I get approximately five calls a week from people interested in shadowing me for a day to see how I work as a home stager. I have yet to say yes, and if you’re trying to find a successful home stager to shadow before you start your own business, you’re not making a good use of your time.
There are many reasons why I’m not interested in having someone shadow me. First of all, I would have to screen them beforehand because that person would be a direct reflection on me. We would have have to meet ahead of time and then try to coordinate times to meet a the consultation and staging day and I’m not getting anything out of this arrangement. Also, the fact that someone in my market wants my help in entering my market isn’t very attractive.
I’m sure if you’re looking to shadow someone, there’s no malicious intent there, you’re probably thinking it would be a lot less scary if you could follow someone around and see what there is to it. But the thing is, what you do when you get to a client’s house is the easiest part of operating a home staging business. What you do there has everything to do with the natural talent you possess. The difficult part of running a successful home staging business is figuring out how to get those clients and how to get paid for your time. Nobody you shadow is going to teach you those things. That’s why I created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, to teach you the nuts and bolts of starting a home staging business. It’s valuable information and nobody is going to give it away.
Remember, if you’re considering starting a home staging business, you must already have the talent. Since I’m betting nobody is going to want you to job shadow them, a better way to gain confidence that you will be able to do this is to go around to open houses on the weekends. You don’t have to say anything when you’re there, you don’t even necessarily need to introduce yourself. Just walk through and pretend you’re in a client’s house for a home staging consultation. Imagine what you would be recommending for different rooms.
The more houses you go into, the more comfortable you’ll become. Go around to other cities to get a feel for real estate prices and different types of properties. Every house you go into, you’ll learn something new. You’ll encounter all kinds of “don’ts” that you can figure out how to correct. You will never encounter a house that is completely perfect and that will help you learn that there’s always something to be done.
If you’re feeling very nervous about your first home staging consultation, consider ordering Course 3 of the Staging Diva Program. It’s the one where you learn how to conduct yourself at consultations including what to wear and what to bring. It takes the mystery out of home staging consultations.
Home stagers, did you spend time touring open houses before you started your home staging business? Did you use it as a tool to ease your anxiety? Did you spend time shadowing other stagers or do you allow others to shadow you on the job? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment below.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. In course 3 of the Staging Diva Program, Debra teaches her students everything they need to know to conduct a home staging consultation. There are over 4000 Staging Diva students around the world.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Debra,
Great advice for someone looking to start their Staging business. There is no way to learn the “hard” part of the business following someone around. I went to many open houses, took two of your courses and a college business course. There is so much more to our job than meets the eye! The actual doing is the easy part. I think getting clients and getting more clients is 85% of the job and that is not something most stagers would want to teach the competition for free:)
Hi Debra, As the others, I agree. I think the reason we get these requests is that many people are very nervous about launching out on their own and learning by trial and (occasional) error. I know for sure I felt that way in the beginning.
There is no cure for this angst other than taking a good training program and then follow the Nike rule – Just Do it. Scary, yes. Rewarding – extremely!!
Well, Debra, as you know, I took my home staging training with you in 2006. I never asked anyone to be their staging shadow for a day… I wouldn’t want to! Staging is all about talent and knowledge. If you know what design psychology and buyer psychology is all about, then you can do the staging and don’t need to shadow anyone, even you
What you do need is the business aspect of running a home staging business: finding qualified and comptetent help, marketing your business, paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork, getting new business, getting yourself out there and presenting yourself professionally when you do. I didn’t need to be a shadow for a day for that. What I did need is the knowledge to run my own business and that’s what your home staging course gave me. I never hesitate to recommend the Staging Diva program!
Debra, I couldn’t agree with you more about your comment that why would you groom your competition? I not only get requests for shadowing but requests to be hired. Many aspiring stagers think we all have these large companies and we hire stagers (I guess that show on HGTV called The Stagers doesn’t help). When I respond that we are all in business for ourselves and that we only pull in helpers who do the more unpleasant tasks of schlepping, ironing, cleaning up etc., they are surprised. And I never thought of it that way, but you are right – by shadowing you on an actual job, they only see the more pleasant side of the business – not the actual tasks involved in running a business such as sales, marketing, bookkeeping, etc. And they should at least invest in a training course, whether it’s yours or someone else’s, to see if this is a business they want to be in (and it is a business) and that they are suited for.
I agree with Debra – for aspiring stagers, job shadowing is not a great use of time. We have aspiring stagers contacting us weekly for opportunities to job shadow and we probably won’t ever say yes until we have made a decision to hire someone. We have had too many instances of newbie stagers stealing information, stats .. and even pictures off our website and passing the information off as their own! This has given me a rather cynical view of aspiring stagers and made me feel that in general, I can’t trust them or their motives. If I can’t trust them then you can be sure I won’t be inviting them into my client’s homes.
When we started our business, we did so with clients and realtors already demanding our services. We have toured open houses and done the mental checklists of what we would recommend the home owner change but we usually found that if the realtor conducting the open house found out we were stagers, they usually became defensive without us saying a word about the home. Our true education has come not only from the Staging Diva courses, but from actual hands on staging time. We learned on the go, flying by the seat of our pants until we had an actual “way” of doing business. That’s what Debra’s course gave us more than anything – a business structure that allowed us to focus, plan and market effectively.
Absolutely right Debra! Your Staging Diva course addresses this very issue very well. My advice is, feel the fear and do it anyway…. jump in with both feet!