I have a client in Victoria BC who is planning to downsize in 2007 and would like me to recommend a stager to work with them to decorate their Cordova Bay home to sell.

If you’re interested in this Victoria home staging project, email me with:

• Your name
• Company name
• Phone
• Email
• The address of your website

Please include “Victoria Home Stager” in the subject line of your email. If you don’t already have a website or a page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, it will be more difficult to win this project. It’s hard to convince a client to hire you over the phone if they can’t see your portfolio.

Because of all the traffic I get to my two sites, SixElements.com and StagingDiva.com, I get lots of leads on projects from all over Canada and the US and even in South Africa! I will only refer them to Staging Diva Graduates.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Staging Diva site. Only one good project would more than pay for your entire Staging Diva Training Program plus me building and hosting your web page for an entire year!

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training ProgramYou can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. Debra Gould will personally build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

Technorati Tags: home staging Victoria, home staging BC, home stager Victoria BC, home staging Cordova Bay, home stager, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training, directory of home stagers, home staging directory

I have a client in Brampton Ontario who is looking for a home stager. He wants to put his 2,000 sq. ft. home on the market in the next two weeks (proving my earlier point that despite December being a bad time for real estate, there are still home staging projects to be found).

This house is only partially furnished so this is more than just a consultation, but a chance to really stage a house by bringing in rental furniture, accessories and art.

With a population of over 400,000, the city of Brampton is one of Canada’s fastest growing communities, due primarily to immigration, especially from South Asia. The city is home to several major companies like Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Para Paints, Coca-Cola and Nortel.

If you’re interested in this Brampton, ON home staging project, email me with:

• Your name
• Company name
• Phone
• Email
• The address of your website

Please include “Brampton Home Stager” in the subject line of your email. If you don’t already have a website or a page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, it will be more difficult to win this project. It’s hard to convince a client to hire you over the phone if they can’t see your portfolio.

Because of all the traffic I get to my two sites, SixElements.com and StagingDiva.com, I get lots of leads on projects from all over Canada and the US and even in South Africa! I will only refer them to Staging Diva Graduates.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Staging Diva site. Only one good project would more than pay for your entire Staging Diva Training Program plus me building and hosting your web page for an entire year!

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

You can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. Debra Gould will personally build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

Technorati Tags: home staging Brampton, home staging ON, home stager Brampton ON, home stager, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training, directory of home stagers, home staging directory

I publish multiple articles on The Business of Home Staging every week. Plus, many leads on home staging and interior redesign projects. If you don’t contact me almost immediately to express interest in a business lead, the chances are I’ve already referred it to someone else.

If you’re not likely to remember to visit here often, you might want to use the sign up form (in the green box on the left) to subscribe to have The Business of Home Staging articles emailed to you every day.

If there are no posts for a particular day, you won’t get an email. When there is one, it will be emailed to you automatically if you are a subscriber. The email contains the headline and first paragraph of copy with a link back to here if you want to read more of the story.

I hate spam and won’t share your email address with anyone else. By signing up for this email service, you are only giving me permission to email you The Business of Home Staging article summaries and Staging Diva announcements.

This is a great new FREE subscription service that others have found very helpful. In fact the two Oakville projects I posted this week were filled by Staging Diva Graduates within 24 hours!

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

You can become a Staging Diva Graduate with 10 hours of training by phone with Debra Gould from home, or you can do the entire program by listening to recordings which are emailed to you immediately after you register.

Read more about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training

Technorati Tags: home stagers, house staging, home staging, real estate staging, real estate trends, The Business of Home Staging, working from home, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva, Debra Gould

I have another client in Oakville Ontario who isn’t moving anytime soon but would love an interior redesign consultation and some help with proposed renovations. She has described it as “lots of small renovation/design details at first and bigger with more money later.”
If you’re interested in this Oakville, ON interior redesign project, email me with:

• Your name
• Company name
• Phone
• Email
• The address of your website

Please include “Oakville Redesign Project” in the subject line of your email. If you don’t already have a website or a page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, it will be more difficult to win this project. It’s hard to convince a client to hire you over the phone if they can’t see your portfolio.

It’s not unusual as a home stager to get leads on interior redesign projects. Many people who wouldn’t dream of hiring an interior designer will consider hiring a stager for help working with what they already have, advice on home improvements, color consultations, etc.

Because of all the traffic I get to my two sites, SixElements.com and StagingDiva.com, I get lots of leads on projects from all over Canada and the US and even in South Africa! I will only refer them to Staging Diva Graduates.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Staging Diva site. Only one good project would more than pay for your entire Staging Diva Training Program plus me building and hosting your web page for an entire year!

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

You can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. Debra Gould will personally build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

Technorati Tags: interior redesign Oakville, interior redesign ON, home stager Oakville ON, home stager, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training, directory of home stagers, home staging directory

I have a client in Oakville Ontario who is looking for a home stager. His 4 bedroom, 3400 sq. ft. home has been on the market for 80 days with disappointing results.

Founded in 1827, the Town of Oakville is about an hour drive (with traffic) from downtown Toronto. Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, Oakville has over 2,400 acres of park space and two harbors.

With only 145,000 residents and over one million tourist visitors annually, Oakville offers some of the most expensive real estate in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The average household income is $90,000, about $25,000 higher than comparable GTA figures. With several other communities in close proximity (including Mississauga which is one of the largest cities in Canada), it’s a perfect market to grow a home staging business in!

If you’re interested in this Oakville, ON home staging project, email me with:

• Your name
• Company name
• Phone
• Email
• The address of your website

Please include “Oakville Home Stager” in the subject line of your email. If you don’t already have a website or a page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, it will be more difficult to win this project. It’s hard to convince a client to hire you over the phone if they can’t see your portfolio.

Because of all the traffic I get to my two sites, SixElements.com and StagingDiva.com, I get lots of leads on projects from all over Canada and the US and even in South Africa! I will only refer them to Staging Diva Graduates.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Staging Diva site. Only one good project would more than pay for your entire Staging Diva Training Program plus me building and hosting your web page for an entire year!

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

You can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. Debra Gould will personally build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

Technorati Tags: home staging Oakville, home staging ON, home stager Oakville ON, home stager, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training, directory of home stagers, home staging directory

Many new home stagers price their staging services by the room or by the square foot. I recommend against this as there are many factors that will influence how long the project takes that are completely beyond your control.

And, you may not know of most of these until your into the project— meaning that you can really undercut the fees you would have been charging had you realized what was involved.

Things that will influence the time it takes to complete a room or even a house, that aren’t in your control, yet use your time:

• how much the client likes to talk (some will tell you the history of every piece of furniture and why they love it)
• whether the client is busy attending to ringing phones and screaming toddlers while you’re trying to meet with them
• whether they reschedule your appointment a number of times (leaving you with empty spaces in your calendar that now can’t be filled)
• whether they do what they say they will to prepare for your part (for example, you arrive with all the furniture only to find that the cleaning team hasn’t been through yet and there’s drywall dust everywhere)
• whether the client changes their mind
• whether you’re stuck there waiting for furniture to arrive
• whether the house is so filled with clutter it looks like it belongs on one of those Oprah episodes about obsessive hoarders
• how big the room or the house is and how much needs to be done (I’ve had 3,000 sq ft homes that take less time than 1,000 sq ft condos)

My goal isn’t to sound negative, I believe home staging is one of the best careers out there for creative people who enjoy decorating and have an interest in real estate.

I just want to point out the many things that can happen in the real world that you won’t be able to anticipate if you’re quoting a rate upfront of $X dollars per room, per square foot or per house.

This is only one aspect of determining the correct pricing strategy. A topic I cover at length in course 2 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program. The bottom line is that if you don’t get your pricing right, you can’t make a living and I’m all about doing what you love AND making a nice living doing it!

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, home staging prices, price for home staging, Debra Gould, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training

With American Thanksgiving and Christmas almost upon us, I’m starting to get those inevitable “seasonal decorating” questions from new home stagers that run like this:

“Is it normal to be less busy at this time of year? Should I look at seasonal decorating to keep me busy now?”

Home Staging is definitely a seasonal business because it follows real estate cycles. That’s why it works well to combine your staging business with things like:

• interior redesign
• color consulting
• professional organizing
• seasonal decorating

What you choose should also be a function of your interests. I don’t believe in starting your own business only to do things you don’t like! If you’re going to make the effort to be your own boss, make sure you think carefully upfront about what your interests and natural talents are.

So, if you love holiday decorating and have a natural talent for it, then why not go for it? There are no rules when you’re an entrepreneur. If you see an opportunity that inspires you then why not take advantage of it?

I don’t act on every opportunity that comes my way (or I’d have no business focus), but I certainly consider the ones that inspire me. Personally, I’m not interested in holiday decorating so I refer those inquiries to others. I can’t even bring myself to plant my own outdoor urns for winter and would love to hire someone else to take care of it!

The idea that you should only build a business that you’ll REALLY want to work in, is a theme that runs throughout the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, especially in course 4 “Staging Diva Sales and Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Home Staging Business.”

If you only want to focus on home staging you should know that despite the fact that December is a bad month to put a house on the market, there are always homeowners that will do it anyway. In the last 10 days alone, I’ve been called for two projects to completely furnish empty homes.

If you’d like to learn more about “seasonality” in the home staging business, ie, when the busy and slow times are, check out this article called “Get busy, it’s home staging season!” It was written at the end of August so it discusses this past fall and then looks forward in time to the next peak season and what to expect come January/February 2007.

Discover the ONLY Home Staging Business Training Program taught by a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully grown her own home staging business (not as a side-line to selling real estate) — The Staging Diva Training Program. With an MBA in marketing and hundreds of home staging clients, internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, is uniquely qualified to train others how to start and grow a profitable home staging business.

You can become a Staging Diva Graduate with 10 hours of training by phone with Debra Gould from home, or you can do the entire program by listening to recordings which are emailed to you immediately after you register.

Read more about Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training

Technorati Tags: home stagers, house staging, home staging, real estate staging, real estate trends, seasonal decorating, holiday decorating, working from home, home staging training, home staging business, staging diva, Debra Gould

I had a great interview today with a writer for HomeStyle Magazine who liked my bathroom renovation ideas for various budget levels.

I think an interior designer would push their clients more into the realm of high ticket items like heated floors, limestone sinks, the new fancy waterfall bathtubs or the marble mosaics you see on HGTV.

As a home stager, my focus is on the mostly cosmetic changes that make such a difference to the home’s selling price or the owner’s comfort, without getting into the higher ticket items.

So I look at things like:

• paint
• cabinet hardware
• towel bars, toilet roll holders, hooks
• lighting and mirrors
• faucet and tap sets
• attractive shower curtains and coordinating towels
• art and flowers

The HomeStyle article will be out in January 2007 to about 12 million households in the US. Pulling together photos for the reporter reminded me of some of the dramatic changes that can be made to a tired bathroom without spending a bundle.

You can see an example of one of my staged bathrooms in “A Day Away: This Bathroom Makeover could be yours”

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

Learn more about the Staging Diva Network

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stager, bathroom makeover, bathroom renovation, HomeStyle Magazine, Debra Gould, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done when you’re starting out as a home stager. There are so many details to take care of and if you don’t do things in the right order, you can waste lots of time and money.

That’s why I created the “Staging Diva™ Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist: 20 steps to start your home staging business.” It’s an organized To Do List, that you can use to keep you organized. I outline the first 20 steps you need to take to start your home staging business. There’s also a short description of each step and why it’s important.

Staging Diva Graduate, Nancy Lee in Maryland wrote to me today to say:

“I realize I’ve been procrastinating and the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist was just what I needed to get me unstuck!”

Some people think that one of their first steps in starting their business is getting a business card done. When you read the Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist, you’ll realize there are a whole bunch of steps you should take first. You can do it the other way, of course, but then you’ll probably find out that you’ve wasted several hundred dollars along the way.

My goals in creating this Quick Start Checklist, were to:

• save you reinventing the wheel and let you benefit from the experience I gained in starting several businesses, including my home staging company, Six Elements Inc.
• save you from making costly mistakes
• save you from wasting time going in circles
• save you from wasting your energy worrying about what to do next
• give you an easy-to-follow to do list
• get you to take action to get your business started quickly

From Nancy’s comment and others that I’ve received, I know this Special Report has delivered on those goals. Here’s what Jean Galvin of Florida said about the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist:

“The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Quick-Start Checklist takes away that feeling of ‘oh my, now what…where do I begin?’ Or in my case, ‘am I going about this in the most efficient way, and am I forgetting anything crucial?’ The Checklist helped me focus on when to do everything! I’m happy to report I’ve completed 11 of the 20 steps and I’m actively working on the rest! The Quick-Start Checklist is great, a very useful resource for anyone starting a home staging business.”

Right now you can get the Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist for the introductory price of $20, and for a limited time, I’m throwing it in as a FREE BONUS if you sign up for the full Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. So in addition to saving $100 on the courses by buying the whole program, you get this additional bonus worth $20.

I’m so sure that you’ll find this Checklist of value that I offer a no-risk money back guarantee when you buy it. In fact, I do that with all my courses and training materials.

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell.

Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Quick-Start Checklist

Technorati Tags: home staging business, home staging checklist, home stager, real estate staging, become a home stager, home staging, staging diva, house staging business, home staging training

Last Monday I was supposed to appear on Bob McCormick’s Money 101 radio show on KNX1070, CBS Newsradio’s Los Angeles affiliate. The show was moved to today because of the wild fires that were burning around LA last week.

So, you can catch me live today on Money 101 at 10:30 AM Pacific Time, for a 30 minute interview on how to stage a house to maximize it’s value given the squeeze Southern California homeowners are in because of slower real estate sales, declining propery values and the high number of adjustable rate mortgages in a rising interest rate environment. It’s a great show with lots of real estate-related features.

Listen in live to Money 101 on KNX1070 in LA, November 13, 10:30 AM, and I invite your comments here!

Recent Money 101 Episodes available on line

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise the standards in the industry and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program

Technorati Tags: home staging Southern California, home staging Los Angeles, home stager, Money 101, Bob McCormick, KNX1070 Newsradio, CBS Newsradio, Debra Gould, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging business, home staging training