Learn how to use Twitter to grow your staging business

If you aren’t already using Twitter to market your home staging business, it's probably one of these two reasons that's keeping you from getting started:

* you don’t see how "tweeting" could possibly benefit you as a home stager
* you’re much too nervous and intimidated by the technology to sign up

Having a Twitter account should be a requisite for operating a business today and if you don’t have one due to one of the above reasons, you need to order my newest book: Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter.

Click here for full details and to see the full table of contents of this essential guide for home stagers.

What if fear stopped Oprah from moving forward?

Oprah announced on her show last week that after 25 years, she'll be ending The Oprah Winfrey Show in September 2011. Of course, she won't really be retiring. Aside from her current media empire, she’s working on launching her own cable TV channel and will most likely have her own show on there.

Last week I watched a television interview taped with Oprah 24 years ago and in it she was asked “what if your new show fails?” Without missing a beat she replied, “I’ll be OK. I’m not defined by my TV show.”

Imagine if she had let the “what if I fail” question stand in her way back then! Read more about this topic in a recent post on the Home Staging Business Report.

Keep on marketing your home staging business

No matter how busy you are, or how busy you're worried you might become with the growing popularity of your home staging business, you must never stop marketing it!

I go into more detail about why in a recent post on the Home Staging Business Report. You can read that article here.

Aspiring home stager ignores friends' advice about "credentials"

I received a comment on one of my blog posts last year from aspiring home stager, Katie Mines. She mentioned that she was finding the decision of where to get her home staging training an overwhelming one. She was learning a lot from my newsletters and blog posts, but someone was advising that she take a course that would give her some real "credentials" instead.

Read about how Katie decided to heed my advice instead of her friends' and learn more about her success as a home stager in this article on the Home Staging Business Report.

Marketing a home staging business goes beyond price

I’ve never made any apologies for being one of the most expensive home stagers in my city - and I have been since I started my business. Just because everyone else seemed to be fine with giving their time away for almost nothing didn't mean I had to do the same.

Instead of trying to compete on price I focused on marketing so I would be perceived as the expert home stager in my market. My goal was for people to come to me when they wanted the best.

If you promote your services as being cheap, you're going to attract penny-pinching clients who don’t value what you have to offer.

Read more about how marketing is more than just about price, in an article on the Home Staging Business Report.

Did your vacation make it harder to go back to a job you hate?

For many people, a vacation is a wonderful thing; rest, relaxation and an escape from the everyday. But for those working in jobs they hate, a brief break forces them to face what life can be like when they actually enjoy their days instead of dreading them. Long before the holiday is over, stress levels rise as they recognize that returning to that job actually sucks the life out of them.

If you’re feeling jealous of your children getting excited to go back to school while all you have to look forward to is another long stretch of doing work that doesn’t fulfill you, this is the perfect time to consider your options.

Click here to read more on this topic at the Home Staging Business Report.

Home Stager Helps Ailing Home Owners Sell Fast

When Staging Diva Graduate, Susan Atwell, was contacted by a couple desperate for a fast sale, she didn't waste any time springing into action.

This couple was being forced to downsize to a one level home because of a deteriorating illness. After 14 months on the market, they were starting to lose hope of ever selling with each passing day. The real estate market in their area was deteriorating and this couple simply could not lower their price yet again.

Find out what happened when home stager Susan Atwell appeared on the scene here at the Home Staging Business Report.

Home Stagers should not work for free

I have written many articles on the topic of home stagers giving their services away for free and I strongly object to working for free in the Staging Diva courses, but this issue continues to come up.

I don't like to hear about home stagers working for free. However, most of the aspiring stagers I speak to seem to think they have no choice but to do their first projects for free in order to rack up experience.

The thing is, it's often those stagers offering to do home staging projects for free who will always struggle to get business. Much of this comes down to perception.

After all, if you’re giving away your services for free, how good can you be?

I recently wrote about home stagers working for free on the Home Staging Business Report. You can read the entire article here.

A home staging business can't grow itself

Over the years I’ve trained thousands of people to take their decorating talent and turn it into a profitable home staging business. Unfortunately, after that training is finished, I don't have any control over what people do with their new knowledge.

The best case scenario sees a new home stager take what they’ve learned about building a successful business and forge on; setting up alliances, marketing their company and getting lots of clients. However, this is not always what happens. Read more about what often happens after someone completes their home staging training at the Home Staging Business Report.

Australian Staging Diva Graduate featured on TV

Staging Diva Graduate, Anne Gunson of Home Staging by Anne, is being featured on an upcoming segment of Australian TV show A Current Affair.

The show follows Anne from an initial home staging consultation right through to the final completion of staging a property before it was listed. When the sellers were interviewed for the segment, they noted “the house wouldn’t have sold without staging.”

Read this entire home staging success story on the Home Staging Business Report.

Home Staging Success Story - Gary Baugher

Staging Diva Graduate Gary Baugher of An Eye 4 Change (TN) keeps proving that home staging works. He has written to tell me that despite the economy, business is great in Nashville. In one weekend Gary staged three homes and two of them sold within two weeks in his slow real estate market.

Read more about Gary's story and successes of other Staging Diva Graduates here.

Earn extra cash doing weekend home staging consultations

Building up an emergency fund is always a good idea, whether you have a paying job, work part time or are planning to start a business. If nothing else, you'll feel better just knowing you have some savings "just in case".

If you're considering starting a home staging business, but are currently working, you can earn extra money by doing home staging consultations on the weekends.

You can find a more detailed article on this topic here at the Home Staging Business Report.

Home Stagers have high earning potential in poor economy

If you're interested in starting a home staging business, you have most likely heard of a training program guaranteeing home staging employment at $24-$30 per hour. This might sound like a lot to you, but it's really a low income for a professional home stager.

In this economy, home staging is a needed service and you can actually earn closer to six-figures a year if you're seriously commited to building your business.

I recently posted an article to the Home Staging Business Report about this topic in greater detail. You can read it in detail here.

Home Stagers don't have to worry about job security

It's hard to avoid recent news headlines about the massive numbers of job losses in the US. In a post on the Home Staging Business Report I talked about why a career in home staging can offer more job security than your day job.

You can read that story here.

Home Stagers should not be defeated by negative economic news

If negative news headlines about the economy are interfering with your plans to start a home staging business, or grow the one you have, please take a step back.

The media feeding us this negative news are profit-based corporations. When we're glued to the all the latest news of economic "crisis" they're making money.

This distorts the bigger picture and it's almost impossible to see the opportunities that exist with all the news of doom and gloom.

I recently posted an article to another Staging Diva blog which goes into detail about why you shouldn't let this negative news defeat you. You can read it in its entirety here.

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Debra Gould’s mission is to inspire others to follow their dreams and use their innate talents to also earn a living. She has trained over 1000 women and men on five continents how to take their talent for decorating and turn it into a successful home staging business.

Staging nets fast sale in Brisbane's slow market

Staging Diva Graduate Hayley Harris of Essential Key Home Staging & Property Styling is making a difference in Queensland, Australia. She recently staged a home which sold within a week for just under the asking price of $399,000.

This is a part of the world where the real estate market is quite slow, making home staging vital.

Visit the Home Staging Business Report to read more (and view before and after photos) about Hayley's home staging success story.

Steps you can take today towards starting a home staging business

If you've decided to start a home staging business but aren't quite ready to dive headlong into it yet, there are a few initial steps you can be working on now to support your ultimate goal.

The most obvious thing you must do is determine whether or not home staging is the right career for you. There's a free quiz available at the Home Staging Business Report that will help you decide. Here's the link to follow to sign up for the quiz and to read about the other four steps you can take now to start your home staging business.

Free course helps aspiring home stagers grow their businesses

A new free course from The Staging Diva is now available for new and aspiring home stagers looking for sound advice to apply to their growing businesses.

12 Tips for a Successful Home Staging Business is delivered in a series of a dozen email messages, each containing a tip you can apply to your staging business.

Topics in this free home staging course include:

* Deciding whether or not Home Staging is the right career for you
* The truth about home staging accreditation
* How much money a home stager can make
* Why you shouldn’t give away free estimates
* How to prepare for your first home staging consultation
* and much more!

Learn more and sign up by clicking here.

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Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and is determined to inspire and teach others to do the same. There are over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates who have learned to use their decorating talents and run their own home staging business in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Is living your dream worth taking a risk?

I think Cuban-French author, Anais Nin, had love in mind when she said:

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

But as an entrepreneur, this quote speaks loudly to me. I recently wrote a post on the Home Staging Business Report sharing my own personal story and why it was worth the risks I took to make my dream of living a creatively fulfilling life come to fruition by starting my own home staging business. You can read that story here.

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A Fortune 500 company veteran, Debra Gould has been a business writer since the 1980s and wrote a chapter of the book “Marketing Masters” published in 1998. She is also known as The Staging Diva and is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging businesses. There are currently over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates around the world.

Home Staging Directory matches Chicago stager with Aussie client

Last month, I was contacted by someone in Australia who had a home to sell in Chicago. Because of my visibility on the Internet and other media, she got in touch with me hoping I could recommend a home stager there.

Naturally, I led her to the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers where she found Renee D. Strawn's Distinctive Design listing complete with before and after photos, a profile of herself and all of her contact information.

To read more about how someone in Australia contacted me in Toronto to find them a home stager in Chicago, click here!

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Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and has taught over 1000 others to use their decorating talents and run their own home staging business in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.