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You can take the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program from home. To Graduate, you need to take five two-hour courses by phone with Debra Gould or order the recordings. Full course notes provided.

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"Staging Diva Home Staging Business Quick Start Checklist: 20 Steps to Start Your Home Staging Business" by Debra Gould is a handy TO DO LIST. You'll save time and money by doing things in the right order when you're starting your business. This Quick Start Checklist takes the worry out of what to do first and lets you focus on getting it done. Why reinvent the wheel? Follow the 20 steps in the order they are outlined and you'll have what you need to launch your business.

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“Staging Diva Home Staging Consultation Checklist with Room-By-Room Client Planning Forms” by Debra Gould takes the guess work out of how to do a home staging consultation and lets you fill in the blanks as you go through a home. You’ll learn the techniques and process the Staging Diva has used successfully in hundreds of homes, and how to avoid doing time wasting and unprofitable reports.

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home staging portfolio guide

"Staging Diva Ultimate Guide: Creating The Perfect Portfolio to Sell Your Home Staging Services" by home staging expert Debra Gould will give you the steps to creating a winning home staging portfolio. Whether you're writing a brochure, creating a portfolio album, building a website or your Profile page in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers, this guide will teach you how to write about your talents and get great home staging before and after photos. Filled with tips and tricks, worksheets and more.

staging diva bullet More on Portfolio Guide

 

 

The Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers is the fastest and easiest way to gain an Internet presence for your staging business. We build your page for you and host it on the high-traffic StagingDiva.com site so that homeowners and realtors will find you!
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The Staging Diva Network is an online discussion group for Staging Diva Graduates to share challenges and triumphs. A supportive community to stay connected with others starting their own staging businesses and a great place to get questions answered any day of the week!

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"Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: the easy way to pick colors for home staging projects," by Debra Gould, will take away any fear about quickly choosing colors for your clients. Filled with helpful tips and Debra's top picks for staging colors that work in any home. You'll get specific Benjamin Moore color numbers, color palette groups and more!

 

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The "Staging Diva Home Staging Business Booster eCourse" will help you stay motivated and keep your business moving forward. When you register, you'll get a weekly business boosting lesson by email every week for 21 weeks. Home Staging expert Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989 and she has created each lesson to give you practical and concrete steps you can take to build your business. An inspiring quotation is always included to reflect the spirit of that lesson.

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"Home Staging, a hot growth business", says Entrepreneur Magazine







The Staging Diva Program is the only home staging business opportunity featured in all three Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up Guides for the last three years.
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Debra Gould's mission is to empower and inspire others to start and grow their own home staging business. If our products or services fail to meet your expectations, we'll give you a full refund.

Satisfaction Guaranteed!

"My first staging project was worth over $8,000. Then, within days of joining the Staging Diva Directory,  I got another project to stage a condo worth over $1.8 million. Taking The Staging Diva Training Program and joining the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers have been great investments in my business!"  Bill McIntosh (BC)

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"I got my first real estate staging project within weeks of finishing the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and made more money than I used to make in a whole week in my full time job!" Kelley D'Lima (AZ)

"My first project was worth $5,000 and thanks to the Staging Diva Program, I knew how to handle it!" Erin Rhindress (MA)

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"After the Staging Diva Courses I made almost $18,000 on my first project and staged another 17 homes in my first year, with an average fee of $10,000 on each! Thank you Debra Gould for all your help and encouragement and giving me a way to quit my previous job and become a full time home stager!" Ken Sater (CA)

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"I'm so happy to be starting a new business at the age of 76. I got two staging projects within weeks of completing the Staging Diva Training. Thank you Debra for everything you have done to make my dreams come true!" Jean Smith (FL)

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"Starting my own business at the age of 26 is such a dream come true!   I would have never made the leap if I didn't find the Staging Diva   Training Program." Andi Atteberry (CA)

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"The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is a definite 10 on a scale of 1 to 5!" Lucie Quigley (NS)

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"Enrolling in the Staging Diva Program is one of the best investments I have ever made. I liked everything about it. By the end of the fifth class I had everything in place to start my home staging business." Michelle Aleff (MN)

"The Staging Diva recordings are straight forward and easy to follow. Because of what I learned I made $4,000 on my first staging project!" LaJeanna Pilant (TX)

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"I can't believe I'm getting paid for something that I love to do and that comes so naturally to me." Peggy Depalma (ON)

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"You will leave the Staging Diva Program with a written road map to guide your success. This is practical, no-nonsense information on what you need to start your own home staging business. " Jody Thulin (CA)

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"I have never been so driven, passionate and totally motivated as I have been since completing the Staging Diva Program. Run, don't walk to your computer to enroll now! You will regret that you didn't do it sooner!" Dane Caldwell (ON)

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"The Staging Diva Program gave me the knowledge, power and confidence to quit my job of 8 years and start doing something I have only dreamed of." Heather Ray Ryan (FL)

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"The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program isn't just about Staging - it's about being in BUSINESS and making MONEY and keeping yourself SANE at the same time!" Victoria Willits (MD)

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"It was a pleasure taking the Staging Diva Courses and Debra Gould has provided continued encouragement and knowledge during my first year in business. I competed last week with someone who has been staging for 12 years and I got the project!" Gary Baugher (TN)

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"The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training information is invaluable and we appreciate the ongoing support and personal touch that you offer." Adam Luttrell (Tasmania)

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"Debra takes away the fear and inserts a 'can do' policy that gives you an extra boost of confidence to start your staging business. I'm so impressed with her integrity and will continue to buy other Staging Diva products. After taking the training I made over $5,000 on my first project!" Debra Rowley (WA)

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Should I go to Interior Design School or Be a Home Stager?

Kitchen designed by Debra GouldMany women approaching their 40s write to me wondering whether they should go to Interior Design School. It’s an issue I struggled with myself many times over a 20 year period.

I interviewed a number of interior design schools at various points in my past career but never followed through on actually applying. I already had a BA, an MBA and years of experience. The thought of being a full time student for 2 to 4 years, with a bunch of kids 20 years younger than myself was not that appealing. And the cost was huge considering the significant income I’d be giving up over that period.

Now that I’ve staged hundreds of homes I’m so happy I went with my instincts and stayed out of Interior Design School!

You wouldn’t believe the number of interior design graduates that have approached me during the past four years to hire them for Six Elements Inc., my home staging company! Most seem to be working as sales people in furniture stores and looking for a way out.

One woman called me this week who was working on 100% commission! Imagine working retail hours for a furniture store after studying interior design for 4 years and not even earning a salary! I was shocked. If you’re going to be on 100% commission, you should absolutely be in your own business. At least then all the sales come to you instead of a hefty percentage going to your employer.

Here’s what I’ve learned being a Professional Home Stager instead of being an “interior designer” over the past four years:

• Being a home stager you get lots more projects to work on because they are shorter term in nature. So, lots more variety.

• Being a home stager your clients give you creative control because they know they don’t really have to live with what you do to their homes. So, you get to be creative and make the decisions.

• Being a home stager you get interior redesign and color projects because your staging clients love what you do with the house they’re selling and ask you to work on the one they’re moving into.

• Being a home stager you get to work with the kinds of people who wouldn’t normally hire an interior designer or decorator, in other words a much larger target market.

The other important thing I learned, is that I would have hated being an interior designer!

It’s really frustrating doing a beautiful room only to see your client later clutter it up with additions that clash with everything you’ve done. Or, having to sit there for hours while they can’t decide which fabric they want to pick.

I love having the creative control I get from staging houses. I get to execute my vision because clients realize I’m decorating their house to sell, not for them to live in it. I know there is no way I could have done hundreds of homes in so short a period with an interior design degree fresh out of school.

Granted because I’ve never gone through an Interior Design program, (or ever taken an interior design or color course!), I can’t tell you if a chair is Louis the XVI, or draw plans to build an addition off the back of a house, but I don’t miss having those skills!

The kind of people that hire me (upper middle class, usually professionals) don’t really care!

They hire me because they know I’m an expert in decorating a house to sell because they’ve visited my websites, they’ve heard about me from their neighbors or real estate agents or they’ve read about Six Elements or Staging Diva in the media.

For the things I don’t know, I’d happily refer them to a trained interior designer! I know they have many skills that I don’t. But like I said, I learned I wouldn’t want to be an interior designer so that’s OK by me. And, it was a relief to finally let go of all the wondering about it!

In case you’re wondering about the photo at the top of this article, it’s from a kitchen I decorated that was featured in Woman’s Day Walls Windows and Floors. Not only did they do a 6 page spread on the house, I was the photo stylist. Never once did the magazine ask for my “design” or “stylist” credentials. They did the spread and hired me because of the strength of my portfolio of before and after photos.

Debra

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

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.

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3 Responses to “Should I go to Interior Design School or Be a Home Stager?”

  1. Sveta Melchuk Says:

    I wanted to tell you that I love this article and agree with it. I have had 4 recent graduates from Interior design schools contacting me recently - I will use them as needed. I might take a non credit course from a local college for my personal satisfaction.

    Thanx!

  2. LJ Pilant Says:

    I find that interior designers are jumping on the Home Staging bandwagon. I truly feel there is a conflict of interest. Designers design for their customer’s personal taste and Home Stagers design to sell. I do educational speaking for Real Estate groups and I tell them I usually go in and take out everything a designer does so a potential buyer can see the home.

    LJ Pilant
    Alamo Home Staging
    Proud Graduate of Staging Diva

  3. Debra Gould Says:

    Of course interior designers are jumping on the staging bandwagon, there’s MORE MONEY IN STAGING!

    One property I staged belonged to an interior designer. She hired me to stage it for her, it sold in days at $40,000 over her $1.4 million price.

    Fast forward 18 months and she has her latest home on the market. I didn’t stage it and only realized it was hers during an open house when I realized I recognized much of the furniture and art. It was obvious to me why it isn’t selling… it’s been on the market for 5 months now… but funny thing is she hasn’t called me to help her out again!

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