If you've already taken an expensive seminar on starting a staging business, don't read this. It will break your heart. Barbara Jennings, bestselling author of 19 books and national trainer since 2002, offers a comprehensively detailed guide on how to earn excellent income in a home-based staging business, now a textbook used by multiple universities and technical schools.
Director of the Academy of Staging and Redesign (Decorate-Redecorate.Com), the author takes readers through the maze of starting and growing a lucrative business, covering virtually everything needed to succeed, avoid pitfalls and grow quickly. This large format, exhaustive manual teaches essential tactics and strategies so readers can succeed who put forth the effort. Holding nothing back, it is loaded with numerous check lists, a wide variety of forms, specific how-to details and much more, and has helped launch over 35,000 staging careers globally. IN THIS EDITION: Access to a 50-page downloadable PDF with full color before and after pictures of 36 staged rooms (plus notations) AND colorful staging tricks used by professionals to sizzle homes (note: images in book are black and white). Additional resources are mentioned as well.
Written in a personable, conversational style, these insights are a must-read for those serious about a staging business (or just exploring). No degree or prior experience needed. Certification courses in home staging and interior re-design are also available from the author's website.
The manual includes practical discussions and tips, such as:
- the top mistakes and common problems sellers make
- what stagers must do and understand
- how to identify a home's assets and faults
- how to interview and bond with realtors
- how to interview and bond with sellers
- the five ingredients for a successful staging service
- the professional image, attitudes and ethics needed
- how to do consultations, submit bids, make presentations
- how to set up the business, licenses to get and so forth
- how to legally protect the entity, as well as one's family
- how to get clients and referrals from multiple sources
- how to profit from consultations and offer full staging services
- how to promote, maintain and sustain the business indefinitely
- how to use social media to build and grow the business
- how to price services with confidence and ease
- how to protect, organize and prioritize
- 107 questions to ask agents and homeowners to help quote services
- detailed pricing guidelines for furnished and empty houses
- extensive list of staging tools needed for actual projects
- extensive cleaning and painting guidelines
- a 29-page detailed checklist to make consultations quick and easy
- list of over 300 possible business names
- detailed information on custom visual aids, promotional and management tools, plus dual certification courses
- 15 handy reproducible forms ready to go
- multiple checklists and handout examples for value added services
