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

Debra Gould
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.
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Debra Gould

Debra Gould, aka The Staging DivaŽ, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

Gould has trained 1000+ Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start their own businesses. All shared a natural talent for decorating and interest in real estate, but didn't know how to make a living in their own house staging business before learning her secrets.

Debra Gould's mission is to inspire and empower others to use their natural talents to earn a living. She followed her dreams and wants to teach others to be able to do the same.

Gould pursued an MBA in Marketing and began a corporate career before moving to advertising. In the 1980s, she launched one of the first integrated marketing firms, which she ran for 10 years. Wanting a more creative life, Debra gave it up to design home accessories. She created the Debra Gould Home Collection, landing a magazine cover story and book feature, followed by her first of several HGTV appearances.

Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a new staging career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since that time she has staged homes for hundreds of clients in addition to providing home staging training.

Gould is the author of "Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home staging tips, tricks and floor plans", "Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The easy way to pick colors for home staging projects", and "Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide: Winning clients with the perfect home staging portfolio".

In addition to HGTV, Debra Gould's media coverage includes: CityTV, GlobalTV, CBC, CBS Radio, CNNMoney, Wall Street Journal, Woman's Day, Reader's Digest, MoneySense, Entrepreneur, House and Home, Home & Decor, Style at Home, Centre of the City, USAA Magazine, FabJob Guide to Become a Home Stager, Home Style, National Post Homes, This Old House, Home Business Magazine, Globe & Mail and others.