Staging Diva Graduate Anuradha Rathore of Nine Dimensions LLC (WI) shares her personal story of her journey into home staging. Here it is in her own words:

“Having my own business has always been something I wanted, but did not know where to start from. I am a sales and public relations consultant working as a banker. I have to say I am pretty successful at what I do but there was always this strange nagging feeling of discontent with my career mixed with the uncertainty of job security due to the present economic conditions.

I have been helping friends and family decorate their homes for years and I am a well qualified consultant. One fine day, I came across StagingDiva.com. Bam, there it was! This gave me the answer to ‘What kind of business should I have?’

I started my own staging company which also offers real estate marketing support. I finally found a way to combine my talent and flair with my education and experience and turned it into Nine Dimensions, my own design studio.

Home staging is not only a financial back up for me but it is a place where I get tremendous creative freedom and actually get paid for it!

Now I am working full time, raising my family and running my own business. And, it’s possible, because I love my job, my business is my hobby and family is what keeps me going. Last but not the least, our very own Staging Diva, Debra Gould made it happen.

This business has been extremely rewarding as it gives me an opportunity to step into people’s homes and turn it into the most rewarding investment of their lives. It is amazing how a talent for aesthetics can be utilized towards marketing real estate. It’s beautiful what I do and I love every bit of my business, it’s my own and I love it.

The Staging Diva Courses have helped me turn my passion and talent for decorating into a real life business. I would not have been able to make this leap of faith without this program. I am working full time, running my own business and raising a family and this program has taught me how to do it all together and maintain my sanity. Thanks Debra!”

Thanks Anuradha for sharing your inspiring story and congratulations for taking the steps needed to create your very own staging business!

Whether you’re an aspiring home stager or an established pro, you’ll love this free report! It’s a quick summer read to give you a shot of inspiration.

In “Ask Staging Diva: Can a regular person like me become a home stager?”, you will meet inspiring women and men who have turned their love of decorating into a home staging business. You’ll also see the eye-popping results they’ve achieved for their clients in difficult real estate markets.

This behind-the-scenes peek at 10 home stagers will show you how regular people transformed their lives. It’s totally free because I just couldn’t wait to share their inspiring stories with as many readers as possible!

> Get your free copy of this report now.

Sometimes I hear from “corporate types” who are considering leaving their careers to become home stagers. One of their fears is giving up the $100,000 salary.

I can relate to that fear since that was my situation years ago when I longed for more independence and to do something more creative with my life.

But let’s put aside actual quality of life (which isn’t entirely dictated by how much you make) and look at the money fears. These apply to you whether you’re making $20,000, $30,000 or even $100,000 a year. We all have money fears!

What I realized when I became an entrepreneur was that you don’t actually need to replace your current salary to maintain your standard of living. Plus there are the physical and psychological rewards that come with leaving a stressful job that is sucking the life out of you for the independence of working for yourself doing something you love.

It’s important to realize that a conventional career has plenty of costs attached to it. First of all, you’re in a high tax bracket, so a good chunk of that income goes straight to the government. Conversely, in your own business, you pay less tax because of all the write-offs you get.

Next, if you’re earning a very high salary working for a company, they likely expect you to be attached to your Blackberry 24/7, so you have very little freedom or time off. This adds to the stress of being pulled in multiple directions and never having time to just wind down.

Your employer also expects you to look like an executive, so your clothing, dry cleaning and personal grooming bills are huge when you’re working in a major corporation compared to working from home.

You’re also probably working really long hours when you factor in business trips, meetings and commuting. Constant time pressure leads to “convenience expenditures” which really add up. For example:

• take out meals on the way home in the evening
• restaurant meals for lunch
• take out coffee multiple times per day
• travelling costs to and from work
• nanny or full time daycare
• dog walker
• cleaning lady
• gardener
• excessive toy and electronics purchases to offset your guilt over never seeing your kids
• I could go on but you get the idea!

If you have a high paying job (or even if you don’t), try adding up how much you spend each month on these and other items. That’s a good window into how much you’ll save when you work for yourself!

> free article about the expenses you can write off when you have your own staging business

> free article and discussion about lifestyle considerations

By the way, did you know that only 6% of the US population makes over $100,000 a year?

Congratulations to Staging Diva Graduates Jodi Whalen of Pear Tree Home Designs (NJ) and Susan Atwell of Atwell Staged Home (NY) for winning 2nd and 8th places respectively in the SureFit Sure Solutions Sweepstakes! The challenge was to show a dramatic room transformation using SureFit’s slip covers. A SureFit panel of judges selected 8 winners from all entries received and then the public voted for their favorites to determine the order.

Not only do Jodi and Susan get the bragging rights and their winning makeovers featured on Surefit’s website, there were cash prizes too!

Susan learned of the contest through Twitter and shared the news with Jodi who also entered. Susan commented, “It’s not how I expected Twitter to bring me income!” I was pleased to see Susan tweeting about it, which is one important way to leverage company news like this.

When I learned the news from her tweet, I decided to include this story in this newsletter, which means it will make it onto at least two of my blogs and one website, with links back to both Jodi’s and Susan’s profile pages on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

If you’ve taken course 4, “Staging Diva Sales and Marketing Secrets to Boost your Home Staging Business” you know this is important because the more links you get to your web page, the higher up you rank with search engines! And the higher you rank, the easier it is for potential customers to find you!

If you’d like to learn other ways Twitter can help you expand your home staging business, check out the Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter. It’s written for total beginners and those with more Twitter experience will also find Twitter marketing strategies they can use.

Reader Jayne Steuart of Pearl Home Staging and Redesign in Colorado said, “The Home Stager’s Guide to Twitter is comprehensive, easy to read and way too much fun! I consider myself to be techno-challenged, but this guide actually made me feel quite smart. I adore you for that!”

> Learn more about the Twitter Guide written especially for home stagers.

New and aspiring stagers, imagine if you could talk to someone who has been a home stager since 2002 and ask 50 questions about what it’s like, how to handle home staging business challenges, and more!

In Ask Staging Diva® Live – Volumes 1, 2 and 3, you’ll get 3 hours of professionally edited recordings in which I answer 50 audience questions like these:

• Can I run a staging business without my own inventory of accessories?
• How much money do I need to start my staging business?
• How do you deal with a client’s ugly furnishings?
• Does the agent or homeowner pay for home staging fees?
• What is the difference between redesign and staging?
• What if a client asks how much experience I have?
• How can I tell if there is too much competition in my area?
• Is there a market in staging foreclosed homes?
• How do you find most of your clients?
• Are client contracts necessary?
• What insurance do I need?
• What if a home I stage doesn’t sell?

> Read all 50 home staging questions

Added BONUS:

You’ll get a complete transcript of the 3 hours of audio, to make it easy for you to skim through and quickly locate an answer to any of the 50 questions or highlight key points you want to refer back to.

Special Intro Price!

This new product will sell for $129, but if you order now you can take advantage of the introductory price of only $89.

> Learn how to save $40

Have a look at Staging Diva events happening for home stagers in July. Please note, times indicated are Eastern (NY time) so you’ll need to adjust for your own time zone.

Open Coaching Day with Staging Diva – FREE (by invitation only, $75 value)
Tuesday, July 6 11 AM to 3:30 PM

Staging Diva Quiz Challenge Winners get a 15 minute one-on-one coaching session with Debra Gould.

Graduates get a 15 minute one-on-one laser coaching session with Debra Gould. Invitations are sent to Directory members.

Staging Diva Dialog (Graduate Members Only)
Thursday, July 15 noon to 1 PM

Graduates have a chance to ask Debra Gould questions in a small group on this regular, monthly coaching call.

Here’s what was discussed on the last call:

• what to do in shifting real estate market
• BNI – pros and cons
• why writing reports is a trap
• better ways to do staging consultations
• why links to your website are key
• how to get links to your site
• commenting on blogs
• ways to attract FSBO clients
• making sure you get paid
• follow up – when and how often?
• dealing with client decorating choices
• different ways to work with agents
• alternatives to referral fees
• staging tips

Find out how you can join the July Dialog call. Just $47 gets you the live call with Debra Gould to ask your questions

Staging Diva Accelerator Coaching (Members Only)

Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment

If you’re interested in business coaching with Debra Gould, schedule an Accelerator Coaching session. It’s not a prerequisite to have taken the Staging Diva Training Program to purchase a session. When you’ve registered, you’ll get special access to Debra Gould’s online calendar to book an appointment at your convenience.

Learn more about how to get Accelerator Coaching

Technorati Tags: home stager, Staging Diva Dialog, home staging business coaching, debra gould

You might have the idea that home staging is a great career, but chances are you’ll hear that negative voice in your head, or the voice of someone else in your life that says, “That’s a dumb idea.”

What a dream killer negativity is!

I recently read an interesting article by Dave Balter, a published author and serial entrepreneur. He was writing about when “dumb” ideas are actually “smart” and how to tell the difference.

Examples he includes are “putting a college year book online.” That sounded dumb at the beginning but guess what, that’s Facebook. Or here’s another one, “limiting updates to just 140 characters.” Sounded dumb but that’s Twitter! To that I would add “charging 500% more for a cup of coffee and making it really complicated to order,” which would be Starbucks back when they started. Or how about, “putting tap water in a small plastic bottle and charging a couple of bucks for it”?

In other words, something that many people think looks dumb today is actually tomorrow’s huge breakthrough

Balter points out that “good dumb ideas create polarization. Some people will get it immediately and shower it with praise and affection. Others will say it’s ignorant and impossible and run for the hills. The fiercer the polarization, the smarter your dumb idea.”

I thought this was a great way to look at home staging, because the idea of decorating a home to sell is a concept that many people love and others hate (especially if they haven’t seen first-hand the difference it makes).

Negative opinions from others can certainly add to our fear of standing up and saying “I’m going to be a home stager because it’s important, I have creative talent and I can make a difference in people’s lives!”

Photos provided by Patricia Adamic, Ma Maison Home Staging

Staging Diva Graduate Patricia Adamic of Ma Maison Home Staging (ON) ran up against this polarization around home staging for a recent project. The real estate agent did not believe in staging at all, even though she was stuck with a new listing that was in terrible shape and she believed it would take a long time to sell.

As often happens, there was someone else in the picture who didn’t agree with the agent and brought Patricia into the situation. You might be guessing it was the homeowner, but this story has a special twist because the home belonged to an older person who had died and the surviving relatives also had no interest in improving the property.

Sounds hopeless, except that the lawyer in charge of settling the estate knew a good idea when he saw one and gave Patricia a small budget to work her magic and decorate the house to sell faster and for more money.

Instead of turning and running from the challenge, Patricia faced it head on wanting to impress the agent and the lawyer (who would both be wonderful sources of future referrals), and prove to them that home staging works.

Photos provided by Patricia Adamic, Ma Maison Home Staging

Patricia writes, “With my talent and all the knowledge that I got from the Staging Diva Training Program, I staged the property and it sold in 5 days with multiple offers above asking! The training has helped me to have confidence, to know how to approach different situations with clients, to organize my business and to present a professional image, while helping me do something that I love! I was thrilled to be able to prove to this agent and the family that home staging really works!”

The Realtor® provided Patricia with the following testimonial, “When I first saw the property, I knew I had my work cut out for me and that this house would take a long time to sell. With Ma Maison Home Staging expertise, enthusiasm and skill, the home was transformed into a very sellable property in no time and she did a fantastic job of staging it.Patricia made my job easy. The house sold in 5 days and with competing offers! I would definitely recommend Patricia’s services to agents and homeowners who want to get their property sold quickly and for top dollar.”

Home stagers, this story does more than prove that staging works. It is also a good reminder that we never know where our next project might come from. Don’t be afraid to leave your business cards with everyone you meet and to talk about what you do!

It also demonstrates how much good we can do as stagers, in this case, helping to settle the estate of a man whose family didn’t wish to get involved. And in the process, Patricia was able to convince so many people that the “dumb” idea of home staging isn’t so dumb after all!

This is happening in neighborhoods all over the world!

By the time everyone wakes up to how smart home staging really is, demand for our services will be huge! This is the time to establish yourself as the local home staging expert because the opportunity will only get bigger as the industry grows and matures.

> Share your comments to this and a related story on dealing with uncertainty when starting a business. You’ll find a great discussion has already started.

> Check out this list of free articles which prove home staging works

While I don’t have to commute to my office (which is in my home, just upstairs from my kitchen), I love this time of year and the sense of freedom I get knowing I can take a break from sitting in traffic twice a day for school drop-off and pick-up.

It’s always a juggling act to balance parenting and building my own business, but I’m grateful for the control I have over my own schedule and that I don’t have to set up meetings that interfere with whatever else I want or need to do.

We’ve planned a couple of vacation trips this summer, so I won’t be booking any home staging projects during those weeks. As far as my clients know, I’m all booked up, which just makes my services more desirable. Kind of like how everyone wants to eat at the restaurant with the line outside!

The first holiday weekend of the summer is coming up. Independence Day always reminds me of Staging Diva Graduate Kelley D’Lima, who celebrated Independence Day a few years back by quitting her full time job because she realized she could make more in 5 hours of staging than she used to make working full time for a week!

I’ve been working from a home office since 1989 and I have to say one of the things I value most about that is my independence and the sense that I’m in control over my life rather than an employer.

This month you’ll meet other home stagers who have changed their lives by following their passion. Some have a full-time staging business and others do this on the side of another job. You’ll also learn about an exciting new product that will answer 50 of the most common questions new home stagers ask.

I hope you enjoy this months posts. Please send me your opinions and/or new story ideas.

Happy Summer!

“Declare war on passivity. Hush the inner voice that insists you’re over the hill, past your prime, unworthy of attaining those dreams. Disbelief is now the enemy, as is the notion of settling. Get hungry— hyena hungry. Get fired up. Find your backbone, and your wings. Flap ‘em. It’s the only way you’ll be able to fly.” J.C. Hutchins