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 and national trainer, has written an excellent guide on how to earn up to $100,000+ in a home staging business. Director of the Academy of Staging and Redesign (Decorate-Redecorate.Com), she takes readers step by step through the maze of starting and growing a lucrative business, covering virtually everything one needs to know and more. With 40 years of experience and author of 16 books, her large format manual teaches the essential tactics and strategies so anyone can succeed who puts forth the effort. Holding nothing back, this guide is loaded with numerous check lists, a wide variety of forms, specific how-to details and much more, and has helped launch over thirty thousand staging careers globally. Brand new addition: access to a 50-page downloadable PDF with colorful before and after pictures of 36 staged rooms plus notations. Also included in the PDF are 40 colorful staging tricks used by professional stagers to sizzle the homes. Additional resources are mentioned as well. Written in a personable and conversational style, this guide is a must-read for anyone serious about a staging business (or just exploring). No degree or prior experience is needed. 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 real estate agents
• how to interview and bond with sellers
• the five ingredients for a successful staging service
• 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 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 stager 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
Barbara Jennings offers certification courses in home staging, interior redesign and corporate art consulting. She has trained over thirty thousand consultants globally. Readers can also access many exclusive visual aids and tools (as well as advanced training) directly from the author.
