Tag: Home Staging Business

Do you know what freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Rosa Parks, and so many others have one thing in common? At one point they decided that enough was enough and that they could be invincible by standing on a platform of excellence. That is how they achieved what they went after. When Nelson Mandela said: “Does anybody really think that they didnt get what they had because they didnt have the talent, or the strength, or the endurance or the commitment?” he is talking about setting your sites on excellence so you can be the best you can be.

Now, this does not mean that you have to be the next President of Africa, but that you would want to be the best Home Stager in your area. Once you decide to be “invincible” as a Home Stager, you immediately set the course for excellence just like all the people before you that want to be “excellent.” After having studied great world leaders, business leaders and visionaries, following are the steps that it takes to create your path of excellence in your Home Staging Business.

Step #1 – Focus on Specificity. You must decide specifically what your area of expertise is within the Home Staging industry, then who your customer is as well as your message. By telling someone you are just another Home Stager you remove your opportunity to tell them you are extraordinary. What makes you extraordinary? That is what you need to say. Usually it should be said in such a way that it solves your client’s problem.

Step #2 – Do what you say you will do. Call when you say you will call, confirm the appointment, show up 5 minutes early, dress professionally, have your paperwork with you and in order as well as the client information.

Step #3 – Perform an amazing home staging service. Start by being very specific as to what your client wants and what they will receive. Then deliver that, plus a little more so you can always Under Promise and Over Deliver.

Step #4 – Offer to put together the photos of the property and hand deliver them to your clients office (send a digital copy as well, all of it should include your company name and contact information).

Step #5 – Send a follow up thank you letter with an offer to check on the status of the Home Staging within the next 30 days to tweek the set in case it needs to be adjusted at no extra charge.

Step #6 – Keep in touch every 30 days for the rest of your relationship.

By following these 6 steps you will stand out in the sea of other Home Stagers with your unique message positioned directly at the right customer, you will set a new standard of professionalism by doing what you say you will and more, the home staging service you deliver will thrill your client, and your gratitude, level of customer service, and follow up will ensure that this client, is yours for life. Now, just repeat the process for all future clients and you will find that you have easily created your own Path of Excellence for your Home Staging Business.

Riches in Niches

As more and more Home Stagers, Professional Organizers, Interior Designers and Real Estate Agents come to APSD for Home Staging Training and Certification, I realize the importance of teaching the concept of “Riches in Niches.”

Some of you already understand this idea and have specialized in one area or another, and others are still trying to be everything to everyone. I started with the idea that I could please everyone too. And I did, and then I was tired and broke. You have to face facts. As women (I know we have some GREAT guys too, but you don’t have the “pleaser” instinct of women!) we already have to please so many other people each day. We please our spouse, our children, our neighbors, our boss – basically anyone that walks in our path.

As I decided to make the real choice and lead the home staging industry, I realized that I could no longer be everything to everyone. I had to be extraordinary with my strengths and visions and help those that were willing and able to receive and exceed with my brand of training. I knew that I wanted to focus on the true business growth aspect of Home Staging Training and Certification. I didn’t want to teach people to put candles on a table. I wanted to teach systems, marketing and business development in an industry I loved. I wanted to teach creativity, lifestyle and money making techniques.

So, I niched myself and APSD as The Global Leader in Home Staging Training and Certification with a specific focus on exactly what I mentioned above.

And because I see the need of “niching” or creating a specialty, I teach 19 different streams of income to our highest level APSD member, Property Scene Designer. I want them to have the , education, resources and ability to niche. The same is true with my APSD Stager Pro’s. I teach 4 different streams of income in that course so they can become experts in certain areas and stand above any other Home Stagers in their market. Kim Holdbrook, one of my Certified APSD Stager Pro’s is awesome at Curb Appeal. She should make it an area of expertise. Mannie Tantawy perfects Origami displays and is already standing out as an expert in this area. Terri Garner is an expert with Home Staging for investment properties as is Cindy Captein. There are many more certified APSD Home Staging Professionals that have also seen the benefit of “niching” their home staging services, and have done so.

It does not mean that you can’t provide an entire menu of services but if you can become known for one specific thing, you will always be the “go to expert” which then opens the door for additional opportunity.

Here Is how you develop your niche:

1) Decide what aspect of Home Staging you Love the most. Do you love doing vacant homes? Maybe working with investors is your niche. What about high end properties? You might specialize in homes over $1 million. You could also focus just on certain type of Home Staging service, like Curb Appeal or Marketing.

2) Once you have decided what you love to do, become the expert. Take the training you need to get to the top of the pack. Practice, practice, practice. Next, you have to toot your own horn. Go out and start telling everyone who will listen, that you are the expert. Then own it internally and do an extraordinary job every single time.

3) Continue to Educate yourself. You can take a course, listen to CD’s, become a member of a great organization like APSD that offers continuing education, look at others work, attend Home Staging events, etc. The biggest mistake that most so-called experts make is they stop learning and growing. Then, others that are willing to receive education surpass them.

4) Market Yourself and your work endlessly. The more you talk about your specialty, the more others will as well. So, don’t be afraid to brag a little about your results and your extraordinary achievements. Before you know it, others will be doing it for you.

An easy way to begin to develop your “niche” status is to listen to the APSD Complimentary call I recently did on Curb Appeal. “Curb Appeal, Creating Impact and Profit in your Home Staging, Design and Real Estate Business.” You also still have time to take advantage of a very special offer I made at the end of the call! http://www/apsdmembers.com/curbappeal

To your joy and success,

Karen Schaefer
Founder, APSD
The Global Leader in Home Staging Training and Certification

Everyone always asks me how I am able to do so much. Well, there are 2 secrets:

1) Leverage other people’s time by being a good delegator

2) Get very organized.

I know what you are thinking- -Well, Karen you are probably already hyper organized right?- Wrong. By nature I am an insane

perfectionist. I like everything a certain way, I am very picky on details, and I don’t want to have to say or see it twice!

But, I am only good and having other people do this for me. I am good at giving them specifics, creating timelines and

setting standards-and of course, holding myself to the same standard which I expect to receive.

Only you can know what system of organization works for you but I can tell you for a fact that if you are serious about

creating enormous income (even just decent income) you need to get organized.

1) Evaluate your level of current organization: Is your office clean and uncluttered? Do you or your asst. know where

everything is? Or, do you need to come up with a specific system so that things are easy to file (half the battle) and then

easy to find.

I like overall categories like; -Marketing- and then subcategories such as -Flyers.- If I am working on properties, I keep a

main template of marketing pieces in the Marketing file so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel with each new property, but I

also do the same thing per property. So, in this instance, I would have -Properties- as my main category. Then I might have

a sub-category for -Home Staging’s- followed by -Active- and -Completed.- Then of course the property address file within

each of those. It makes my life very simple and I can get anything in a moment’s notice.

This simple system works with any type of business. I use it for my Home Staging Training Company, my Speakers Training

Company, Our On Line Systems program as well as My Coaching and Mentoring Business for Entrepreneurs and Small Business

Owners.

2) How do you manage your email? This is a big one for many Entrepreneurs because we live by our email and cell phones.

I will address phone calls next, but first, let’s look at managing your email. When you are going to work, you need to turn

your email off. Don’t minimize it, turn it off.

You must schedule time to answer emails just like you schedule time to get your work completed. If you allow your email to

interrupt you all day long, you will never complete your big income tasks and you will continue to wonder why you can’t be as

prosperous as you would like.

If you choose to keep your email and phone active all day long, you must understand that you are conditioning your client to

view you as having a lower value because you are always available instead of being busy enough not to be available.

However, if you manage their expectations, by telling them exactly when they can expect a return email from you, they view

you as professional, organized and valuable.

Now, you can get your Mo*ney tasks completed and still service your customers in an extraordinary way.

3) Unless you are waiting for Brain Surgery, turn off your cell phone! I mean it. Why do you allow people to interrupt

you all day long. It takes 20 minutes to -re-group- after you have been interrupted. 20 minutes! You are here to achieve

great things-right? So, 20 minutes is valuable time.

For friends and family, accept and return their calls after business hours (you are holding regular Home Staging business

hours right?).

For clients, do the same thing you do with emails. If you have an assistant, then great, he or she can answer the phone for

you. You can also hire an answering service. If neither is an option for you, manage your clients expectations by telling

them on your voice mail exactly when they can reach you and when they can expect to receive a return call. I would get very

specific and tell them you are always available M-F by phone form 8-10am and you return calls daily between 4-6pm. And if

they have a specific time they need you to reach them, ask them to leave the time on your voice mail and you will do your

best to accommodate them.

Now, they completely understand how to reach you and when you will contact them. You can go further and let them know that

you are taking care of them 100% by offering these specific hours they know they can reach you.

4) What are you doing with all that email? There are so many times when we know we should look at something or want to

save it and read it later, but we just don’t have the time or system in place to do so.

I like the -One Touch System.- In other words, if you receive an email that you may want to read but don’t have time, create

a -Drop Folder- for those emails on your desk top. As soon as you open it, drop it into the folder for later.

Then, schedule an hour once a week that you review this folder. You can now review, delete, save and/or take action. One

hour a week to create a One Touch System.

The more organized you can become the more profitable you become and it allows you to also have the right staff. So,

logically, if you have enough customers, you can create the income and lifestyle you so desire.

To Your Greatest Joy and Success,

Karen Schaefer

www.APSDmembers.com

It seems like we get so caught up in our everyday lives that we rarely take the time to focus on building something that is really near and dear to us, such as our Home Staging and Real Estate Business. We take care of everyone and everything else, but fail to give our business the attention it needs to sprout, grow and thrive.

As we start off this new year with a bang, I decided we should start off our Home Staging Business with a bang as well.

I think that in order to get your Home Staging Business off the groundand then some, you have to have a specific plan in place. During my APSD Property Scene Designer Training, I actually do a business blue print with each PD so we can specifically create a 12 month plan of success. Needless to say, the PDs that follow the plan have a booming home staging business.

But, it is one thing to say you have to have a plan and another to actually understand how to do one and figure out what goes into your plan.

That is why this year, I am going to do an APSD 12 month Home Staging Blue Print with every single one of you that joins me for our ONLINE STAGE EVENT because that is how strongly I feel about you having a specific vision and plan of action to carry out the vision. (By the way, all the details are at www.APSDmembers.com/OnlineSTAGE -hurry it starts next week!)

The important thing though, is to start now. Dont wait because we all know how quickly time passes us by right? So please, I am asking you, encouraging your, willing to support youmake the choice right now, to be a success in the home staging industry!

First of all, there are several factors to consider when you decide to run and effective Home Staging and Real Estate Business:

1) Vision. Have you stopped to decide specifically what you want from this business? Are you looking to niche a specific service like Curb Appeal. Color Analysis, High End Homes, etc.? Or, are you happy to just set a goal, like 4 stagings a week and take what comes? I find by starting anything with a very clear vision, you are far more likely to quickly achieve your goal.

2) Momentum. Once you decide what you want, you need to build momentum by taking massive action. I know most of you work other jobs or take care of your children (many of you do both!) so the thought of massive action could stop you in your tracks. But stop to think about what massive action could be. Maybe you decide that you can make 10 calls every Monday to local real estate offices. Then, on Friday, you send out follow up emails to the same 10. If you are not doing anything right now, that is Massive action. When you do it consistently, you will get results which leads to momentum. It is like losing weight, drop a pound or two in the first week by saying no to sweets and yes to a daily walk, you get results, which leads to momentum and before you know it you are in week 4 and have lost 10 pounds. Massive Action leads to Momentum which leads to results.

3) MindSet. Now that you have a little momentum going, you may start to second guess yourself. Maybe it is because of how you were raised, or you dont have enough support at home or you simply lack confidence, but I find that in order to have continued growth, your head needs to be in the right place. Normally, we call this mindset and during my recentAPSD Stager Pro and APSD Certified Trainers Program, we talked a great deal about confidence and mindset. It is a special session that I will be teaching during ONLINE STAGE.

I am a big believer in putting yourself in the right frame of mind, and keeping it there, in order to achieve the success you deserve. I know when I first started out on my own home staging business, I lacked confidence in my ability, did not think I could succeed, had a wonderful husband that didnt understand what I was trying to do and was a very well conditioned mid-westerner that kept thinking work harder and I will be fine. WOW! Did I ever have a great deal to learn. Mindset is one of the biggest keys to success which is why I am devoting an entire session to it at our ONLINE STAGE training.

As women (and a few really cool guys) we have to put our mind in the right place for ourselves and our family. Otherwise we will live a life of poverty mindset and even worse, pass it along to our children. Wouldnt you prefer a mindset of abundance?

4) Extraordinary Skills. When my APSD Certified Home Staging Professionals ask me how to compete, or blaze the home staging trail, I always tell them to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. The funny thing, is that I tell my small business consulting clients the same thing, so it works for every industry. It is easy to just look at what others do and do the same. What takes a little more effort is to be better. One of my mentors, Dan Kennedy, says look around at your competition and whatever they are doing, do the opposite.

I took this to heart when I created APSD. I looked around at everyone and I did the opposite. I created an association that supported our members. Also, I assumed you were already smart and talented, so instead of showing you how to create a trilogy of candles (because I assume you already know how to put 3 candles on a plate), APSD gave you a proven Home Staging system; a model to follow so you can yield specific results. Then, and this is the best part, APSD came out with specific trainings that spoke to our members and their bottom lines. I think you should make a bunch of income with your Home Staging and Real Estate business and be able to help your client in the biggest and best way. In order to do that, you have to offer multiple services which yield you multiple streams of income. In the APSD ONLINE STAGE training, I will introduce you to 25 streams of home staging income. Everything from Color Analysis to Curb Appeal to our propriety programs like Bang for the Buck and Estage!

But it doesnt stop there. We continually differentiate ourselves from any other program by offering courses for todays Home Stager such as Vacant and Distressed Property Staging which we will be doing during our ONLINE STAGE event. This is a hot button across the globe and once you learn to effectively stage Vacant and Distressed properties, you will have every real estate agent in your market place knocking down your door for help.

The new APSD Certified Trainers have already had a sneak peek into the program and you will have your chance to do so as well at ONLINE STAGE. Make sure you have the best skills possible and that is what will differentiate you in your Home Staging Market and get clients rushing to you vs. you having to chase them down.

5) Marketing. You knew I would get there, right? This has to be one of the biggest parts of your plan. During the point on Momentum I talked about setting a marketing schedule such as calling 10 real estate offices on Monday and following up with the same 10 on Friday. Believe it or not, if you just did this, and did it with good marketing, like that which you receive in How to Market Your Home Staging Business after a short time, you would have enough business.

Imagine if you added a postcard to the mix! Whoo Hoo! Now you may have to hire someone to help you! Okay, okay, I know I am being a little sarcastic but most home stagers dont market. Part of the reason is they just never get organized enough to do so and the other part is that APSD is the only Home Staging Training Association to offer REAL WORLD home staging Marketing. The important thing is that you set up a marketing schedule and follow it. The more aggressive you are, the better your results. But there is one result that I know for sure, and that is if you dont do any marketing, you will get zero results. So, set a schedule that you can manage and follow it. Your 12 month home staging blue print will be a step by step process to help you with this for every single month in 2012.

In the Home Staging and Real Estate Industry, there are at least 19 ways to effectively market your business and during our ONLINE STAGE event I am going to go through each way with you, step by step so when you leave, you have a MARKETING PLAN! It doesnt have to be hard, but you do have to do it!

By simply following these 5 steps, you will find that your Home Staging Business is doing far more than just getting off the ground in 2011.

And because we are going to cover so much of this during our ONLINE STAGE training I wanted to give you an opportunity for you and a friend to come at our 2 for 1 pricing! Just check out my special offer below!

Log on http://www.apsdmembers.com/ for more details!