As a home stager we are part of the “team” that sells a house. That’s not to say we always feel like team members, or that we’d necessarily even want to! It all depends which real estate agent we might be dealing with and their attitudes towards home staging. Sometimes, we aren’t even dealing with the real estate agent at all because the home seller is our client and we never even meet or speak with their Realtor® for that particular home staging project.

Real estate agents are an important audience for your home staging services. But they can also pose some challenges as described in this Ask Staging Diva Home Staging Business Dilemma sent in by “Chris” (name changed), who writes:

“How or what do we do when a real estate agent goes in AFTER I have staged a house and changes around some of my home staging as they didn’t like the inside of the home’s interior the way I had staged the home?

This happened to me on my last home I staged and I saw red, as I felt she was insulting me by rearranging my staging and touching my items that belong to me, especially the accessories.

She also convinced the home owner to change the furniture as ‘she’ the real estate agent, didn’t like the style of furniture. The owner then rings me to say how can we change the furniture?

Please can you advise me how to handle this sensitive topic?”

There are both new and experienced home stagers reading this home staging business dilemma. And, even if you’re totally new to the staging industry, you have life experience that will help us find the right solutions.

Please share your point of view in the comments below. I’ll summarize the best ideas and add my own thoughts in an upcoming post. Your participation will help us “crowd source” a solution, so your participation is key! We’ll all learn from this and it will help us face similar situations in our own home staging business.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Home staging and marketing expert Debra Gould, developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging businesses. There are currently over 7,000 Staging Diva students across the United States, Canada, Australia and 18 other countries around the world. Debra is the author of 5 guides and is frequently profiled in the media.

Australia home stager, and new Staging Diva Graduate Katrina Gibbons of Stylus Home Staging Brisbane, shares a terrific example of how much more desirable a staged home looks than a vacant one.

Check out Katrina’s transformation of a living room/dining room, and patio area visible just beyond the glass doors.

By the way, this is also a great example of a compelling before and after photo pair for a home staging portfolio. The two shots are taken from the same vantage point and show a dramatic transformation in a single glance.

Katrina’s client’s Realtor had been telling her for months that she needed to stage her vacant home, and Katrina was able to convince her to finally do it.

This is a somewhat unusual twist as often it’s the real estate agent who doesn’t see the need for home staging. Which is illogical really when you look at how much more inviting a furnished area is, as proven in the after shot here compared to the before picture of the empty space.

Home buyers search MLS online first

Considering most buyers look online at MLS before ever contacting an agent, it’s so critical that the marketing photos for the real estate property look enticing. With home staging, the furnished rooms:

• Have a clearly designated purpose.
• Look bigger.
• Have a better chance of attracting an emotional response from a prospective buyer.
• Are more eye-catching on MLS and therefore more likely to motivate showing appointments.

Why wouldn’t any real estate agent jump on the chance to have his/her real estate listings furnished? There are plenty of reasons that I’ve written about in past articles like “Stagers, don’t let real estate agents discourage you.”

Why showing an obviously vacant house is a bad idea

Empty rooms just look depressing and they’re hard to fall in love with. An obviously vacant house looks lonely and forgotten and makes a perspective buyer wonder why the house is sitting there.

These thoughts inevitably become, “Perhaps someone got divorced, died, or ran into financial trouble? Perhaps they’re desperate to sell, which means I can write a low-ball offer or wait until the asking price drops?”

None of these ideas lead to warm and fuzzy “This is home, I have to live here!” feelings. The feelings that motivate a perspective buyer to make a solid offer now versus later.

In other words, putting a vacant home on the market is almost guaranteed to leave money on the table and this message is one that home stagers need to share with real estate agents, home sellers and builders/contractors alike. I share how to do that in “Course 4 – Staging Diva Sales and Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Home Staging Business.”

Katrina Gibbons shares her personal experience about what it’s like being a home stager:

“Creating Stylus Home Staging has allowed me to work from home while raising two young children. Having a home business that I am really passionate about enables me to structure my business hours around my busy family life. Plus I get to use my creativity to help home owners.

The Staging Diva Home Staging Program showed me how to correctly establish my business and taught me how to talk to clients with more confidence. It also helped in my pricing structure, website, social media and marketing.”

If you’re already a home stager, I’d love to write about your business too. Here’s how to get featured in an upcoming home staging success story!

If you’ve ever run into resistance from Realtors®, check out this article, 5 Secrets Real Estate Agents Need to Hear From Home Stagers.

I’d love for you to share your experiences with staging vacant homes, or questions, in the comments below. That way we can keep the conversation going and you’ll give me ideas for what you’d like to read about in future articles!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989 and knows how to make money as a home stager. She developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are now more than 7,000 students in over 20 countries learning from her many products and services for home stagers.

Typical cluttered extra bedroom. I photographed this during my very first home staging consultation in early 2003!

As a home stager you’ve probably run into the treasured collection of decorative plates, figurines or stuffed animals during a home staging consultation. The stuff your home staging client loves (or believes they can’t live without) but you know will look like clutter to potential buyers.

Then there are the collections of half-filled shampoo bottles, old toothbrushes, clothes they’ve grown out of and crafts projects. And if you’re at my mother’s house (or anyone else who was born or lived through the Great Depression), you’ll likely find dozens of bags of empty bags, strings, elastics and more!

The trouble with all this “stuff” is that it distracts others from appreciating the house itself and can easily cause a potential buyer to reject the property because they believe it’s too small.

In any home staging project, we’re trying to portray the ideal lifestyle that could happen in this house. We want potential buyers to fall in love with the dream and aspire to live there.

Let’s face it, many people move because they feel too over-crowded in their current homes. Looking at properties where almost every horizontal surface is covered with piles of stuff just reminds them that they’ll be just as crowded in this property.

You may or may not have the motivation, energy or interest in helping your home staging clients go through all their stuff, item by item. Many home stagers combine a staging business with an organizing business.

I will sometimes look in a closet during a home staging consultation and tell the client, “50% of this has to go.” I really don’t want to personally go through each item with them and will recommend a professional organizer if this is the kind of help my client needs. Other clients are perfectly capable of getting rid of the stuff on their own when I give them some tips for getting it done.

7 Clutter-Busting Tips for Home Stagers

Whether you’re doing the work yourself or giving these tips to your home staging clients to do the tasks on their own, here are 7 things you should know:

1. You can motivate your client to live temporarily without some of their favorite things by pointing out that small “treasures” may be stolen during an open house or showing. For their protection, it’s better to have these items safely stored away.

2. Tackle one area at a time so de-cluttering isn’t so overwhelming.

3. You might have to go through each closet more than once to get its contents down to the absolute essentials, but it’s worth the effort.

4. Try setting a timer for 20 minutes to tackle a specific area (even if it’s just a single closet) and it will no longer seem like an endless task.

5. Explain to your client that any time spent now on this task will make packing and moving that much easier.

6. If your client is having a tough time parting with things, rent a storage locker to keep their beloved items while the house is on the market, and then have it delivered to the new address after the move.

7. Under no circumstances should excess items be stored in the basement, attic or garage. These areas are just as important when showcasing a home to sell.

Need more help with home staging consultations?

If you need more help knowing what to do during a home staging consultation, these 3 resources will help you (and you can get two of them on sale right now):

Course 3: Taking The Mystery Out of Home Staging Consultations (includes bonus Staging Checklist)

Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans

Home Staging Consultation Checklist with Room-by-Room Client Planning Forms

Home stagers, please share your experiences and ideas with our community

Home stagers, what’s the most difficult de-cluttering situation you’ve run into? How did you handle it? Please share your experiences or additional tips and ideas  in the comments below.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is President of Voice of Possibility Group Inc. which operates Six Elements Home Staging and the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. An entrepreneur for almost 25 years and author of several guides, Debra has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate and trained over 7,000 home stagers worldwide.

It doesn’t matter how long I’ve been a home stager or business person, I still get stuck like everyone else. It’s only natural to have our energies and ideas ebb and flow. It’s part of the process of creating our ideal business and lifestyle.

The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said:

“Man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”

Pretty profound and so relevant even though he would have said it way back in the 1700′s! We have so much freedom to do what we want with our lives, but something often holds us back. More often than not it’s fear that we’re not good enough.

Instead of admitting that to ourselves, we pretend we don’t have any freedom because of  lack of time and lack of money. Let’s explore the top 2 excuses for not getting on with living our best life:

Not Enough Time to Be a Successful Home Stager

The average person spends 28 hours per week sitting in front of the television, and 6 to 10 hours on Facebook! Add those two up and you’ve got an entire extra work week! I watch TV too and I also spend time on Facebook but I try and be very aware of how long I spend on these because I know that this is time I’m not spending following my dreams or being an active parent.

It does take time to build a successful business, but you can do it at whatever pace feels comfortable for you. When I became a home stager, I was a single parent with a 7 year old. I walked my child to school every morning, was there for pick up at 3:30 almost every day and never worked evenings and weekends. Yet I grew a very successful home staging business that was even featured on HGTV, CNN, Women’s Day, House & Home, and many other magazines and newspapers.

I am not a super woman, but I am focused.

I got stuck some times, but then I pulled myself out of it and kept going. Really there was no option. Unless my home staging business succeeded we wouldn’t eat and I wouldn’t be able to pay my mortgage.

Not Enough Money to Start or Grow a Home Staging Business

Home staging is one of the least cost businesses you can start if you follow the business formula I share in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

You DON’T need:

• A storefront or office (a spare bedroom or corner of your house is fine).
• Employees (You can run your business on your own, even when you’re making $100,000 a year, I know because I’ve personally done it.).
• Inventory (Some stagers buy their own furniture and/or accessories but this is a choice. I’ve staged over $50 million worth of real estate with NO inventory.).
• Expensive advertising (I’ve been a home stager since 2002 and I’ve never paid for a newspaper or magazine ad).

If you really want to start or grow your home staging business, you might have to cut back on some impulse purchases but you certainly don’t have to take a vow of poverty! You’ll be making hundreds of dollars from your very first home staging client if you know what you’re doing from a business standpoint.

Another factor that keeps us stuck and overwhelmed and one that I’ve written a lot about is negative self-talk. Talk about a huge enthusiasm killer!

Knowing what we need to do to move forwards in our lives can be easier said than done. That’s why it really helps to have a home staging business coach in your corner. Successful athletes and business owners almost all have coaches. Business coaching is such a valuable tool in:

• Helping you get unstuck.
• Seeing opportunities instead of barriers.
• Staying motivated.
• Solving problems.

I have personally coached hundreds of home stagers and entrepreneurs over the years. You’ll be amazed at how much ground we can cover in even a single hour. You can experience how I can personally help you whether you’re:

• Just thinking of becoming a home stager.
• You’ve already started a home staging business and you’re feeling stuck.
• You’re already successful but want to take your staging business to a whole new level

Right now, during the Mother’s Day Madness Sale, you can get one-on-one business coaching with me for 50% off. This offer won’t last long! If you buy the time now at half price, you still have up to 6 months to use it. Wouldn’t it be nice to know I’m only a phone call away if/when you get stuck?

Click here to check out Business Accelerator Coaching at Half Price.

What challenge is stopping you from moving forward right now? Please share in the comments below.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Debra Gould has been a serial entrepreneur since 1989. She is president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc. with a mission of helping entrepreneurs create their ideal businesses and lifestyles.

An internationally recognized home staging expert, Debra created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 7,000 students in the U.S., Canada and 20 other countries. She is the author of 5 guides and appears frequently in the media.

For the first time ever two media jobs have made the Worst Job list according to CareerCast.com. Newspaper reporters made the top 10 list because layoffs have meant declining salaries and more work for the remaining reporters.

They don’t even mention the fact that reporters are now expected to blog, tweet and comment too. Just like the rest of us, the number of ways to communicate with our audience seems to increase exponentially, and with it the time we need to spend staying on top of it all.

At least when you’re a home stager,  you get to be your own boss so when you put in increasing efforts, you make more money. When you’re an employee, you just spend more time working harder— for the same, or less, money.

Broadcasters also made the list because of increasing job stress and declining incomes.

So what does this mean for home stagers hoping to get into newspaper and magazine articles or onto TV?

The easier you make if for the media to cover you, the more likely you are to get media attention. Reporters are totally pressed for time so they need shortcuts. If you have great content on line, you’re likely to get quoted, even if the reporter never reaches out to you directly.

For example, I was featured prominently in an article about home staging in Australia.

I wouldn’t have even known about the story if I hadn’t set up Google Alerts for my name. Instead, I knew about the story within hours of it appearing online and in the newspaper, The Australian. It describes me as the “queen of home staging” and mentions that I “write endlessly on the subject.”

And that’s exactly my point. Because I write so much about home staging, I get noticed by reporters and broadcasters looking for information about the topic and looking for sources to quote.

You can also get on the media’s radar screen by commenting on their online articles and blogs.

For example, a comment I made on an Inc. Magazine story about the founder of Shabby Chic “How I Did It: Rachel Ashwell” was later included in their print magazine in their letters to the editor section.

Before putting me in the magazine, a reporter emailed me for permission and asked how I’d like to be identified. So for a time my name and website address was not only online for Inc. Magazine, but was also included in the print edition that goes out to millions of subscribers!

Another way to catch the eye of newshound looking for a home staging resource for their latest story is by being active on Twitter.

Consider how easy it is for someone to search the term “home staging” there, or the “hashtag” #staging, #stager, or #stagers.

In doing so, with only a few clicks the media person would:

• Have a handy list of people talking about those topics.
• Be able to see whether they seem knowledgeable.
• Have links to their blog posts and websites to find content to use for a story or determine whether the home stager is someone they want to interview.

If you’re not making full use of Twitter to grow your home staging business, then you are ignoring a free and powerful home staging marketing tool.

I wrote a Twitter Guide for Home Stagers to share the strategies I use. Many readers report that this guide has helped them get clients as well as newspaper articles and form alliances with key real estate agents who then feature them in their own blogs.

> Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Stagers Guide to Twitter.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

An internationally recognized home staging expert, Debra Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 7,000 students in the U.S., Canada and 20 other countries. She is the author of 5 guides and has appeared on HGTV, CBS Radio, The Wall Street Journal and a host of decorating magazines in the US and Canada. Learn more about Debra’s media attention and watch clips of her TV appearances.

Home stagers, redesigners and color consultants often look for jumping off points to develop a color palette. Many times I’ve found inspiration in a piece of art or nature. For example, the Staging Diva logo colors were inspired by cutting into a ripe papaya.

I discovered a new color tool for home stagers Sherwin Williams Chip It. This application allows you to pull an image from anywhere online and automatically turn it into a color palette of Sherwin Williams paint colors.

This is especially brilliant of them as a marketing tool, given the current popularity of Pinterest.

During an interior redesign or color consultation, let’s say a client has a beautiful piece of art and you want to turn that into the inspiration for a color palette for their home. You could upload a photo of it and then use the Chip It application to tell you what colors are in it.

Or if you spot an inspiring image on Pinterest, you could use the Sherwin Williams Chip It tool on it. Please note that if you photograph a piece of art and post it to your own Pinterest account, you are violating the copyright of the artist.

Check out this short video to see how Sherwin Williams Chip It works:

While you wouldn’t necessarily use all the colors as wall paint, it would give you ideas for not only wall colors but colors to paint some of the furniture or sourcing accessories like accent pillows, throws, vases, etc. Choosing the right accent color and using it repeatedly throughout the home provides great impact when decorating a house to sell.

Personally, I’m not sure I’d use the Chip It tool, this is one piece of “technology” I don’t feel I need.

Instead of using Sherwin Williams Chip It, I’d likely take the piece of art to a bright window and under natural light, I’d hold up my own Para Paint or Benjamin Moore color chips next to it and choose the paint colors myself. However, I realize that not everyone is able to discern the subtleties of one shade over another (something I teach in the Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide).

Which reminds me of an important tip for shopping for home staging or redesign clients!

When I’m out shopping for a client for a home staging or redesign project, I’ll bring along a paint company’s fan deck for reference of the wall colors I’ve selected, or what colors I want to match for accessories.

That way you don’t have to remember the exact shade of red or blue you wanted for a house when you may have seen five others in between your home staging consultation and your shopping trip. When you’re shopping for multiple clients on the same day, this is also helpful!

I hope you’re getting paid for your time to go shopping for your clients (and shopping with their money that is paid to you in advance). When you combine more than one client’s purchases into the same store visit, you’ll optimize how much you’re earning. How to do this is explained in full in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Pay close attention to the instructions in Courses 3 and 5 especially.

Color is definitely one of my passions. How about you? Do you see yourself using this new Sherwin Williams tool or do you see it as something that would have more appeal for the general public (who are perhaps looking for a way to avoid having to hire a color consultant and do it themselves)?

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are now more than 7,000 students in over 20 countries. She is the author of 5 guides including the Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The Easy Way to Pick Colors for Home Staging Projects.

There is an absolute explosion of home staging information on the Internet. For example a quick search of the phrase home staging on Google will find over 13 million results in 0.25 seconds!

Clearly, it’s impossible to stay “in the know” with that amount of information (without someone to curate the high points for you like I try and do in Home Staging Business Report), and it’s next to impossible to be one of the 10 search results on page one.

I did a home staging business coaching call with a Pennsylvania home stager Lori Fischer yesterday. She’s just completed the first year of her home staging business and has been busy non-stop with projects for the past 5 months. This is a terrific situation to be in when you’re in your first year of business, but she raised a common challenge we all face:

“How do I keep up my home staging marketing efforts when I’m so busy with existing clients and staging projects?”

In this article, I’ll share my 13 home staging marketing tips for using Google Alerts to cut the time you spend on marketing. This is a free tool and very easy to use. With the right tactics you can use this tool to significantly boost your online presence, which then does your marketing for you 24/7 while you’re busy with client projects!

First of all, what Are Google Alerts?

These are email notifications you receive from Google when it finds something that matches the criteria you’ve set. Google will search web pages, newspaper articles, blogs and social media to find information that you’ve indicated you are interested in.

How to use Google Alerts to Boost Your Home Staging Marketing Efforts

When you set up Google Alerts for your name and your company name, you can use it find out what is being said about you or your company.

Let’s face it, we all love to Google our own names and see how often we pop up in search results, but that’s more ego driven then functional. It’s more important to find out what new thing is being said, as soon as it happens.

This can help protect you if someone is saying bad things publicly, because it gives you a chance to respond.

It’s also really handy to find out what good things are being said, so you can link to it and promote it yourself. This is an extremely effective home staging marketing strategy!

For example, let’s say someone raves about your home staging services on a site like AngiesList, Kudzu, or HomeStars. Wouldn’t you want to know?

And wouldn’t you want to write a blog post, Tweet or Facebook post quoting it and linking to it? How about including it in your next home staging newsletter to potential clients?

If you didn’t have Google Alerts set up for your name and company name, you might totally miss these marketing opportunities because you might not know those testimonials are out there.

Another way this can help you is by pointing you towards media mentions.

I would never have known I appeared in an Australian newspaper or one in Southwest Florida, for example, without Google Alerts for my name. Knowing these stories are out there, gives me material to use in my own marketing efforts and the media page on my website.

Remember media mentions boost your credibility so if you’ve been in the media you want to draw attention to that fact so potential customers will see you as a home staging expert.

You can also use Google Alerts to find the latest news on home staging in your area so you can add to the story.

When you set up Google Alerts to monitor “home staging cityname” or “home stagers cityname” where “cityname” might be any city or county or neighborhood you care about, you’ll know when home staging is being talked about there.

For example, perhaps the local newspaper runs a home staging story on Wednesday and you don’t happen to see the paper that day. With your Google Alert in place you won’t miss it.

Two key ways you can use this information include:

• Adding a blog comment if the story also appears online as a blog. Since the newspaper reporter will be checking comments, you’ll get noticed for a future story. Remember your comment must do something to position you as an expert, so you want to add to the discussion, not just say something like, “great article.”
• Learning which of your local competitors are being featured in the media. Pay attention to their marketing efforts to find opportunities for your own home staging company.

You can also set up Google Alerts to monitor your home staging competition.

Set up Google alerts for the names and company names of your local competitors. This will alert you to the marketing tactics they are using online to promote their home staging business. This will give you ideas for your own marketing, plus alert you to competitive activity like:

• Whether they are doing any public speaking.
• If they’ve partnered up with a particular real estate agent.
• If they’ve hired assistants or opened a warehouse for their home staging inventory.
• And much more.

 You can use Google Alerts to make you appear “everywhere.”

Have you ever wondered how I suddenly appear inside online discussions about home staging as if I was reading everything, everywhere, all the time? A big part of my strategy is using Google Alerts to let me know when and where these discussions are happening. Then I just pop in at the opportune moment and add my thoughts.

Yes, it’s still time consuming but it allows me to leverage my time strategically. Do I act on every alert I see? Of course not, sometimes I’m overwhelmed just like you and sometimes personal matters or a family crisis totally gets in the way of my business efforts too.

The trick is to use whatever time-saving tools you can and think about how to use them strategically to get noticed. You can be the absolute most talented home stager in the world, but if no one has ever heard of you, then you won’t have any business!

A few last tips for setting up your Google Alerts

To avoid wasting time plowing through irrelevant results be as precise as possible when setting up your Alert criteria.

If you’re looking for “home staging” make sure you put quotes around it, otherwise you’ll get anything that has “home” and “staging” in it, but not necessarily together as a single phrase.

Consider how often you want to receive your Alerts. “As it happens” is totally overwhelming, consider daily or even weekly. Also experiment with different settings for “volume” (the default setting is “only the best results.”)

> Here’s where you can set up your own Google Alerts for free!

Have you used Google Alerts yet? Please share your experience and tips. For anyone who hasn’t, were these marketing tips helpful? Please share your thoughts and questions below so I can continue to share the “how to” information and inspiration you’re looking for to build your home staging business.

Also, if you found these 13 home staging marketing tips  helpful, I’d really appreciate you hitting the Facebook “Like” button and sharing this article with your friends and fellow home stagers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever your social media preference is. Sharing buttons below!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Debra Gould has been a serial entrepreneur since 1989. She is president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc. with a mission of helping entrepreneurs create their ideal businesses and lifestyles.

An internationally recognized home staging expert, Debra created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 7,000 students in the U.S., Canada and 20 other countries. She is the author of 5 guides and appears frequently in the media.

Business card for Staging Diva student Birgit Anich of Birgit Anich Staging & Interiors (CT). Using a room photo can be risky (see below) but Anich pulled it off beautifully in this example. (Business card sample used with permission.)

Your home staging business card is one of the most critical pieces of your home staging marketing.

Here are 9 home staging business card tips to ensure you’re creating the right image for yourself as a home stager:

1. Remember that home staging is an image business.

I can usually tell which home stagers will ultimately fail almost before they start. My first clue is the quality of the logo and/or business card. When either one is sloppy or unprofessional, you are communicating from day one that you aren’t prepared to invest in your business. If that’s the case, don’t expect clients to invest in you either.

This sounds harsh. It’s meant to wake you up to how critical this point is because I want you to have a long and successful career as a home stager.

There’s nothing like making money doing work you love. To enjoy this privilege for many years to come, you need to invest a minimal amount upfront to get your business image done right.

In the business card sample shown here, there was no need for a logo because of the strength of the photo. In fact a logo would have interfered with this particular design.

2. Include the address of your website and/or blog.

There are many situations where someone will get your business card with no immediate opportunity to learn more about your work. Directing them to your online presence gives them a chance to learn more about how you can help them, view your portfolio, etc.

Consider how often you’ve found someone else’s business card stuffed in one of your pockets, lying under a bunch of papers on your desk, or sitting at the bottom of your purse. How often do you forget who the card belongs to, or where you got it?

The same thing will happen to you when you give out your own card. You want people to feel that it’s something worth hanging onto, and then you want them to have somewhere to visit to refresh their memory about why they kept it when the time comes.

Having your website address on your card is not only expected, it makes that happen.

Few home stagers have the time, money and ability to create a professional website from day one. That’s why I created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. Within 7 days of submitting your material, you’ll have a professional page on a high traffic website.

As long as you’ve registered a domain (or URL as it’s also called), you can forward that address to your own page on the Staging Diva Directory. That way you don’t have to build your own website now (or ever if you don’t want to).

Many new home stagers start this way and several Directory members have remained for many years even after they built their own site.

Donna Dazzo of New York’s Designed to Appeal (who has been a Directory member for almost 6 years) reports that her participation in the Directory continues to be among the top 3 sources of visitors to her own website!

3. Consider the risks of using a photo of your work.

Having an interior room shot, as in the business card shown above, can be very effective in communicating what a great job you do and reinforcing your image as a staging professional.

The downside is that you can really only use one image effectively on a standard-size business card, so which one will you choose?

If you go with a modern interior, you might turn off all the folks whose tastes run more to the traditional, for example. Or if you show a home that doesn’t look like it’s in the price range of your typical customer, they might think you won’t know how to deal with a home like theirs.

Under NO circumstances should you use a stock image or a room shot that is not your work on your business card or website. This is a common and misleading practice that can ultimately destroy your credibility. Learn why you shouldn’t use stock images (or a fake portfolio) here.

4. Include ways to get in touch with you.

At minimum you should include your name, phone number and email address. Other options include your Twitter handle or Facebook Business Page. With limited business card space, my preference is to leave out social media links because my first priority is to get potential staging clients to my home staging website. From there, I provide links to find me on social networking sites.

Staging Diva Directory members can include social media icons in their listing; this is a free service with a one year commitment!

5. Decide if you want strangers showing up at your door.

One of the reasons home staging is such a great business is that you can run it from your home, eliminating the need to pay rent on an office or store front.

But, just because you are working from your home doesn’t mean you need to publish that address on your business card or anywhere else.

On my 12 (!)  websites I have a physical mailing address with suite number, that’s actually a mailbox inside a UPS storefront. It looks like a professional address, and they accept my mail and parcels. Plus, I don’t have to worry about potential clients (or weirdos who get their hands on my business card) showing up at my door.

Personally I don’t use any physical address on my business card, I leave that detail to the contact page on my actual websites.

6. Remember not everyone knows what home staging is.

When you’re a bookkeeper, dentist or real estate agent, you don’t need to explain what you do on your business card because most everyone already has a general understanding of when/why they might hire you.

This is not always the case with home staging. Consider a short tag line or other copy on your card to explain what you do. Also consider whether “home staging” is the right phrase for your area. For example, in Australia, the term “property stylist” is more common.

7. Choose your business title and whether to use it.

I've redone my own card many times since I started home staging in 2002. This is one of the versions.

In the business card example above, Birgit didn’t need to use a “fancy” title to communicate that she’s in charge, because her name is part of her business name.

If that’s not the case for you, consider an official title. For example, my staging business is called Six Elements. If I didn’t put any title on my card, no one would whether I’m an assistant or work in the accounting department! When I hand out my card at a networking event, or when meeting a potential client or real estate agent, I want people to know they are dealing with the head of my company.

I call myself “President,” “Head Designer, ” or both depending whether it fits the design.

These titles show I’m the boss (important when you want to be taken seriously by people who care about titles), and “Head Designer” reinforces that I’m creative.

When else are you going to be president, if you don’t give yourself that title?

Personally I loathe “Business Owner” unless you own a coffee shop, dry cleaner or gas station. I just don’t think that title is appropriate for a service business without a storefront. That doesn’t mean I’m right, or that this advice is right for every market. You have to decide what feels comfortable to you.

8. Create something you can be proud to share.

If you are embarrassed by your business card, you won’t hand it out nearly as often as you should! Since marketing and self promotion are part of having your own business, you don’t want to be stuck with a card that you don’t feel reflects your personality and the business image you want to project.

9. Don’t over print because it sounds cheaper.

The print quantity of our first run of business cards shouldn’t be more than 100, unless you’re preparing for a major trade show. It takes longer to go through business cards than you imagine and you’ll want to change or update the information or design 3 or 6 months from now. After starting various businesses and redesigning my various business cards over the past almost 25 years of being an entrepreneur, please take my word for it when I warn you about over-printing!

Since digital printing is so cheap, there really isn’t a big reason to get 500 or 1000 cards from the start. Yes, they would be cheaper per card, but I guarantee you’ll find yourself using a card you’ve long grown tired of, just because you printed too many. See point 8 above!

If you’ve found these tips helpful, imagine how much you’ll learn when you’re actually inside the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. You’ll find all my courses include only practical, need-to-know stuff that’s based on what it’s really like being a home stager.

What’s on your business card?

I want to feature you in an upcoming post and why I love your home staging business card as I did here for Birgit Anich.

> Please post of a photo of your card on The Staging Diva Facebook wall so I can check it out.

This will give you a little extra publicity and help you meet your fellow stagers inside the Staging Diva community. Besides, aren’t you curious to see what others have created too?

Need help with your home staging business image?

The Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide: Winning clients with the perfect home staging portfolio gives you all the tips you need to create the right image for your home staging business, from how to write about yourself, get a great logo, take before and after photos, and more.

> Learn about how to create the right home staging business image so you’ll actually HAVE a staging business!

I hope you found these 9 tips to a better home staging business card helpful. Please add your comments and questions below!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Debra Gould has been a serial entrepreneur since 1989. She is president of Voice of Possibility Group Inc. with a mission of helping entrepreneurs create their ideal businesses and lifestyles.

An internationally recognized home staging expert, Debra created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 7,000 students in the U.S., Canada and 20 other countries. She is the author of 5 guides and appears frequently in the media.

When I worked in corporations, it was really taboo to talk about salary. Frankly, I think those “rules” are made by the people who don’t want you to find out that you are making less than the next guy for doing the same job.

Since home stagers are self-employed, they don’t really earn a home stager salary, but they can make lots of money.

Some home stagers have criticized me for talking about money in public. Since I’m in the business of helping home stagers make money as home stagers, how can I not?

Unless you were born with a trust fund, or have a spouse who pays all the bills (I have neither), you need an income to live on. There’s nothing shameful about earning a living doing what you love, as long as you operate with integrity. By not talking about how much money a home stager can make, we shroud the whole thing in mystery unnecessarily.

Most home stagers don’t like to share the nitty-gritty details of how long things take or how much money they make in home staging. In this series, I explain two common types of projects and what I earn from each one.

If you’re thinking, “Oh it’s different for her, she’s the Staging Diva,” let me assure you that I have not changed my home staging rates in 7 years. This is how much I was earning within my second year as a home stager, once I figured out the formula I’ve since taught to 7,000 home stagers in 21 countries.

I had to figure this all out on my own the hard way. My students don’t, because I tell them everything I’ve learned along the way!

One of the reasons it’s so easy to fit a home staging business in around another full- or part-time job, raising children (or whatever other demands you have on your time), is that each home staging project is fairly short term.

Especially when you compare it to Interior Design where a project can easily last 3 to 6 months because of renovations, lead times to order new furniture, and other details you have no control over.

Many staging projects involve a single meeting

A home staging project could be limited to a 2 to 5-hour consultation. My home staging consultations are more like working sessions because I often transform a home in that first meeting, using whatever they have.

In fact that’s where the bulk of my home staging income has always come from for 9 years. It’s a great way to make a living because you get in, work your magic and give your recommendations, and leave with your payment.

There’s no need to write a report or wait to get paid (if you follow the business formula I teach in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program).

The photo at the top of this article is from a recent staging project. MLS photos were being taken the next day so there was no time to paint or bring in new furniture.

Working with what my client already had (plus a few orchids and plants), the homeowner and I tossed everything they didn’t need into big plastic bins so it could be taken away for storage, and rearranged the rest.

We worked together for 3 hours and I left with $900, not bad for a Wednesday afternoon! Now I live in a major urban center. If you live in a smaller city, you’ll probably charge less for a consultation, but remember you also won’t have as high a cost of living as someone in a larger area.

This course will teach you how to make $900 in an afternoon.

In Course 2, The Business of Home Staging: What you need to start and grow your business, I share a whole pricing strategy that you can adapt no matter where you live. You’ll also learn what other home stagers charge in different cities and towns.

Bonus Marketing Tip

By the way, this client found me on Facebook because one of the real estate agents she is “friends” with keeps sharing my Facebook posts on his wall!

She went to my home staging business website, called me up and the rest is history.

Other staging projects take several days. In Part 2 of this post, I’ll share how much money a home stager can make with those.

Home stagers who are reading this, I’d love for you to share whether you make more of your home staging income from single consultations or from more involved staging projects.

And if you want to share your rates, I know others will find this very helpful. Wouldn’t you like to learn more about what other home stagers charge too?

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are now more than 7,000 students in over 20 countries. She is the author of 5 guides and is frequently quoted in the media.

If you’re a home stager in Burbank California, I have three vacant condos that need staging for the real estate market as soon as possible. This home stager job is only available for Graduates of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.

This is a smaller 3-condo property north of downtown Los Angeles and the owner/contractor is selling all three units which are 3 bedroom and 2 bathrooms. These are excellent projects for your home staging portfolio as the square footage of each of these Burbank condos ranges from 1285 to 1735 square feet. They are priced in the $450,000 range.

We’ve made it easy for you to apply to stage these 3 Burbank condos. All you need to do is complete the form at the Staging Diva Home Staging Project Referral Service.

Please be sure to include “Burbank CA Condo Staging Projects” as the project location in the first line of the form. You must have a listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers or a professional website to be considered for this project. (It’s difficult to convince a client to hire you if they can’t review your staging portfolio, after all!)

If you get any paid work through this referral, there will be a flat one-time $500 referral fee, which you can split up and build into your staging fees for each of the condos if you’d like. It’s entirely up to you. Considering these 3 projects can easily generate $10,000 – $20,000 in home staging income, the $500 is a small price to pay for being recommended. Since you’ll be working for the contractor, this will also be a great lead for future projects!

Because of all the traffic generated by my many home staging websites, I get lots of leads on staging jobs from all over the United States and Canada, and as far away as England, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa and Israel! I will only refer them to Graduates.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Directory. Just one good project would more than pay for your entire training program plus building and hosting your web page on the high-traffic Directory of Home Stagers for an entire year! When you have a listing in the Staging Diva Directory, I do not charge you a referral fee.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is an internationally recognized home staging expert that is frequently profiled in the media in the US, Canada and Australia. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.

You can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. We build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers