6 things you need to do to setup a successful Home Staging and Styling Business

Deliberate or by discovery, starting a new business requires essential steps to ensure success. I started my home staging and styling business in 1999, and shortly after, relocated to a new city.

Here are 6 business start-up pearls from my business start and restart from my early days as a business owner.

Success Step #1 - Even before you hang out your shingle, get a set of “calling cards”. A calling card is just basic information about you (no business name needed.) I got mine before I even had TAKEN my specialty training certification class. Start promoting yourself, tell people you’re excited for your new career journey, spread the word on what services you are going to offer, and start a buzz.

Calling Card

A no-hassle, promo start to a new business.

Relocating from S.F. to Chicago - Start, then Restart.

Before even moving back, my business had been featured on the front page of the Real Estate section of the Chicago Tribune about HOME STAGING. I was included in that article because I had a presence on the web and had updated my profile to read residency for both San Fran., and Chicago and importantly, on the trade association's website I was a member of. The reporter found me.

Months before arrival, I worked on setting up my business for the new location - any business forms, state, county or city that needed registration. Ordering marketing materials, updating my website with contact information for both my CA and IL locations. ( Just to put things in perspective, when I started my business in 1999: GOOGLE started in 1998, phone books were a go-to information source, and AOL or Prodigy were used for the Internet.)

Success Step #2- Make sure people can find you. Have a website, social media presence, phone, and email address - and make sure any business listings on the web, especially if you belong to a trade association(s) have all your updated and current contact information.

Those few lines in the article piqued the interest of a reporter at another newspaper, and a week later while sitting in my new home office with stacked boxes around me,  I was asked to do a full business feature with a photo shoot at my next HOME STAGING.  I had no home staging appointments of course, but told her to give me a day and I would. I called the closest Real Estate office, asked for the manager, and explained my quandary. Within hours I had a home to stage, and a few weeks later was on the front page of yet another paper.

Front Page News

Make it work.

Success Step #3 - Be tenacious. If an opportunity arises, grab it. No time to be unsure of yourself, your skill set, or abilities.  If you don’t know it, learn it. If you don’t have it, find it. If you are unsure, convince yourself you are sure. 

Those early Newspaper articles brought me clients. But I had a revelation about my business name., CASA JAMBALAYA when leaving a phone message for my 1st client with her husband -  “Can you tell her that Julea Joseph from Casa Jambalaya called?” and he replied with “WHO, WHO, WHAT?” 

The business name Casa Jambalaya had cleverly worked regionally in California, but wasn’t going to work in Illinois.  I remember my Webmaster telling me that name was too difficult to spell when creating my website in 1999 - I should have listened.   I then created 2 business identities - One for my home styling/re-design services, one for my home staging services. More lessons learned on that concept as well…. (that requires another blog post…)

Success Step #4 - K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Stupid) when it comes to your business name. Yes you want to be creative, but consider the public finding you, understanding what you do, and building a good brand. Make sure that the name is easy to spell, isn’t too long, and gives a glimmer on what you do. Don’t make your branding complicated.

When I first started my business, I asked a friend of a friend who was a PR Executive for a few words of wisdom, she gave me the best advice - to which I still use today. She told me to start marketing within arms length, not to think big ; that people just like me were my clients. So my 1st elevator pitch was :

“Call me when you are ready to get the Little Tykes Gym out of your Living Room and take back your home. ”

— My 1st Elevator Pitch

Success Step #5 - Marketing is easy when you can identify, relate and communicate with your ideal client. Mine was Moms with young kids that were ready to recapture their homes from them. I was there to solve a problem and was just like them. 

Talking about marketing, in 2006 I got a call from Entrepreneur Magazine about an article on Interior Re-designers and Home Stagers. Not only was I featured in the article, my picture was featured on the inside magazine cover! Why? I had a professional headshot. Professional photos matter. Whether it is your portfolio or your “About Me” page -invest in professional photos.

Success Step #6 - Look professional.  Whether it’s you or your portfolio, professionalism will get you on a magazine cover.

Want more of my pearls of wisdom? I’ve got a barrel of them. Stay tuned for my next post about being on HGTV, hosting a local Public-access TV cooking show, and many more business adventure pearls and a few perils of being a home stager/stylist for over 2 decades.

I am happy to chat with you about your new home staging and styling business. Even better, check out my upcoming in-person 2 day HOME STAGING technique workshop, HouseStager Pro. Check my calendar for home staging workshops, interior design seminars, and upcoming classes. Celebrate home! - Julea.

HouseStager™ Pro 2 Day Home Staging Training

Staging Training

HouseStager™ Pro: A two day home staging specialty workshop.

You asked for it, and I’m so excited to be able to teach this in-person workshop. Learn the ins and outs of staging and styling a resident occupied home.

Did you know that only 9.7% of homes going on the market are vacant? The majority on homes are occupied and staging homes to sell with people living in them can be tricky on so many levels.

This is a specialty technique workshop focuses on the resident occupied home. Whether you are launching a professional home staging business, a Realtor, Builder, or Home Design Enthusiast - HouseStager™ Pro is designed to advance your skill set in the home staging arena.

Using my 23 years as an Interior Stylist -Learn how to use and enhance what the homeowner already has by giving a home’s existing furnishings, accessories, art and surfaces a new perspective. Comprehensive instruction of the step by step methodology of building a beautiful room. Accessorizing lessons on how to style the perfect mantle, bookcase any surface to finish a space.

SUMMER July 16/18th FALL September 17/18 Workshop location: Frankfort, IL

Selling while Dwelling Stylist

HOUSESTAGER™ PRO - A two day in-person home staging workshop. This comprehensive home staging specialty class will focus on preparing a resident occupied property for the real estate market. This 2 day intensive is focused on technique, the 5 steps of room arrangement, and lifestyle design formulas.

Best practices to increase the marketability for the ideal buyer utilizing the seller’s current belongings, smart home design updates and curating styling accouterments to showcase the home to its fullest and attract the ideal buyer.

• Best practices to increase the marketability for the ideal buyer when styling an occupied residence.

• Making best use of the home’s furnishing contents - what stays, goes and how to curate a space with supplement shopped and/or rental furnishing/accessory props.

• Psychology component advocacy techniques and procedures to help the home’s resident(s) not only live in a staged home, but move on from a place that holds personal identity to a real estate marketed property.

Learn core updates both inside and out for maximum return on investment, ideal color palettes that can bring the home up to par for today’s savvy buyer and hands-on styling lessons in our Styling Lab on room layouts, creating focal points, accessorizing, and the importance of color when styling a home to sell.

“Statistics show that only 9.7% of homes going on the market are vacant, which means that over 90% of homes listed have residents living in them. ”

— NY Times

Details

Hands on, on-site Styling Lab sessions for real time learning.

Lifestyle design and interior styling methods to create optimal emotional appeal for the buyer.

Curated HouseStager™ Pro paint palettes and selection sheets for both paint and improvements.

TELL ME MORE! -FILL OUT FORM FOR A DISCOVERY CALL visit my education site: Interior Stylist Network

Spring Things you Can do to Your Home

Well it may be snowing in Chicago today, but spring is definitely here. The Easter holiday is behind us, and if you are wondering how to refresh and restyle your home with more than just bunnies and dyed eggs - this post if for you.

The great thing about living in the Midwest is that we get to reinvent our home’s space four times a year as the seasons change. As my design mantra goes “If you change up your home, it changes up you too”. So what spring things can we do to our home?

TRY A NEW ROOM ARRANGEMENT

Give a space a new look with interior arrangement. The sun changes positions seasonally, and your Sunday reading spot that was perfect in winter now is unbearably sunny without the blinds closed. The fireplace that was your cozy cure for the blustery weather, now sits fireless as spring temperatures rise. Try repositioning that chair to a new spot. That move creates a whole new look for your favorite chair and creates the spark for a new room setting. And rather than cozying up to the fireplace - with a bit of furniture moving, you could instead have a window view of birds nesting and flowers blooming. This will give you a new daily respite to sooth your soul.

FURNITURE SWAP FROM OTHER ROOMS

The design police will not shun you if you find that your dining room hutch that houses Granny’s dusty China works much better as a bookcase or crafts storage hutch in your office. Or the kid’s dresser is the ideal entry piece for that empty wall in your foyer. Be fearless by understanding furniture can be moved and have more than one purpose.

LOOK AT YOUR ACCESSORIES IN A NEW LIGHT

My whole business is based on using what you already have, and I can tell you that after 23 years, you have plenty of accessories. Did you know the average home has 300,000 things in it? Rather than thinking you need to buy new to refresh, think how you can celebrate what is already there.

• A lamp can be up-styled by just changing out its shade. Too, by reducing or increasing the harp size (the thing that you put the shade on) you can try a new shade size.

• Rotate your art. Create a collection with a few pieces on your mantle (hang one, lean the others) or on your hall walls, Use an easel and display small art pieces on a table, in a bookcase, or just lean them as a back drop.

• Art, as well as trays, bowls, vases can be archived, and rotated in or out for the season to bring color, mood, or seasonal spirit to a space. And of course you can reinvent them. Head over to YouTube or Pinterest and be tutored on reimagining old accessories (there are a zillion options).

DO SOMETHING BIG

When I mean big, I don’t mean buy a whole new house big, I mean do something that makes a more permanent change. Paint an accent wall, your pantry door, or a piece of furniture. Wallpaper your foyer, the inside of your China hutch or the front of the drawers of a dresser. Reupholster that Sunday reading chair in your new favorite color (hopefully tangerine). These changes are a bit more permanent, but aren’t too costly, but will bring a big change to the way your home feels.

BRING THE OUTSIDE IN

The best part of spring is that everything seems shiny and new. Snip budding branches and pop them into some of your favorite large floor vases. A container of a spring flowers cheers up any counter or table. Swap out the pinecones in your display bowls for bright green moss covered balls, sport a newly made table terrarium or pop a potted plant under a cloche to celebrate the growing season. Raid your bookcases for all your gardening books for a new display collection on your living room’s coffee table.

With these changes you’ll renew your home’s feeling, create new spaces to celebrate, and enjoy the new season both inside and out.

Need expert and creative advice to shake up your spaces? Want to leave and come home to a whole new space in a day using just what you already have? We do that. Call/Text 708-543-8597 to learn more.

• Julea

Survey Says! 2021 Home Colors When Selling

A recent Zillow survey reveals which colors may attract more prospective buyers — and higher offers — when you're getting ready to sell.

Here are my picks :

• Light Blue Bathroom Sherwin Williams Sea Salt : Calming, lovely and the perfect combo of blue and green. ( Bonus. With 2022 color trends leaning towards the green palette, this hue bridges both years.

• White Kitchen - Benjamin Moore White Dove : Soft, collective, especially if there are wood tones floating about the home. White Dove is a perfect choice for walls, cabinets or trim.

• Gray Living Room - Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray : A greige color with warm and once again looks good on the walls with wood tones and marries well with furniture that is already in the home.

• Dark Blue Primary Bedroom - Sherwin Williams Naval : A recent color of the year for Sherwin Williams. Besides looks great in a bedroom, and if you want to play it safe, as an accent wall - this ‘everyone love navy’ color looks stunning as a front door color and can break up an all white kitchen as the island color.

Whether selling or dwelling, my color expertise can help you sell your home and update, refresh and revive your space for 2022. Call or text @ 708.543.8597. - Julea

Accessorizing Your Home Workshop Elmhurst Public Library 12/6 7pm

Quick and Easy Accessorizing /Decorating Workshop

Put your own personal stamp on your space with help from interior stylist Julea Joseph. Learn the essential elements every room needs, plus get tips and tricks for shopping for great pieces, breathing new life into your existing treasures, and pulling them all together.

Join Julea @ Elmhurst Public Library for this interior design workshop. To register for this program: 125 S. Prospect Avenue, Elmhurst, IL 60126. Phone: (630) 279-8696 Text: (331) 642-0375.

This is a hybrid workshop - both in-person (limited seating) and via Zoom

-Julea

Not so Fast - Thanksgiving is in-between

It may be the day after Halloween, but don't be decking the halls with red and green just yet - there is a holiday in-between, and it's called Thanksgiving!  Here are some great home decorating and hosting ideas that can ease you into the jingle jangle season.  

Container Gardens: 

As our 1st frost approaches, it's time to replace the product in our outside container gardens. Opt for mainstays of cut Evergreen greenery or even a live small Evergreen species or tree or bush as your anchor Add fall materials such preserved leaves, pods or flowers and sprayed pine cones in autumn colors. As the season turns into winter, the autumn picks can simply replaced with frosty, winter finds.

Photo: Midwest Living

Wreathes 

The timeless eucalyptus wreath can be dressed up or down with any season. The elegant, interesting, round leaves are the perfect foil for any decorating style. Add your favorite elements of the season, then swap them out when you are ready for the next - no need to reinvent the wheel with a whole new wreath. From doors, windows, table centerpieces to tiered plate stands, wreathes are a perfect elevation. This wreath is from Joann.

Photo: Joann

Simple added elements such as these fall eucalyptus stems can transition your wreathes from one season to another. Eucalyptus multi-leave stems by Michaels

Photo: Michael's

Table

Whether foyer, sofa or dining - your table will always look better dressed in fabric. This in-between time is ideal for texture and neutral color tones. Burlap, linen, jute, cheesecloth, sacking, or any natural fabric in a neutral tone will create the perfect styling veneer for your tables. Used as a runner, wrap or layer, these natural fibers will celebrate the season and give you that base to build on. Runner from Ashley Furniture

Photo Collage: Julea Joseph/Source

What to do About Pumpkin:

As cold weather, especially snow or a frost comes in - your exterior pumpkins need exit the exterior of your home or they'll be nothing but mush. Extend their use by adding them to your interior decorating, and if you are hosting Thanksgiving - those pumpkins can be a part of your holiday table too.

Photo collage: Julea Joseph/Source

With these in-between home decorating ideas, your in-between holiday, Thanksgiving will get it's highlight. Enjoy! - Julea