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.