Summary

Home staging expert, Debra Gould, shares a story about a real estate agent who was given proof that home staging works in an unexpected way.

Real estate agent proven wrong by home stager

Home stager Fabia McNair of Styling Spaces received a call from a homeowner last December who was listing his home and despite the fact that his real estate agent did not feel the home needed to be staged, he called in Styling Spaces to do the job.

Founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program, Debra Gould says, “After being a home stager for 7 years, I can assure you what happened to Fabia in this case is common. Savvy home sellers use their own common sense even if their Realtor® isn’t a believer in staging.”

When the agent came back and saw the transformation she was “wowed” and immediately hired Styling Spaces to stage four of her other listings.

One of those listings had been on the market on and off for a year before staging and it sold that same weekend.  Two of the homes sold same day and one that had been overpriced for its market sold for $15,000 over market value.

That skeptical real estate agent became a big fan of Styling Spaces and spread the word around her office leading to lots more work for Fabia.

Gould says, “This story proves you cannot depend on real estate agents for your business. Obviously the homeowner in this case had been educated about the value of staging and look at the snowball effect that followed.”

Having two very young children at home to take care of, it was quite a risk for Fabia McNair to take when she decided to quit a good job in the residential development field to start up her own home staging business full time. But it’s a risk that continues to pay off for her and her family as her company continues to grow.

Having given up a steady job, Fabia was very motivated to make her business work and put to use everything she learned in the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program into practice. She has even been mentioned in her local newspaper after giving a staging seminar to local members of the community.

Fabia writes, “The Staging Diva Program, hands down, has given me the answers I need to run my business. My class notes still guide me when I am stuck. Debra Gould is very knowledgeable about this industry and is willing to teach it. When you have spent enough time with those other courses and you are ready to get to work call The Staging Diva.”

About Staging Diva

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained over 4000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses.

Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: This Old House, HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.

Summary

Staging Diva, Debra Gould, announces the release of a free special report to inspire potential home stagers with proof that regular people can become successful in a home staging career.

Staging Diva Releases Free Inspirational Report for Home Stagers

(UNITED STATES) June 2, 2010 – With vacation season right around the corner, many aspiring home stagers are finding themselves counting down the days until they can take some extended time off from their unsatisfying job. Some won’t take the plunge into self employment for fear of giving up a full-time job to do so, others are lacking support from loved ones to make the move while others still are convinced that a regular person can’t find great success in a staging career.

Because of her high profile in the home staging industry, founder of the Staging Diva® Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould, receives emails on a regular basis from aspiring stagers wondering if someone like them has what it takes to build a successful staging business.

Today Gould is announcing the release of a new Ask Staging Diva® report which answers the question, “Can a regular person like me become a successful home stager?”

This free 35 page report includes inspirational behind-the-scenes stories from regular people who found the courage to follow their dreams of becoming home stagers.

“I know what it’s like to feel professionally unsatisfied and how easy it is to keep talking yourself out of doing something that could really improve your future because you’re simply unsure of how it might go,” states home staging expert, Debra Gould. She adds, “This collection of home stager success stories is going to help people block out that voice of negativity and finally believe that anyone who has the desire can make their dreams come true with a bit of hard work and determination, because these stories prove it.”

Since 2004, more than 4000 people from around the world have been trained by Gould through the Staging Diva® Home Staging Business Training Program. The focus of the Staging Diva® program is on how to grow a profitable home staging business. Students benefit from Gould’s extensive marketing background and her experience in starting and growing her own successful home staging company, Six Elements Inc.

“My hope is that after reading this report, aspiring home stagers will feel confident in their decision to start a home staging business, and that they will pass the report along to anyone who is reluctant to give them the support they need to go ahead and do it,” says Gould.

To learn more or to order a copy of the free Ask Staging Diva® Special Report: “Can a regular person like me become a successful home stager?” visit http://www.stagingdiva.com/homestagersuccessstories.html

About Staging Diva

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained over 4000 home stagers to start and grow their own businesses.

Debra has gained international recognition through features in major media in the US and Canada including: This Old House, HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, Global TV, City TV, The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.

Contact

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
Six Elements Inc.
416-691-6615
debragould@stagingdiva.com
http://www.stagingdiva.com

###

Summary

Home staging expert, Debra Gould, reminds home stagers that she is available for hire as a business coach.

How home stagers can find their lost New Year’s momentum

As we move into April are you still as motivated and inspired as you were on January 1 or does the passing of every new month leave you feeling disappointed in yourself for failing to do anything in this calendar year to further grow your business?

If you declared January 1, 2010 as the day you would change the way you’re marketing your home staging business, now that it’s spring you have to do something.

One of the reasons being self-employed is so challenging is because there’s nobody to hold you accountable. There’s no point in setting goals and making plans unless you action them and if there’s nobody looking over your shoulder to watch what you’re doing, nobody will even know you still have unattained goals from January.

Even though we’re no longer celebrating the New Year you’re not too late to start working towards those goals.

Home stagers who are having difficulty staying motivated have the option to hire Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®, as their personal home staging business coach.

One 15-minute call with a marketing expert like Gould can save weeks of struggle having her attention focused on your personal business challenges.

“One of my coaching students scheduled a 15 minute call with me every two weeks to use the full hour of time she purchased, and it’s so rewarding to see what she’s done to build her business because of these sessions,” states Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould adds, “She crosses off a huge portion of her task list because she feels the pressure of our next call as her deadline. Knowing she’ll have another call with me and wanting to be able to report on her progress and accomplishments, she keeps moving forward and stays focused on high payoff activities.”

This home stager, without Gould’s coaching, most likely would have spent months procrastinating and thinking about doing those things, but because she had to be accountable to someone she has them done and is making big progress in her business.

Gould states, “The financial investment this stager made in her one hour of business accelerator coaching with me was more than worth it because of the business results she can achieve.”

If you want to get back on track, or if there’s an area of your home staging business you’re struggling with, click this link to make an investment in an hour of Debra Gould’s time.

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area.

Summary

Home staging expert Debra Gould, discusses how the success of a home staging business comes down to hard work, not luck.

Luck won’t make you successful in a home staging business

Luck has nothing to do with someone being their own boss or making their staging business a success. “Luck” is when you win the lottery despite odds of one in 28 million. Of course if you never bought a ticket, you’ll never be that lucky “one.”

Was Sara Blakely lucky to invent Spanx from her apartment and turn $5,000 in savings into a huge success story? Was Sandra Wilson lucky to invent Robeez when she cut up old purses to make baby booties for her son, eventually selling her company for $30.5 million?

They both were passionate about what they were doing and refused to quit even when others said, “it will never work.”

Comments like, “You’re so lucky you get to work from home” and “Oh, I wish I was lucky enough to be my own boss” discount the tremendous amount of hard work that goes into making opportunities happen in one’s life.

That mother working from home to be there for her family isn’t just lucky. She has taken risks and invested hundreds of hours of hard work to create that life for herself and her family.

She isn’t doing anything you couldn’t do yourself if you really wanted to.

One such example is Staging Diva Graduate Laura Kakoschke of Hunter Lake Home Staging and Design. Gould states, “Laura isn’t ‘lucky’ because she’s able to work from home and home school her three children while she earns more money than she ever did working her fancy government job. She made this happen by setting herself up to succeed in a business based on her natural talent for decorating.”

The Staging Diva® adds, “Laura did her research and took the home staging training program that would suit her needs and allow her to build a profitable business. Then she put what she learned to use. It was smart marketing tactics rather than luck that helped Laura get the projects she needed to make this career work. It wasn’t luck, but what she learned about properly pricing her home staging services that allowed Laura to start making more money than she did working in management position with the government.”

You can’t waste your life wishing you could fire your boss and go into business for yourself unless you make a move to make that happen.

Being in the right place at the right time can play some part in the success of a business, but it’s commitment, hard work and doing something you’re passion about that will let you make your own “luck” in this world. What are you going to do with your future? Will you leave it to luck, or will you work hard to create the life you want to be living?

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area

Home Business Magazine – Debra Gould Success Story

Excerpt:

“Debra Gould bought, decorated and sold six of her own homes in eight years while she ran her marketing consulting business from home. This led her into a new career as a home stager. It was the perfect way to combine her passions for decorating and real estate without being on call 24/7 the way agents are.

Gould finally found a way to fully use her creativity without becoming a starving artist. In fact, she was able to earn up to $10,000 a month staging homes by her second year in business.

During those first two years, Gould heard from so many others who wanted advice on how they could have the same success and recognition she had. That prompted her to create the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. . . ”

Summary

Author of the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter,  home staging expert Debra Gould, discusses how social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are powerful marketing tools for small business owners.

Facebook and Twitter Powerful for Marketing Small Business

At one time, Facebook might have been nothing more than a meeting place for teenagers and college kids, but those days are gone. There are roughly the same number of people on Facebook today as used the entire Internet a decade ago.

Social media is the ideal way to grow any type of small business, including a home staging business, because it’s an effective form of marketing while costing nothing more than an investment of time.

Staging Diva® and marketing expert Debra Gould says, “If you own a business and you’re already on Facebook for the sole purpose of communicating with your friends and family members, you’re missing out on how powerful this tool is in growing a business.”

A Facebook account is essentially a large, interactive database of friends, acquaintances, former colleagues, family members, etc. You’re able to send a “friend request” to anyone on Facebook so it’s easy to build a big list quickly. Because most of the world is on Facebook you’ll be surprised at who you can find from your target market.

Your database of contacts gives you access to your friends’ photos and you can read your friends interactions with their friends on their “wall” (where most discussions happen on Facebook).

That means your friends’ friends can see what’s going on over on your wall too. And that’s incredibly powerful when you’re talking about your business.

“To promote your home staging or decorating business,” says Debra Gould, founder of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, “all you need to do is publish a new set of before and after photos of a home staging or interior redesign project and write a couple of sentences about the transformation, and all of the people on your list can see them.”

Gould adds, “If they can comment on your photos or on your wall, their friends lists can see that information as well. Suddenly, you’ve exponentially increased the number of people who are aware of your services and have seen a sample of your portfolio.”

It’s true that Facebook is a good way to waste time (especially if you’re playing on FarmVille or doing any number of silly quizzes), but if you use your time differently it can be an outstanding way to grow your business.

Twitter is easier to use than Facebook and requires much less of a time commitment.

In many ways  Twitter is also an even more powerful marketing tool for a small business owner. There is no need to approve friend requests since anyone can follow anyone else (and there is no need to follow them back unless you want to). Twitter offers the ability to search for “tweets” (140 character Twitter posts) on any subject. That makes it a fast way to identify experts on a given topic. Since tweets are indexed by Google they are a powerful way to drive traffic to your own website or blog.

In the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter Debra Gould provides a comprehensive step-by-step guide to using the free Twitter service to grow a home staging business. Written for total beginners, it also includes more advanced Twitter marketing strategies.

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area

Summary

Home staging expert, Debra Gould, shares stories of men and women who have completely reinvented their lives to become home stagers.

Will you give yourself permission to reinvent your life?

Watching the comments pour in after posting an article about a registered nurse and mother of four finding great success and creative fulfillment as a home stager inspired The Staging Diva, Debra Gould, to share more stories of those who’ve changed careers to completely reinvent their lives.

Marketing consultant turned home stager, Debra Gould says, “It’s rare today for anyone to keep the same career for an entire lifetime. We’re all living much longer than our parents’ generation, and many people at the traditional retirement age are realizing they still have many years ahead that they’d like to be productive, not to mention doing work they would love.”

One of the comments that came in was from 62-year old Carol who shared that after working for 36 years as a hair dresser she made the decision to make a change and start her own home staging business.

Pauline commented that her career in criminal law had her so miserable, she would find herself literally getting sick on her way to work in the morning. Since changing her life and becoming a home stager, she’s eager to start work every day.

“Reading those comments made me dig deeper and take a closer look at what other Staging Diva Graduates have done in their lives before turning to home staging, and there were several cases where people made a very drastic change,” says Gould.

One of those Staging Diva Graduates is Fran Matsumoto, co-owner of Pristine Staging in Beverly Hills. Fran had worked as an airline employee and also as the office manager to Rodney Dangerfield and his wife Joan before reinventing her life as a home stager.

The mother of a large “yours, mine, ours” blended family, Jayne Steuart’s career was spent caring for eight children, waiting for her turn to do something for herself. With her youngest child now 14 years old and her own work off the back burner, Jayne is having the time of her life as a home stager and owner of Pearl Home Staging and Redesign. (Read about one of Jayne’s home staging success stories here.)

In her early 50s, a layoff saw Donna Dazzo out of a 25+ year career in the field of financial services. Rather than taking that time to find another job in her industry, she started her own successful home staging business, Designed to Appeal. (Read more about Donna’s success as a home stager here.)

Gary Baugher left a secure management position he’d held for 15 years at a car rental company to start his Nashville home staging company, An Eye 4 Change.

Ken Sater in California started his home staging business, Creative Home Visions, after working for 18 years in mortgage banking and 14 years in the insurance industry. (Read more about both of these men and their stories here.)

“In one of the more recent stories I’ve heard and possibly the most romantic, Sophia Mose ‘escaped’ her job in London where she worked as a lawyer, to the countryside of France to work as a home stager,” says Gould.

Sophia writes, “I’m not having an easy time getting clients as Home Staging is an unfamiliar concept here, but I’m not giving up. If it doesn’t work here, we’ll just move to a more populated area! All the time, people are questioning my choices and telling me that I’ll regret it, but you can’t listen to that. You have to give it a try, otherwise you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area

Summary

Home staging expert, Debra Gould, discusses what might have happened had Oprah let the fear of failure stand in her way when she started her TV show 24 years ago. Gould suggests the start of a New Year is the ideal time to finally take the plunge and start a home staging business.

Aspiring home stagers might take a cue from Oprah

You’ve probably heard that Oprah is ending The Oprah Winfrey Show next fall, after a hugely successful 25 year run. However, she’ll hardly be retiring. Aside from her current media empire, she’s launching her own cable TV channel and will in all likelihood have her own program on there.

In a recently televised interview from 24 years ago, Oprah was asked “what if your new show fails?” Without missing a beat she replied, “I’ll be OK. I’m not defined by my TV show.”

Imagine if Oprah had let the “what if I fail” question stand in her way back then or at one of the many points since where she obviously took another risk to try something new? She has helped so many people because of her kind nature and the influence she carries. And if she stopped trying new things (launching a book club, starting a school for girls in Africa, creating a magazine and cable network for example) she certainly wouldn’t be one of the most respected or the richest woman on the planet!

During a recent Ask Staging Diva Live event a 56 year old woman asked Staging Diva, Debra Gould the very same question. The caller said, “I love decorating homes to sell. I have a career I don’t like. But how can I switch now to have a home staging business, what if I fail?”

Indeed, what if?

What if, she actually discovers she was born to stage homes? That it’s the most fun she’s had in years and she realizes she can actually make money at it, quits the job she hates and has the time of her life for the next 10 or 15 years?

The Staging Diva says, “My biggest “what if” fear is that I’ll get to the end of my life and realize I wasted it not being happy or not doing what I was meant to do. That’s what keeps me out here pushing myself in new directions, testing my talents in new ways, risking failure but going ahead anyway!”

Gould adds, “Do you think if Oprah Winfrey had been the type of person to let the fear of failure stop her that she would have become a household name? I assure you, if Oprah had stopped when she felt the same fear you’re feeling now, that an idea wouldn’t pan out, that nobody would ever have heard of her.”

The Staging Diva would like anyone in this same situation to consider the following: If you were sitting down across from Oprah talking about your talent and your dream to become a home stager, what do you think she’d say if you told her the only reason you hadn’t started the business is fear that it won’t work out?

“I know you’re afraid of failing, but my advice to you is the same as Oprah’s would be,” says Gould. “Do it anyway because even if it doesn’t work out, living with the failure of a business is better than living the rest of your life never knowing what could have happened if you’d only followed your dream.”

December 31 is the last day of this decade and it’s also the last day of the Staging Diva Season for Savings where you can save $200 on the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Through the Staging Diva program, Debra Gould has helped more than 4000 men and women around the world follow their dream of starting a home staging business.

If this marks the end of another year that you haven’t gone ahead and seriously pursued your career in home staging, will you make 2010 the year you finally go ahead and follow your dream?

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area.

Summary

Home staging expert, Debra Gould, uses the Tiger Woods PR disaster to demonstrate how nothing is private anymore and most of our communications are permanent and usually searchable.

Wrong social networking can ruin your reputation as a home stager in one mouse click

The media is having an absolute field day with Tiger Woods these days and if you take nothing else from his PR disaster, you must realize that there is very little that is private anymore.

You might not be a celebrity, but every time you send an email, Facebook message, Twitter status update or ‘Direct Message’ what you’re essentially doing is leaving a trail of digital communication. That also applies to all those tempting quizzes you’re invited to take when you login to Facebook.

Leaving a trail of communication can be extremely beneficial in some cases but this permanence of communication can also tarnish your image as a home stager.

Tiger Woods is a good example. Before the scandal about his car accident and “marital indiscretions” broke out, everyone had positive feelings about Tiger – he had a squeaky clean image. Then suddenly, allegations of an affair hit the Internet (as if the specter of a golf-club-swinging wife weren’t hint enough) and everyone hoped it wasn’t true.

But it’s hard not to be convinced when text messages that were exchanged between he and his mistress are published everywhere, not to mention an embarrassing voicemail so easily shared on the Internet and subsequently broadcast on TV. From now on, with the amount of press this incident has received, Tiger’s devoted family man image is ruined. This story, those text messages and that voicemail message will live forever on the Internet.

Assuming you won’t be doing too much potentially reputation-damaging texting in your home staging business (though it’s good to keep in mind that your texts can be used against you) you should be aware of the permanence of anything you put out there on the Internet.

Debra Gould, who is more commonly known as The Staging Diva® says, “Twitter can be one of the most dangerous applications to use if you’re not sure of what you’re doing. Each “tweet” or mini blog post you publish is out there in the world, with your name or your business name associated with it, when you press Update or Send.”

Gould, who has recently published her fourth Staging Diva Guide, The Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter, adds, “You can delete an individual post of course, but it’s automatically indexed by Twitter and search engines. For as long as the Internet exists, someone searching your name can find anything you’ve published on Twitter. This is why it’s a good rule of thumb to never post anything online or in an email that you wouldn’t feel comfortable with seeing in the local newspaper with your name beside it.”

Social networking is a must for any entrepreneur in this day and age, home stagers included, and Twitter is an extremely beneficial tool and a great way to build a business. But if you’re using it incorrectly you can be wasting time and damaging your image.

To learn more about Twitter and how to use it effectively in your home staging business check out Gould’s Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter.

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area.

Summary

Home staging expert, Debra Gould, offers advice for aspiring home stagers about securing liability insurance for their business.

Don’t let liability concerns stop you from becoming a home stager

If you’re thinking about starting a home staging business but are worried about being held liable if something goes wrong when you’re in someone’s home, you should stop worrying and put that energy into looking for good liability insurance coverage instead.

Your need for insurance coverage is going to differ depending on where in the world you live, but there is some basic advice that applies to all home stagers.

The Staging Diva®, Debra Gould, suggests you contact your own insurance agent as a first step. Gould says, “Call your insurance agent and see if you can add a rider to your existing insurance policy. If not, talk to your broker and see if they can sell you a home stager insurance package because such a thing does exist with different companies.”

The home stager insurance packages Gould mentions cover things like:

• general liability
• fire liability
• business property when it’s in your office and when it’s off premises or in transit
• medical expenses
• computer equipment
• accounts receivable
• money and securities

“One of the first questions you’ll want to ask your broker is how long they’ll insure your items when they’re off premises,” advises The Staging Diva®. She adds, “This is a concern if you’ll be using your own furniture and accessories to fill vacant properties. I have heard of insurers who will only cover the items for 60 days. Clearly this isn’t long enough if you are operating in a slow real estate market, or if the property takes longer to sell because it is overpriced or not well marketed.”

Obtaining liability insurance is something you can be looking into while you take care of all the other steps necessary to start your home staging business.

Every entrepreneur worries about liability at some point, and you can get coverage to protect yourself. It’s not terribly expensive especially if having it will give you the peace of mind to move forward in your business.

To help home stagers ease their fears, The Staging Diva says, “Try to keep some perspective and don’t get overwhelmed with worry about worst-case scenarios that are not that likely to occur. The typical things that might go wrong while you’re staging are things you most likely would not make an insurance claim for. If you broke a vase, for example, you would replace it. If you scratched a floor you would fix it. Now that doesn’t mean you have to put in a new floor! Have you ever had a mover scratch a hardwood floor? They fix it by coloring in the scratch with a marker designed for that purpose. That’s also what they do with scratches to furniture.”

Gould adds, “In the hundreds of homes I’ve staged, I’ve never run into a situation where I’ve broken something irreplaceable, actually I haven’t damaged or broken anything despite staging hundreds of homes. Most of your clients will accept that if you damage something, you’ll take care of it.”

Small things are more likely to happen than major catastrophes. If you’re careful not to place breakables where they can be knocked over, and to be sure you don’t leave candles burning when nobody’s home so there’s not an accident waiting to happen, you’ll probably be fine. But it is advisable to speak with a qualified insurance agent to determine what’s appropriate for you.

Given that insurance premiums go up with any claim, you’re only going to make a claim for something significant, anything else you’ll deal with directly with your clients.

About the author

The creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. She is the president of home staging firm SixElements.com and has trained thousands of home stagers to start and grow their own businesses. Gould created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help home sellers and real estate agents locate staging services in their area.