No One Needs to Know You´re a Part-Time Home Stager

One thing many aspiring home stagers have in common is that they need to continue working while they start up their home staging business on a part-time basis. In an ideal world, everyone could quit their job and work on starting their business full time, but this is not an ideal world and this isn´t possible for everyone.

The biggest concern for someone in this position is that they´re not going to be seen as professional since they´re "only" part-time home stagers.

When aspiring stagers come to me with this concern, I tell them the same thing:

Nobody needs to know you´re doing this part-time.

If I had a full-time job and was doing home staging on the side, I would still set up my business. I would have my business phone number, business cards, a home staging website and a page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. If someone were to call me, they would get a professional sounding greeting. It´s not going to say, "Hi you´ve reached Debra and by the way, I´m a part-time home stager and I only work on weekends."

When you get a call from a potential client and they want to meet with you, you don´t have to tell them you´re moonlighting as a home stager and can only meet them on Wednesday after work. If that´s the only time you have available, tell them you happen to have an opening on Wednesday night at seven.

If that doesn´t work for the homeowner, just keep going back and forth until you find a time that works for both of you. Unless you tell them you´re trying to do home staging around your full-time job, they´re likely going to assume you´re a very sought after, heavily booked home stager.

Remember it´s all about perception. If you have a professional looking website and home staging portfolio, and carry yourself with confidence, nobody is going to question whether or not you´re doing this part-time or not. It won´t even cross their minds.

To learn more about what to say and what not to say to prospective home staging clients, order Debra Gould´s Staging DivaŽ Sales Script: How to Avoid the Free Estimate Trap and Turn Homeowners into Home Staging Customers in One Phone Conversation.