How I started a Home Staging Business and why it has been a rewarding business for me..
If you missed Part 1 about starting my staging business, you can find it here. Since I knew I was going to be transitioning into a move and a different career and I after researching what it would take to go into design vs. staging, I decided to take the leap and research how to start a staging business. In 2012, much like today, there are a couple of routes you can take: online training or going to an in person workshop. Since I was still teaching at the time and knowing we would be going through this transition as a family (I would be giving up my full time income with benefits in order to move), I went with the route that would ultimately cost less for the training and I could do it from home at my own pace while I was still teaching. There are several in person and online workshops available so I looked at the cost and offerings of each one and picked the one that I felt would be the best one for me.
I’ll be honest, I worked through the material that I felt would be the most relevant to me. There were videos and worksheets and other information to read. One of the most helpful parts of the training was a basic checklist of the steps needed to start a business, from choosing a name to getting the EIN and business set up to choosing accounting software, etc. I had never done anything like this before so this basic checklist and hints was helpful and something I could do, one step at a time while I still taught and worked through the material. I was familiar with the staging concepts, see my story here, so I was most interested in the parts of the training that I could compare to this and the suggestions they had how to stage different areas and how to conduct the staging consultations. The training was very in depth but a helpful suggestion was to stage your own home and to take pictures or work with friend to help them stage their home if they are selling or areas of their home to help build a portfolio. I did both of these. Staging and taking pictures of my own home and I had a teacher friend who was trying to sell her home, without luck, that I offered to go through her home and help her stage using the knowledge that I had and what I head learned in the course. She was very receptive and went above and beyond, purchasing some items that would be helpful to help put the finishing touches on her house. I took pictures (and provided them to her realtor to have updated ones for the listing) and with her permission, used them for websites and social media, etc.
When I look back at these photos, so much has changed but the key staging principles are the same and every home is different. The key is working with what you have to make it the best it can be and always remember you are selling the house and not the stuff!
Excitingly she sold her home just a few weeks later to a family that had actually looked at it before, pre-staging. It was exciting to have a quick win and a great testimonial from her.
Over the next few months I continued to work through the training models that I felt I could get the most information from and work through making sure I had everything set up on the business side of things.
In the late winter we listed our house so I made sure it was super staged using everything I had learned and took lots of pictures for the realtor (real estate photography was still a little different back in 2013…my pictures were pretty good and I edited them so they would be bright but nothing like what the pros do today). Although he told me that staging wasn’t needed on every listing (totally agree) and that he rarely used a stager, he told me it definitely helps and has its place in some listings.
He actually used and paid me for a few listings in those spring and early summer months, and so getting that experience and some nice extra paycheck, was super exciting for me. I was so excited to stage these houses and super proud of my work. Excuse the grainy old photos but you get the idea.
Once the fall hit, and we hadn’t yet sold our house or moved (we were on the tail end of the market crash so the market was still super slow despite my best staging efforts) I had more time to devote during the day to getting my new business running. We crafted an information website, and I posted my portfolio to a new website called Houzz, much like Pinterest but strictly for home decor, design, and building. My realtor also asked if I would be interested in meeting with his broker and she was interested in having me come to an office meeting and talk a little about staging, how my process works, and letting the other agents in the office meet me. This was the biggest game changer for me. Again, every agent doesn’t have the budget or the need for a stager but in many cases, hiring a stager for some or all of their listings makes sense for them. I got a couple of regular agents who were quite busy with getting listings that I starting working with on a regular basis. It was exciting to go out on several staging consultations per week and begin to help the agent and homeowner prepare their homes for sale and get paid for it! Even though at the time I didn’t make even half of the income I had left behind, I think then I began to see the possibility of how much less time I was spending outside the home working, helping people, and still getting a paycheck for it.
Once we did move I continued to work with these clients a couple of days a week and then began reaching out in the same way to let agent in my new area know about my services. Even though I had the website and the Houzz profile and portfolio, I had yet to receive even one prospect from these or the other marketing suggestions I had learned in the training.
That’s been between 6-7 years ago and I look back over those last few years, it’s hard to believe the hundreds of staging consultations I’ve performed with clients, the scores of vacant stagings, and the dozen or so model homes that I have staged. It’s always hard to remember that you don’t get there in a month or even in a year. As a matter of fact, I staged a couple of model homes and it was 2-3 years later before I staged any more. It takes consistency (I went to a whole lot of weekly agent meetings in my new area before I got to present to them or before I got any staging jobs from them) and one staging job at a time. You don’t run a marathon on Day 1 when you start running and if you give up, you don’t run one at all but when you look back, you have a different perspective on all the miles (and in my cases houses and clients) that you cover over time.
Owning this business has been a game changer for my life. While teaching students math in a way that they really got it (or at least were not always totally frustrated) by giving them confidence and being their biggest cheerleader was a rewarding time in my life but not without sacrifice. In order to do this effectively, it takes a great deal of time both in and out of the classroom and for so many years, my family and relationship time was definitely compromised. It makes me appreciate the time freedom I experience now that I wouldn’t appreciate the same way if I hadn’t given so many hours each week then. Even though my son was in middle and high school over the last few years, he commented on multiple occasions how glad he was that I ran my own schedule and I know he was happy when I hired him to help me. I have also been able to travel with my husband on so many business trips over the last several years where we were able to add a few extra days on the weekend to enjoy the locations we traveled to. I was able to plan and schedule my staging appointments around this travel and it has truly been one of the best things about my time freedom.
So whatever it is that you are working to accomplish, starting a business, getting a social media or email following, losing weight, getting out of debt or saving money, it happens one follower, one pound, one dollar, one mile, one house at a time. Tony Robbins says that people always overestimate what they can accomplish in a year but underestimate what they can accomplish in five year, or even a decade, and I can totally see that when looking back. Keep putting one post, podcast, foot, dollar, pound in front of the other, pick yourself up when you get off track, and Keep Going! That’s the only way you will reach your destination.
