Mother of Three Finds Freedom, Flexibility and Success in Less Than One Year as a Home Stager
Debra Gould
December 10, 2008
Had Laura Kakoschke gone into the field of home staging with the goal of getting a guaranteed job at $31.45 per hour, itīs safe to say things would have worked out much differently for her.
This Staging Diva Graduate and founder of Hunter Lake Home Staging and Design says of this, her second chance career, "I made more money in the first 10 months in my own staging business than I used to make in a whole year working for the government as a Contract Manager. And now I work half the hours that I used to!"
What Laura understood when she got into this field and some aspiring home stagers donīt, is that a promised job for $31.45 an hour is actually a complete devaluation of her talents. Laura did her research before signing up for a training program and learned that home stagers can actually earn between $250 and $700 for just a two-hour consultation. She realized what she needed were the skills to promote her services and market her own business so she could be in control of her own employment.
It certainly worked out for her. In her first 10 months as a home stager, Laura landed so many of her own projects that she ended up staging 12 vacant properties. When you consider that staging a vacant home can earn a stager anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 profit per house (even if they don't use their own inventory), having 12 of these in less than a full first year of a new business is significant.
The largest of Laura's projects was a $2.5 million vacant estate home which she furnished from top to bottom. "This was an intense experience," says Laura, "but an awesome opportunity to put my home staging training into practice."
One of her recent projects saw Laura staging a house that had been sitting on the market for four months. Before Hunter Lake Home Staging and Design came in, the real estate agent was skeptical about staging. Her thinking completely changed after Laura finished staging the property. With new furniture and accessories, the house sold in only four days. "The change in the decor was like night and day," says Laura, "and we didnīt even have to paint or replace brass fixtures."
This mother of three children loves the freedom that comes along with being her own boss. "I can work my own hours, set my schedule, be at home to teach (home school) in the mornings and work my staging business in the afternoons," reports Laura. "My three boys get a first-hand look at running a business. I hope that the courage I found to follow my dream will inspire them to follow theirs, and to know that anything is possible."
Like many Staging Diva students, Laura approached her home staging career with the attitude that she wanted to finally use her natural talents to earn a living without having to spend 4 years in an interior design program.
"Iīm 39 and if it werenīt for the opportunities available to a stager, I would have had to return for several years of post-secondary training and then work long hours for low pay for a design firm to fulfill my dream of decorating. This would never have happened," says this mom with a degree in literature. "Staging Diva Training gave me the business tools and confidence to follow my lifelong passion for design."
This Staging Diva Graduate and founder of Hunter Lake Home Staging and Design says of this, her second chance career, "I made more money in the first 10 months in my own staging business than I used to make in a whole year working for the government as a Contract Manager. And now I work half the hours that I used to!"
What Laura understood when she got into this field and some aspiring home stagers donīt, is that a promised job for $31.45 an hour is actually a complete devaluation of her talents. Laura did her research before signing up for a training program and learned that home stagers can actually earn between $250 and $700 for just a two-hour consultation. She realized what she needed were the skills to promote her services and market her own business so she could be in control of her own employment.
It certainly worked out for her. In her first 10 months as a home stager, Laura landed so many of her own projects that she ended up staging 12 vacant properties. When you consider that staging a vacant home can earn a stager anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 profit per house (even if they don't use their own inventory), having 12 of these in less than a full first year of a new business is significant.
The largest of Laura's projects was a $2.5 million vacant estate home which she furnished from top to bottom. "This was an intense experience," says Laura, "but an awesome opportunity to put my home staging training into practice."
One of her recent projects saw Laura staging a house that had been sitting on the market for four months. Before Hunter Lake Home Staging and Design came in, the real estate agent was skeptical about staging. Her thinking completely changed after Laura finished staging the property. With new furniture and accessories, the house sold in only four days. "The change in the decor was like night and day," says Laura, "and we didnīt even have to paint or replace brass fixtures."
This mother of three children loves the freedom that comes along with being her own boss. "I can work my own hours, set my schedule, be at home to teach (home school) in the mornings and work my staging business in the afternoons," reports Laura. "My three boys get a first-hand look at running a business. I hope that the courage I found to follow my dream will inspire them to follow theirs, and to know that anything is possible."
Like many Staging Diva students, Laura approached her home staging career with the attitude that she wanted to finally use her natural talents to earn a living without having to spend 4 years in an interior design program.
"Iīm 39 and if it werenīt for the opportunities available to a stager, I would have had to return for several years of post-secondary training and then work long hours for low pay for a design firm to fulfill my dream of decorating. This would never have happened," says this mom with a degree in literature. "Staging Diva Training gave me the business tools and confidence to follow my lifelong passion for design."
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