Why Savvy
Decorators and Designers Add "Home Staging"
To Their Business...
By Audra Slinkey
Many savvy
decorators and designers join HSR in order
to add home staging to their service
offering. They come to HSR because we give
them a specific business and marketing plan
in order to add staging services to their
business.
If you're struggling a bit to get your
redesign, design or decorating business off
the ground, take heart because it's not you
and there is an easy solution...it's all in
the nature of the business model.
Lulu Enad,
an HSR Certified 2 year veteran, shares an
incredible story about how her business grew
over 90% by joining HSR and adding home
staging to her Interior Design business.
" Before
when I just had my Interior Design business
I didn't have a website and the proper tools
to successfully run the business: such as
training, professional market materials and
network of stagers to to learn from their
experiences. Today, I have all these to make
my business more successful...Interior
Designing is my part time job and adding the
Home Staging as part of my services
increased the number of projects that I used
to have. My total projects & earnings
increased by 90% after joining HSR!
Many people
don't realize that the key to
entrepreneurial success usually lays in the
business model. Here are 5 Reasons the
Staging business model makes more sense then
a Decorating, Design or Redesign model
ESPECIALLY from a marketing perspective:
1. An Added
Target Market that is Inexpensive to Contact and Easy to Find - The target
market for residential decorating, design
and redesign is invariably the end-user or
homeowner who is looking to improve their
surroundings. Who are these people and
where can they be found...EVERYWHERE!
This makes it very difficult to have a
strategic marketing campaign and usually
requires a shotgun approach which can be
expensive to initiate.
The main target
market for staging is real estate agents
which in general are a wonderful group to
market to. Real estate agents are all
over the Internet, very accessible and even
meet in groups that you can present to in
the form of "offices" or the local real
estate associations. HSR has a
specific "Realtor Partner" marketing plan
which encourages strategic partnerships
between agents and stagers.
2. Target
Markets that Give REPEAT Business
- Again, the target market for residential
decorating, design and redesign is
invariably the end-user or homeowner which
may refer additional business but will not
use you again once their home is complete.
Not only does
the staging business model have several
types of target markets, many of them will
become a steady source of business! We
already mentioned real estate agents which
are a given...can you imagine partnering
with an agent or office of agents who has
over 30 listings at any given time that need
staging?! Do you think you'd have to
"market" yourself again?
Other target
markets that give repeat business include
home builders, relocation companies, FSBO
websites, mortgage brokers, retirement
communities and funeral homes (morbid, I
know). The sky really is the limit and
staging "niches" abound!
3. Staging is
a Necessity, Design is a Luxury -
In a time of economic uncertainty it's
usually the "luxury" spending that's the
first to be cut from our budgets. Redesign,
decorating, design and remodeling are all
considered luxuries and will consequently
get hit hard in economic downturns.
A great way
to hedge your business in low economic times
is to add staging because it's a necessity
in any real estate market. Why?
Because in a "buyers market" it's the only
key to competing in the homes price range or
else risk sitting on the market and reducing
the price (see the
3 Keys to Success article). In a
"Sellers Market", staging can have a
tremendous impact on price.
4. Each
Staging Job is a Marketing Statement Which
Helps to "Snowball" Your Business -
Every time a stager completes a home, that
home becomes a "gallery" of sort of their
work because their target markets (agents
and buyers/sellers) will be walking through
the home to view it. It's not
surprising when a home stager's business
takes off after just one job when they
market it well. HSR has a whole
section in the Members Area called
"Capitalizing on Jobs" which outlines simple
strategies to easily get the most from each
job.
>5. Less
"Measurement" and More Design Creativity
- Many people are drawn to the
design field because they love the
creativity required to create beautiful
rooms only to be frustrated at the amount of
window treatment, cabinet, fixture and room
measurements they end up doing.
Staging is pure creative decorating and the
results can be realized in a single day (See
our
Anatomy of a Staging Day presentation).
Adding staging
to your current services doesn't mean that
you won't be designing, redesigning or
decorating, quite the contrary!
Usually a staging job leads to redesign and
design because the seller is MUCH more
inclined to use you on the home they will be
living in. The trick is getting in the
door and it's much easier when staging is
marketed first.
One of the most
common things I hear from HSR members who
added staging to their current
design/redesign business is that "they
wished they had joined earlier!" Don't
let this be you and stop struggling with a
business model that is difficult to market!
Don't take my
word for it, read
Lulu's complete
interview...
Watch our Day One Training Review Video to
Get a Sneak Peak of our Members Area
Purchase our 21-Day HSR Certification
Training to Add Staging to Your Business!
Click HERE to see Lulu's Vacant Room
Transformations...
About the
author:
Audra Slinkey is President of the Home
Staging Resource (http://www.homestagingresource.com)
a home staging training company designed to
provide business solutions and training to
people involved in the preparation of homes
for sale. Her passion for decorating, home
staging, and real estate investing expertise
has led her to the Home Staging Resource
where her mission is empowering Professional
Home Stagers and Real Estate Agents to be
successful in their field so that "every
home may be staged to sell." She has had
the privilege to personally mentor and train
over 1,500 professionals in the field of
staging to create successful staging and
redesign businesses throughout the world.
Prior to establishing HSR, Audra was a
recognized leader, international speaker,
corporate trainer and published author on
Internet research, sourcing and marketing.
Passionate about training and small business
mentoring, you can watch her Day One Review
presentation which outlines the 21-Day
Certification process and give you a sneak
peak into the HSR Members Training Area at:
http://www.homestagingresource.com/trainingreview.html
For a free presentation on the "12 Rules
of Home Staging," at:
http://www.homestagingresource.com/12stepslogin.asp.
To watch her video training presentation
on "An Anatomy of a Staging Day," go to:
http://www.homestagingresource.com/staging_day.asp.