How to Grow Your New Home Staging Business
About Today’s Guest:
Ashley Tapley
I had the pleasure of interviewing Ashley Tapley, an interior designer, color consultant, and Santa Cruz home stager who recently staged a beach house that was sold $305,000 over-asking!
Ashley is passionate about home remodeling and decorating, which inspired her to launch House Candy Home Staging two years ago.
While she’s held creative positions in the past as an event planner, marketing manager, and art director for a chain of thrift stores, Ashley has succeeded in her home staging business, even amidst a thriving and competitive real estate market.
Recently, she was faced with the challenging task of staging a property that had been on the market for over 100 days. Instead of dropping the price, the seller succeeded in getting a full priced offer in 13 days, thanks to Ashley’s creative and talented eye for design.
Ashley is incredibly transparent and generous in this conversation, taking us behind the scenes on her home staging business journey so far, how networking with other real estate agents has opened doors for her, and how she strives to think bigger, beyond just home staging, to create more opportunities with existing clients.
We also talk about pricing home staging jobs, the benefits of batching and building marketing systems, and the importance of valuing your home staging services and your self-worth so you can feel confident when speaking with a potential client.
Ashley lives in Aptos, California with her husband Scott, a long time surfer, and their two children. She is also the founder and sponsor of Carrie’s Dream Dance Scholarship Fund, an organization that has raised over $165,000 for local youth dancers over the past six years. In her free time, she enjoys hitting the slopes, watching HGTV, and taking interior design classes.
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This Week on The Home Staging Show Podcast
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Ashley shares about her background and career journey (00:05:22)
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The origin story of Ashley’s home staging business, House Candy Home Staging (00:07:08)
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A behind the scenes look at the current real estate market in Ashley’s city of Aptos, California (00:08:29)
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The benefits of staging your home, even with your own belongings and the power of making those small tweaks (00:09:03)
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The slow and intentional process Ashley took to launch her home staging business (00:10:17)
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The benefits of networking with other real estate agents and how meaningful it can be to your business growth (00:11:22)
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How to avoid being too “salesy” with your network (00:13:15)
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Inviting other real estate offices to an online presentation that is scalable and available on demand (00:14:21)
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The power of repurposing content from an online presentation to build credibility (00:15:33)
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Why Ashley waited to buy inventory and get a storage unit (00:16:13)
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How an open house helped land Ashley her first home staging job (00:17:38)
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Defining herself as a “boutique stager” and why Ashley takes on a smaller number of projects each month (00:20:36)
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Ashley’s desire to break into the short-term rental / VRBO market (00:21:55)
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How interior design and home staging work together in Ashley’s business (00:23:57)
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The magic of thinking bigger, beyond just a single home staging project (00:26:12)
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How long it took Ashley to discover her niche (00:27:21)
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The collaboration Ashley made with another home stager, generating new client referrals, shared inventory, and partnership (00:29:50)
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How Ashley and Kaela share presentations and leads when they market to real estate agents together (00:32:23)
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How to price your home staging services and why Ashley believes she shouldn’t be at the bottom of her market (00:34:01)
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The stress of being a beginner in the home staging business and how Ashley overcame her limiting beliefs and accelerated her confidence (00:35:57)
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A house Ashley sold in 3 days for $305,000 over asking and what the buyer told her after (00:37:31)
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What platforms Ashley uses to market her business and her content strategy for each (00:38:31)
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The benefits of being reviewed on Google and Yelp and how Google reviews affect SEO (00:40:17)
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How Ashley maintains consistency in her content marketing systems and the traction you can get on Pinterest in just a few minutes a day (00:41:00)
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Why Ashley cares more about having local followers on Instagram (00:42:19)
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How Ashley finds her home staging clients (00:43:45)
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The biggest lesson Ashley learned when she started her business (00:44:18)
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Why Ashley has intentionally kept her business small without any employees (00:45:17)
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Ashley’s top tips for new home staging business owners and the most effective marketing strategy in her toolkit (00:48:37)
Connect with Ashley
Ashley’s website: www.housecandystaging.com
Ashley’s Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/housecandyhome
Ashley’s Instagram profile: https://www.instagram.com/house.candy.home/
Ashley’s Pinterest profile: https://www.pinterest.com/housecandyhome
Ashley’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-tapley-b234447/
Resources Mentioned On Today’s Show
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