Professional Home Stagers Don´t Work For Free

It disturbs me to hear of home stagers working for free. However, most of the aspiring stagers I speak with seem to think they have to do their first projects for free to rack up experience.

I have written many articles on this topic and I strongly object to working for free in the Staging Diva courses, but this question keeps coming up. Often those stagers offering to do home staging projects for free are the ones who will always struggle to get business and much of this comes down to perception.

If you´re giving away your services for free, how good can you be?

Imagine a new salon opens up in your city. You´re walking down the street and see a sandwich board offering "Free Haircuts". The owner of the salon is standing outside and approaches you, saying she´s new at this and would like to give you a free cut and color for practice.

You probably wouldn´t be too eager to be a guinea pig in a situation like this, and it makes the salon owner look terribly unprofessional.

Now imagine this scenario. The same salon has opened up and you walk by. There´s no sandwich board offering free haircuts and the owner is nowhere in sight, but there is a lineup of people standing out front. You look at the sign and realize you´ve heard of this posh new salon. You read an article about it in the paper and heard a co-worker raving about it after getting a fabulous new haircut there.

All of a sudden, you´re standing in the lineup waiting to see what the buzz is about (pardon the pun). It must be great because everyone´s talking about it, right?

That salon owner is still new at this – she´s still fresh out beauty school. But you get a completely different first impression and instead of wanting to run away from the "practice" hair cut, you´re willing to pay whatever she´s charging.

I know you´re worried you won´t get any clients without having staged homes before, but we´ve all been there. There are many ways to market a business and going around offering to provide home staging for free is not one of them.

I can´t fault you for trying because many home stagers before you have worked for free and people will continue to do so, even after hearing my strong objections to the practice.

In the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, I teach you how to do the home staging equivalent of that posh salon opening where you create a buzz and make your services irresistible to home owners. I teach you how to burst onto the scene.

Even though you´re a new home stager, all of a sudden your name will be everywhere and people will be talking about you. When you can create a buzz about your business, you will be miles ahead of your competitors. This will allow you to make yourself one of the pricier home stagers in your town because everyone´s seeking you out, trusting that you really know what you´re doing.

If you´re stuck in the "working for free" rut, look into Course 4 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program by Debra Gould, to learn how to market your business the right way and get clients flocking to you for your expertise with cash in hand!