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.
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?
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 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!
|
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."
|
|
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?
|