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

Sunday Reading - Business Launch Tips

Sunday Reading - Business Launch Tips

It’s Sunday. I read on Sundays.  I Just got done with a great feature in Better Homes & Gardens - ‘Finding Your Calling.’ Even as a business owner of 17 years, the article was chocked full of fabulous tips and advie on launching yourself into the entrepreneurial universe. 
 

Here are a few take away tips from the article.

Brand Aid

Naming your business is the single most important task.

1. HI MY NAME IS... Consider your name. No one has it but you.

2. Brain Storm.  How will customers receive your name? How do you want them to see it?

3. Is it Searchable and Tweet-able? Too long, too short, easy to remember?  Is it already being used? (You can check on-line.)

4. Let’s Get Visual. Logo-up. Color is key. Color has personality.

6 Things I Wish I Knew Then

Hindsight is 20/20.

1. It Gets Lonely.  Just not working by yourself, but making all the decisions too. 

2. You Wear lots of Hats. From accounting to PR, you are the boss.  Get help in your not too gifted areas.

3. Don’t Compare. Every business is different and so are you.

4. Hire Slow, Fire Fast. Your hires are your brand, so make sure they are a good fit.

5. Be Patient. Overnight sensations are rare.

6. Pivot and Problem Solve. When something doesn’t work, adjust and work it out.