Beware of the HYPE about Starting a Home Staging Business

Copyright (c) 2009 Alice Chan

I am amazed by the amount of B.S. there is on the Internet about starting a home staging business. It's unbelievable that what these people come up with. Who are they? I can't imagine they could be real Stagers that have any experience to draw from.

Here's one article from some bozo off a website called barnumproductions.com. No contact info, nothing...isn't that curious? Guess he doesn't want anyone's real life experience to rebuke his ridiculous message. I mean, come on...Learn To Become A Home Stager And Become Rich!!! Are you kidding me with that? If any of you thought you'd become rich by being a Home Stager, let me be the first to burst that bubble for you. It's highly unlikely that will happen.

Allow me to highlight some of the crap that's in this article so you don't give him the satisfaction of traffic to his site... (this is actually his article in its entirety - one paragraph)

"If you are looking for a new business that can make you money, forget it. What you need is a business that can make you rich. You may not know it but the business that you want could have been sitting right in front of your nose. If you're the type of woman who just loves to decorate and redecorate your house time and time again, why not make your beautiful hidden talent known to your friends, relatives and neighbors just how good you are with home decorations and become a home stager? You will surely enjoy this kind of business because you will be doing it at your own pace and time and decide how much you will be charging for your services. In other words, you can make your own house as your "training ground" and work your way up to your neighbors and friends. You don't have to look around for some training guide. The first step that you need to enhance your home-staging skills is to go online and see what this business can do for you."

Let's address a few things...

"If you're the type of woman who just loves to decorate and redecorate your house time and time again, why not make your beautiful hidden talent known to your friends, relatives and neighbors just how good you are with home decorations and become a home stager?"

This has been the biggest problem with this industry since day one. Sure, it helps to have passion for what you do, but just because you're a good decorator, does not make you a good business person. I witnessed this first hand when I took my training to learn more about this industry.

Women all around me were elated to find this new industry and thought that this was "their calling", but they had absolutely no idea what running a business entailed. They'd never had any sales experience, was scared to death of networking or even picking up the phone. All they wanted to do was get paid to decorate.

That may have worked when the market was HOT, but sadly now that the real estate market has changed so dramatically, many of these "dreamers" have fallen by the wayside. It's not their fault. Unfortunately, most of these "trainers" out there don't really talk about the realities of running a staging business and the importance of treating it like a real business. They just capitalize on how "fun" this business is. Well, it's no fun if you you're the best kept secret in town or if you can't pay your bills because you don't know how to get and keep the business.

"You will surely enjoy this kind of business because you will be doing it at your own pace and time" - apparently, this expert has never experienced a seller's market when houses were sold minutes after landing on the MLS - at your own pace and time rarely factored into my real life staging schedule. I quickly learned how to manage my schedule and set boundaries with clients so that there was a clear understanding that business takes place during business hours and calling me and expecting a response at 10:00 pm on a Sunday night was not acceptable, but you were at the mercy of the frenzy that was happening for a few years.

Another misconception is being able to stage "on your own time". There may be some flexibility with vacant properties, but if it's owner occupied, they want you in and out quickly. Nobody wants you in their home in the evening when they're trying to have dinner, take care of the kids, and wind down from a day at work.

Lastly, "the first step that you need to enhance your home-staging skills is to go online and see what this business can do for you" - HUH?!!! How does going online "enhance your home staging skills?"

As the Latin saying goes "caveat emptor" or "let the buyer beware". Don't accept what people - especially someone who obviously knows NOTHING about the Home Staging industry steer you the wrong way. I love this business, but I'll be the first to tell you that it's not an easy business and it's not the same business it was just a few short years ago.

To survive, you have to change with the times. The strategies that you've used to get to where you are today, will not take you to the business that you want tomorrow. The rules have changed! Accept it and figure out how to play by the new rules.