Starting a business is often considered the most difficult phase for every entrepreneur. You have to be hands-on to ensure that everything is working according to what you have planned. At the same time, you exert every effort in promoting the product …

All good questions and I\’ll answer them here so others can benefit too.

The total cost of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program plus a full page listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers (which includes me building your page and hosting it on the high traffic Staging Diva website for a full year) is $1590.

This is based on the five course package price of $895, plus a directory listing of $695. Considering I am giving you a way to build a whole new career, this is an incredibly modest investment, which you will likely make back with only one or two clients.

When you order, it will ask you whether you want to use your Visa, Master Card or go through Paypal. If you opt to pay through PayPal, you can use your Amex card to pay.

If you want to spread out your payments, you can order the Staging Diva courses one at a time at a cost of $199 each. Overall it will cost you $100 more this way, but that way you do not have to come up with $895 all at once. You can also take as long as you like to complete all five and you will be considered a Staging Diva Graduate when you order your final course.

Staging Diva Graduates who have decided to join the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers get home staging projects out of it, often within weeks. Yet their listing remains on the site promoting their business for a whole year 24 hours a day 7 days a week. That is the kind of coverage you can not get running an ad in a newspaper or sending out flyers.
In fact, Staging Diva Graduates that also have their own web sites (and track where their web traffic comes from), have reported that over half of the visitors to their own sites come from their links on their Staging Diva Directory page. In other words, even if you have your own site, a big challenge is driving traffic to it, and a listing in the Staging Diva Directory will help do that.

Perhaps equally important, Staging Diva Directory members get media interviews from it.

Two were contacted by The Wall Street Journal this fall and one is going to be included in the new FabJob Guide to Become a Home Stager, all as a direct result of their listings in the Directory. It is difficult to put a dollar figure on what such exposure is worth and the credibility it can give you as a new business.

If you check out the \”In the News\” link from the green menu bar at the top of this page, you will see that I get considerable media coverage. I accomplish this through my websites and that is why my graduates are beginning to benefit too from this. I am interviewed for stories and then reporters look for other sources and they find them in the Staging Diva Directory.

I also promote the Directory in my media interviews. For example, just last month it was featured in the largest home decor magazine in Canada. On Monday November 6 I will be mentioning it in my live radio interview in Los Angeles with Bob McCormick of Money 101 on CBS radio, and The Staging Diva Directory will also be part of an article going out to 4 million households in USAA magazine this spring.

These are just few examples of the fringe benefits of being part of the Staging Diva community.

Joining the Staging Diva Directory is only open to graduates of the program but you do not have to purchase your listing at the same time you order the courses.

Hope that helps answer your questions.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

I\’m interested in your course but have a few questions. What is the \”total\” cost of an all inclusive training with website and whatever else you sell (or suggest) for me to get started as effectively armed and ready to go as possible?

Also, I only have an American Express Business card to use for this business and noticed you only accept M/C and Visa. Is there a way around this and will you accept my AX through a source like Paypal?

The last question I\’d like to ask is just how likely that I will receive business solely from being listed on your website vs another staging website? If I knew the referral rate were high and I was given others to call to verify, I\’d feel a little more confident committing so much money to this training and website.

Thanks in advance for answers to my questions. I\’m sure they are the same questions others out there would like to know as well.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sherry Spencer
Atlanta, GA