How to Get Started in Home Staging
Are you thinking about a career change and home staging looks like a great prospective career for you? Here are a few different ways you can get started working as a home stager:
1. Take a home staging training and start your own home staging business
Many stagers start working this way, I myself included. There are now many different types of home staging courses and certifications on the market now, comparing when I first started in 2006.
Here are a few tips that we’ve posted on Instagram on selecting the best home staging training for your needs:
There can be a lot of landmines and to-do’s to navigate when you first started your home staging business. We’ve put together a checklist for you if you are about to start your home staging business, which you can download below.
Here is a blog post we’ve previously written about starting your home staging business that can also be of help to you.
2. Work for someone first and learn on the job (and possibly receive training that is paid for by your boss)
In my personal opinion, this is probably the best way to figure out if this is the right career for you, while getting paid and being trained on someone else’s dime!
You will be able to observe and experience quickly what it takes to start and run a successful home staging business, and learning what not to do in the process.
3. Work in-house for real estate agents
This is also another great way to start, especially if you already have interior-related work experience before. Many brokerages now choose to have stagers in house to fulfill the demand and control the presentation of their staging.
4. Buy a home staging business
This is fairly common for service-based industry. I recently did a IGTV live and someone asked about this (27:55). I shared my experiences buying a home staging business in Year 5ish and what to look out for when you are buying a home staging business.
5. Freelance for home stagers
This is now another popular option! When I first started in 2006, essentially all the home staging training schools taught fairly cookie-cutter ways to start a business. You basically would take a 3-day training in a windowless hotel room and then start your own home staging business, without real practical knowledge of what you were getting yourself into.
Now the industry has changed quite a bit! We are seeing hybrid business models and more fluidity in running your home staging business. That can look very differently for everyone. You can have your own home staging business, or work in house for a brokerage, or be a freelancer that works with several home staging businesses.
6. Create your own home staging business model!
Ultimately, it is about what you want out of your business and life. Personally, I feel that it is important to build your home staging business to serve your goals and what you want out of your life.
When I first got started, I was obsessed with revenues and I didn’t pay enough attention to profitability and having a personal life. It was brutal and tough. I constantly felt guilty, ashamed and embarrassed about my home staging business, even though it looked successful on the outside.
On the inside, I felt alone and like a total mess. My finance was terrible and I was not doing work I wanted to do. It took a lot of business coaching and mindset work to gain clarity. I realized that I was going after the wrong things in my home staging business and that was not serving me.
This is a big part of why I got into home staging education, because I see that there are some serious gaps in the current home staging education landscape.
Your own home staging business model can also leverage your existing skill sets. For example, one of our students was a graphic designer, so her market differentiation was that she could also do marketing for real estate agents. Whatever it is in your previous career, it can be the differentiation for your current home staging business. It can grow and benefit from it.
