If you have recently started a home staging business or are considering starting one, there are 4 mistakes to avoid when starting a staging business that can hinder your progress towards success.
If you talk to a room full of seasoned stagers, they will likely share a cautionary tale or two (or three) regarding missteps and blunders they made when they started their own staging business.
4 Mistakes to Avoid when Starting a Staging Business:
1. Allowing Other People to Define YOUR Business
Real estate agents, builders, and homeowners may assume certain things about your home staging business. They may assume that your service should be what THEY want it to be, that your fees should be lower, or that you should jump when they say jump. They may say something like, “that’s not the way my previous stager did it.” They may tell you there’s no need for a contract or that they’ll pay you when the house sells. Maybe they expect you to work around their schedule (nights and weekends). They may tell you exactly what you should (or shouldn’t) bring into the home to stage it. A new stager who lacks confidence may mistakenly believe that bending over backwards will get them a staging job. Or that being available at all times and at a moment’s notice is the way to get a client’s loyalty. Sadly, the opposite is more often true.
Make sure that YOU define and run your business. Establishing boundaries with your clients is essential. The only way you can do that is to educate would-be clients on the front end. Of course that means you have to figure out exactly what you will be offering (or not offering), doing (or not doing), and accepting (or not accepting). When your client begins telling you how to do your job, you can say “this is how I work, . . . ” Clearly defining the services you offer and how you deliver them is vital, so that expectations are established on the front end and your client understands that you have a process that will help them reach their goals.
It’s a game-changer to have specific staging goals that you explain to your clients upfront. I teach students in my Expert Psychological Staging® course that every recommendation or decision they make should be based on one of four clearly-defined staging goals, rather than their opinion. To reduce client pushback or complaints about specific staging decisions, justify recommendations with one of those goals. Rather than saying “I think ” (which leaves you open to argument), say ” I recommend” and then provide the reason for that recommendation.
Here’s an example: “I recommend that all the small area rugs be removed because unbroken floor space makes rooms appear larger, which is one of the main goals of staging.”
2. Undervaluing Yourself
When I began home staging in 2003, I was so eager to do staging work that I allowed myself to be taken advantage of more times than I like to admit! Sadly, it took me a couple of years to actually make any money. New stagers often fall prey to real estate agents who promise lots of future business if you give them a discount or a free consultation. Some Realtors will tell you that most stagers offer a first consultation for free. These kind of agents use this ploy to get freebies from stagers. Once you give them a service for free, you’ve unintentionally set your value at $0.00. Then the agent will move on to the next gullible rookie. Your ideal clients include Realtors who value, respect and appreciate your service and expertise. Don’t bother with the ones who try to lowball you, ask for freebies, or play games. Not worth your time or mental energy.
Cheap or free advice is never seen as valuable – the more you charge, the more likely your client will actually follow through with your recommendations. Confidence is perceived as expertise. If you undervalue what you have to offer, so will your client.
3. Falling Prey to Analysis Paralysis
When you make the decision to start a home staging business, there are a million things you know you need to do. You need to come up with a business name, create a website, reach out to real estate agents, design a logo, etc. When there are so many things to do and you want to do them all perfectly, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with Analysis Paralysis.
Can’t decide on the perfect name of your business or the perfect logo? Don’t allow indecision or perfectionism to stall your progress! You can always start out with Your Name Staging or Your Name Interiors, and change it later if you decide to do so. My business was Stonebrook Staging for about 6 years before I had the epiphany to merge my background (psychology) with my current career, launching The Decorologist. If I had waited until I had the perfect name, or perfect photos, or perfect whatever, I would have never gotten anywhere.
Speaking of never getting anywhere, the “if you build it, they will come” mentality doesn’t work when it comes to building a home staging business. If you just wait for something to happen, you will be disappointed. Don’t expect business to come to you – you are going to have to pursue it. If you formerly worked for others in a 9-5 environment, you had a set schedule and could rely on getting paid a given amount of money. Your mindset has to change completely when you are working for yourself! You have to pursue potential clients and jobs by promoting your business regularly and consistently. And when you actually get a job, it is very important that you do really excellent work. Which brings me to the fourth mistake you should avoid when starting a home staging business . . .
4. Not Backing Up Your Passion with Education
You don’t know what you don’t know. We all come to this career path with innate strengths. But in order to be successful, you need to have a broad foundation of knowledge about this industry and develop a myriad of skills in order to be successful in the business of staging.
Even if you have a good eye for design, there are many things that area quite different about staging a home and decorating one. Staging is a marketing strategy; it’s merchandising a product to sell. And in Psychological Staging®, it’s manipulating visual perception to create memory points and emotional attachment that ultimately impact buyer decision-making. Buyer Psychology is altogether different from Seller Psychology. If you are offering occupied staging or consultation services, it’s so important to understand the particulars of each so that you can effectively manage both.
Acquiring a solid foundation of business and marketing training that is relevant to the home staging industry enables you to avoid costly new-stager mistakes that result in poor revenue and failed businesses. And if you’ve found yourself falling prey to the previously-mentioned Analysis Paralysis, quality staging training will give you the “start-off push” you need to get your staging business in proper gear. Do your homework – research reputable training programs and figure out which is best for you. Your investment in training will save you from making amateur mistakes that cost you money and clients.
I hope this post has been helpful to you! I’ve been blogging about interior design, home staging, and paint color since 2009. You can follow me at The Decorologist.com.
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