Would you like to send this to a friend?

Staging Diva Dispatch, written by home staging expert Debra Gould, is a monthly newsletter filled with real estate staging business tips and articles for aspiring and established home stagers. The Staging Diva shares practical solutions and ideas to help you decorate homes to sell quickly, and make lots of money doing it.
Staging Diva Dispatch

Quote of the Month!

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."

~ George Eliot
(courtesy of Gina Williamson)



Staging Diva
Biz Tip

If you have a business name you're thinking of for your home staging business, you should protect that name on the internet by registering your domain name now.

This doesn't mean you're putting up a website, it's just the address you're protecting for now so that it's available when you need it.

You can do this for an amazingly low fee of only about $7 for the year at GoDaddy.

This is only one of the many tips I share with students in "Staging Diva Marketing & Sales Secrets" which is Course 4 of The Staging Diva Program.

Not everyone takes my advice. One student registered her business name and printed all her cards and marketing materials before realizing the name was already in use by someone else and had to redo everything!

Another saw her name was available at GoDaddy and didn't register it right away. When she went back a week later, it was taken and she had to pay the person who bought it over $700 to get it back! She would have paid only $7 had she registered it in the first place.

I share this with you so you won't make these mistakes. Go immediately to GoDaddy and protect your little "plot of land" in cyberspace!

For more marketing ideas consider ordering course 4 of the Staging Diva Program. Better yet take the whole program and I can refer projects to you once you're a graduate!




Reality Check!

Ask yourself these questions to determine if you're ready to take action in your life:

•Does your current work or how you spend your time let you feel you're making a real difference in peoples' lives?

•Does your work, or how you spend your days allow you to express your creativity?

•Are you still passionate about what you do everyday?

•Are you so focused on money and security that you are willing to sell your soul for it?

•Do you think anything will change if you keep doing what you're doing?

If you answered NO to 3 of these 5 questions, I encourage you to spend a f.r.e.e. hour listening to me talk about home staging.



Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

Don't want your own web site?

If you don't have a domain name, or a web site and never intend to have your own, The Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers is a perfect way to promote our talents with next to no effort on your part! You send me copy and photos and I build your page, create your links and boost your credibility!

Building your own web site?

Did you know that the fastest way to get your new site to appear in search engine rankings is to get a recognized high traffic site to link to you?

You get this with a listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers-  saving the 3 to 6 month wait that's common for any new web site to be discovered.

Have you already registered your own domain and when people go there, they see "under construction" or "domain is parked?" There goes a new client and they may never come back!

I've created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to give you an EASY way to have an IMMEDIATE Internet presence.

"My first project from my directory listing more than paid for the Staging Diva Training Program and my listing in the Directory for a full year!" (Linda Schliehauf, ON)

Over 20 graduates have joined since the January launch and traffic continues to build. In fact stagingdiva.com now gets more traffic than sixelements.com, a site that is 3 years older!

If you only got one project in a whole year, it would STILL pay for itself! How can you lose? And you have so much to gain!

Learn more!


Feeling isolated in your new business?

Staging Diva Network

The Staging Diva Network is an online discussion group for Graduates.

It's a supportive community where you can share the joys and challenges of building your business. 

I answer questions within this forum and you also get advice from others in the group.

You'll learn lots and feel inspired by the discussions with your fellow Staging Diva Graduates.

Right now we're discussing things like negotiating commissions, speaking at events, challenges on first projects, helpful resources and more.

Learn more!


  Issue 5: July/August 2006

Hi

You are receiving this newsletter because you expressed interest in learning about the business of Home Staging.If you don't want to continue, use the "Unsubscribe" link at the very bottom of this email.

I hope you find the content helpful; and I welcome any feedback!

Debra Signature

Debra Gould, President Six Elements Inc.
Creator of The Staging Diva™ Program


In this issue:

Main Section

Projects with no stagers!

Staging Diva Goes World-Wide

Interior Design Versus Home Staging

Graduate Success Stories

Dealing with Client Resistance

Staging Diva in the Media

Left column

Quote of the Month

Staging Diva Biz Tip

Reality Check

Building Your Own Site?

Feeling isolated?



Projects With No Stagers!

I've had three home staging projects recently with no graduates to refer the clients to. They were in Chicago IL and Savage MN. If you're in either of these areas and you weren't sure whether you wanted to proceed with Staging Diva Training, I can tell you that any of these projects would have more than covered the cost!



Staging Diva Goes World-Wide

This has been an international year for my business. I staged homes for owners now living in Thailand, Hong Kong and England who had homes back in my city to sell. Naturally, they found my home staging site on the Internet. I was able to sell them on hiring me to take care of all the details of preparing their homes for sale even though we never met in person and they were thousands of miles away.

Read about the challenges of working with overseas clients

Staging Diva is also going international, with our first students from Australia and South Africa joining this week! They found my home staging training site on the internet.

For those of you continuing to resist putting your staging businesses on the Internet, you are really missing opportunities. That's why I created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. It's the cheap, fast and easy way to get your business hosted on a high traffic home staging site. I do all the work, just send me your copy and photos!

If you're unsure whether I can get your staging business exposure and traffic, think back to how you found out about me in the first place.



Interior Design Versus Home Staging

Now that I've staged hundreds of homes, here's what I learned about being a Professional Home Stager and why I'm glad I never took several years off to study interior design:


Home Staging:
by Debra Gould

• You get more projects to work on because they are shorter in nature. So, more variety.

• Your clients give you creative control because they know they don't have to live with your changes. So, you get to be creative and make the decisions.

• Because people stage their homes to make m0ney, you get to work with people who wouldn't normally hire an interior designer or decorator, in other words you have a much larger target market.

This is not a criticism of interior design. I've just found key differences that suit my temperament. By the way, there are many established interior designers who take the Staging Diva Program. They find the pricing and marketing information I share helps with their interior design business too.

Read more of this story here

Just recently I also learned how much more pr0fitable home staging can be. Check out these Interior Designer statistics from salary.com:

Years of Experience
Average Income
0 to 2 years
$ 34,795
4 to 6 years
$ 46,376
8 or more years
$ 66,300
I was shocked to see these statistics! In my first year of home staging I made more than an interior designer with 2 years experience. By year two, I made more than a senior designer with more than 8 years experience!

I share with my students how I accomplished this, and show them how to do it too, during 10 hours of training in The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.

If you haven't taken these Staging Diva courses, you can order recordings now for only $179 each or join the next live course series with me and take all 5 courses for $795 (a $100 s.a.v.i.n.g).

Student/Graduate Success Corner

Congratulations to LaJeanna Pilant of Alamo Home Staging (TX) who is using what she learned in course 3 "Taking the Mystery Out of a Home Staging Consultation" to stage her first project. It's a $650,000 home involving shopping, staging, landscaping, painting, packing, etc.

Congratulations to graduate Jenny Kennedy-Olsen of Urban Lane Designs (AB) who has been invited to speak at the local Home Builder's Association conference in September!

Congratulations to Cindy Pickering (FL) who within 5 months of graduating not only built a successful home staging business but was able to sell it when her husband was transferred to another state! She can start up again when she resettles in her new home. Once you know what you're doing, you can run your home staging business anywhere!

Congratulations to Della Pitre (NB) on her new staging business, New Look Designs. With two more courses before graduating from the Staging Diva Program Della is already well on her way to a new future!



Check out this bedroom makeover from Kelley D'Lima's listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers!

Congratulations to Kelley D'Lima on starting Redefining Spaces (AZ).

Kelley had to decide whether to keep her full time job and stage on the side, or just jump in. Within 3 weeks of completing her Staging Diva Training, she had two projects.

When Kelley made more in 5 hours of staging than she used to make working a whole week, she decided it was time to take the plunge. She celebrated Independence Day by quitting her job and committing herself full-time to building Redefining Spaces. Way to go Kelley; it takes courage to step out of your comfort zone and follow your dreams!

Staging Diva Students and Graduates, send me your successes so we can celebrate your triumphs and inspire others!


Dealing with Client Resistance

Even an open-minded client will be thinking about the inconvenience and price tag associated with painting. It's your job as a home staging expert to educate them about why it's important.

I had one client with a fuchsia living room that opened into a brilliant turquoise kitchen and dining room. These were the first rooms you saw when entering the house.

I knew I would recommend a new color scheme as soon as I walked through their front door. But, timing is everything. I waited until I had completed the rest of the consultation and built a rapport and level of trust. They were proud of their color scheme and had I recommended changing it from the get go, I would have met with considerable resistance.

So, three hours into our time together, I acknowledged what a "wonderful job they had done choosing their colors to live". I pointed out that now we were turning their home into a product that needed to appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers. I discussed how strongly people are influenced by color, and how difficult it is to imagine anything else when looking at a room in a strong color scheme.

I explained the fuchsia would distract buyers' with the novelty of the color, and that their next distraction would be trying to imagine how their own living room furniture wouldn't work with it.

"Bottom line," I said, "instead of walking through imaging themselves just moving in, potential buyers will be talking about how they have to repaint; or even worse, thinking 'I could never live here!' Decorating a home to sell is the art of creating an environment that the maximum number of potential buyers will fall in love with."

This was an excerpt from one of the 13 chapters in "Staging Diva™ Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects".

Learn more

"The Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide saved me hundreds of hours. Within 45 minutes, I had my own Staging Fan Deck put together. It's easier to carry, less daunting for clients and reinforces my professionalism and expertise."

Leigh Olson, Velvet Plum (WA)
Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide

In the Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide you'll learn:

  • When and how to discuss color with your client
  • 30 Tips to Choosing Home Staging Colors
  • What paint sheen levels to use and when
  • How to deal with wallpaper
  • Top Color Collections for US and Canada
  • The Staging Diva's top 80 Color Picks
  • The Staging Diva's 15 Color Palettes
  • How Clients can use your recommendations
  • How to get your own paint swatch designer kit
  • The Staging Diva's favorite color books

You can order "Staging Diva™ Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects"and have it emailed to you within 24 hours. 

Learn more


Staging Diva In the Media

The Staging Diva Training Program is the only Home Staging Business Opportunity featured in Entrepreneur's StartUps Magazine.


On newsstands until Aug. 7/06

 

 

I have over $36,000 worth of advertising space in The Official Pre-Mover Savings Guide featuring my tips for preparing a house to sell.

Written to entice readers into learning more about what a Professional Home Stager can do and distributed by Coldwell Banker and Century 21 agents throughout the US. 

An excellent lead generator for Staging Diva Graduates as readers contact me for referrals to home stagers in their areas!



I shared two design book recommendations with Style at Home readers in June. The best part is I managed to weave the home staging idea into the article (even though they were just looking for design books)!

The more we can get the "home staging" concept out there to the public the better. It makes our selling job easier.

Read more media info

 

What does Staging Diva media attention mean for you?

With more media exposure and more Internet traffic to http://www.sixelements.com/ and http://www.stagingdiva.com/,more people are educated about what staging can do; which makes your sales job easier.

The value of your Staging Diva training increases because you can say that an internationally recognized home staging expert personally trained you.

Traffic to your profile in The Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers increases exponentially without you working to get this added exposure. And, you don't pay extra for it either!

With every media appearance, I get calls from people looking for a home stager in their market. 98% of the time, the Graduates who actually get work from my referrals have a page on the Staging Diva Directory and/or their own website. It's rare for someone to hire a stager when they can't see samples of their work.

What projects are you missing out on? What are these lost opportunities costing you?

Visit:  

http://www.stagingdiva.com/

http://www.sixelements.com/

Email:  

debra@stagingdiva.com

™Staging Diva and the Staging Diva Logo are trademarks of Six Elements Inc.
© 2005 - 2008 Six Elements Inc. All rights reserved.
Republication or dissemination of this content is expressly prohibited without written permission.
For more information contact: 416-691-6615.