me to poke around your website and I’ll be featuring you in the next issue of my monthly newsletter, Staging Diva Dispatch. Watch your email this week!
Debra, This is such a good idea! You are right, we tend to bring ourselves down when we have not reached what we think we should be doing by now. We need to compare ourselves to where we were a week ago, a month ago or even a year ago. I would have never thought by now I would have given a presentation to a government agency about home staging, but it was really fun! I learned from them and they learned from me.
As for the 3 things I did yesterday, since I am focusing on the military as my niche, I researched military sources to publish my press release, started using #military in my tweets and finished painting a brick fireplace as part of a redesign project to use for a future article.
Thanks again for keeping me motivated and pushing me each time!
Kasia, thanks so much for commenting. Really appreciate it. Your 3 things are all great steps towards your goal. Congratulations!