How to Start a Home Staging Business Step by Step
The real estate industry is a large one and it only keeps growing bigger. Property owners need assistance in gaining buyers’ or potential tenants’ attention.
Therefore, owners often hire real estate agents and property managers to do the job.
However, home staging is what seals the deal, and because of this home staging business has become quite popular.
Properties that are staged are more appealing to buyers than the ones that are not. Due to the success of home staging, there is a large demand on the field.
Real estate agencies, property management companies, property investors, and individual sellers often contact home staging business owners for assistance.
Although the demand is high, starting the business is not very simple. An investment needs strong management skills, calculated thinking, a great deal of knowledge of the field, and marketing skills.
Therefore, before diving into the market, you must first understand its roots, moreover, you need to make sure that the job is for you.
To do so, you are going to need to consider multiple factors and prepare thoroughly.
Steps to Starting a home staging business
Start a home staging business by following these 12 steps
1. Get Familiar With The Home Staging Business
Before you make a large investment in a certain field you have to put down a list of pros and cons. The home staging business comes with multiple advantages, however, it has several disadvantages as well.
The Benefits of Home Staging Investment
The Disadvantages
Home Staging Trends
National Association of Realtors research shows that 52% of agents have seen success in selling homes quicker by using home staging than the ones that have not tried to stage homes.
The home staging industry has seen a large increase in the past few years. Out of 5 million homes that were sold in the United States in 2019, one million homes were staged.
Staged homes have shown themselves to be easier to sell, since homes that are staged sell 30 times faster than the ones that are not.
The competition is not big either as there are not even reported 10 000 home staging companies worldwide.
However, the number of home-stage professionals is slowly increasing and so is the competition.
Consumers
The potential of gaining a competitive advantage is big when you are good at the job, especially when there are few competitors.
There is a chance that competition is lower in your region. As for the sellers, there are reported to be nearly 7 million home sellers in the US by 2023.
If you wonder about the pricing, the average price for a consultation of home staging from professionals is around 500$.
As for staging each room, a home staging professional could receive an average of 500$ each month the house is on the market.
The Expenses & Profits of Starting a Home Staging Business
When starting a business first you need to think about the costs of appropriate tools, registration, and other expenses.
Setting up a business name and branding is going to cost around 175$. Licenses and permits cost 200$ on average.
You will need to spend 200$ on average on insurance. Setting up a website costs 2000$ on average. As for the entire home staging inventory, you might need to spend around 6000$ at the beginning.
As we already mentioned, a home staging consultation costs about 500$, and staging each room could pay 500$.
At the beginning of your investment, you could get a revenue of 85 000$ and 67 000$ profit. This is considering you stage 5 homes a month.
Take Design Courses
One way to ensure that your business is going to be successful is to get as much education in the field as possible. If you want to get into the home staging industry, you must first become a great designer.
Although you might be able to hire excellent designers, you should be able to tell what is right for interiors, as you could easily get tricked when you are not a professional yourself.
2. Learn How To Save Money
Your business will need a lot of expenses, especially with having to buy furniture. However, there is a solution to the most expected problem, running short on budget for the furniture.
You can stage a home with furniture that already is in the house by simply using your imagination and moving stuff around.
You can start saving money to buy furniture by starting by giving out consultations to furnished home sellers.
You can provide packing and reorganizing services that will be beneficial for your clients. You can simply rent furniture to stage properties that will be rented or sold unfurnished.
As time goes by, you can buy one or two items at a time to collect furniture and build your inventory for future projects.
3. Start Branding
Nothing brings quite as much attention as a good brand name. You are going to need a foolproof marketing strategy and the first step is brainstorming a name, slogan, and logo design.
You could set several rules for creating a name for your home staging business. Make sure to make the title catchy, short, and familiar. People need something they can trust.
Don’t forget that the business is all about designing homes, so you will need a name that will remind people of luxurious and beautiful homes.
Nothing sells as much as a good brand. For your home staging company to stand out, you need to use the keywords “home staging” and “staging” to boost SEO.
Think of the big picture and make sure that the name you choose doesn’t set limits to your brand.
It’s crucial to make sure that there is no other brand in the industry that has the same name, and that there can be no grounds to get a lawsuit for stealing intellectual property.
4. Start Planning
Calculating, strategizing, planning, and plotting – this is how you need to spend the first days or even months of your company set-up. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
There are a few pointers that you need to include in your plan to get additional investors and partners on board.
5. Register Your Business
Once you are set with the branding and have come up with a plan, you can start the actual business. The first step to realizing you plan to register your home staging company.
Firstly, depending on your state and region, you need to pick where you will register the company. Location matters due to taxes, legal systems, and competition.
Your business plan probably includes an expansion of the company. Therefore, it’s best if you think about the whereabouts of your business in terms of location.
You will need to set up a home staging company in a place where you will likely have a lot of customers.
Think about where they are selling most homes nowadays. Where are the inventory and the demand?
You will also need to register for taxes. To complete this step you can check out the rules and terms on the IRS website.
Related: How to Determine the Legal Structure of Your Business
6. Get The Funding
Funding a home staging business is going to take some time, but without a budget, you will not be able to create a successful company. You can get funding in several ways.
Getting a bank loan is the most popular option. If your business idea is unique, interesting, and promising you could also get a government grant. You could also save up some money and use your assets, or sell a property.
7. Get a License
You are legally required to get an official state license and a permit from your local government. You will get an official license when your business is well established, and health codes are followed.
You will need trademarks, copyright, patents, and industry-specific licenses and permits.
To get a home staging business license you need to check out the SBA guide and follow its guidelines. After getting your license, you will need to work on business insurance.
8. Get Business Insurance
A home staging business insurance will help your company in various forms. You might fail to succeed unless you remember to insure your investment.
General insurance will protect you from having to pay for property damages. You will be able to save a lot of money in case there are unexpected accidents.
As your employees and hired workers will need to move furniture and heavy objects around, it’s best to have any work-related injury covered.
If the workers get injured while completing your company tasks, the business insurance will cover the expenses.
In the case of problematic equipment damages, you can rely on your insurance to cover the costs. Your commercial vehicles and properties are also protected from expensive damages.
9. Location
The location of your company is essential. You will need commercial space to start your business with qualified employees. The clients need to visit you at your given address. Therefore, you need to make sure that you are located in a nice and safe area.
It’s preferable that your customers can visit your company easily by avoiding traffic or taking busses and trains. It’s best if you are located in an easily reachable area with a train station near.
You will need to find a property that is well-designed. Your clients will feel a sense of comfort if they visit you in a bright and fashionable building.
Your business focuses on interior design. Your clients will trust you and your vision more if they see that your company quarters are designed with a good eye, furnished well, and stylish. To operate your business you will need to apply for a Certificate of Occupancy.
The CO
You can get the CO by having the landlord obtain it for you. If you plan any major renovations in the occupied space, you will need to make sure that the property owner or manager is on board. After completing the remodeling, you will need a new Certificate of Occupancy.
Make sure that every single one of your requests, demands, costs, and needs regarding the rented property are included in the lease between you and the property owner.
If you wish to proceed with the business on a property that you own or wish to build, you will need to get a Certificate of Occupancy from the local government. Make sure to take every building code into account.
10. Network
It’s very important for a business and its owner to have connections. Anyone you know who is involved in the real estate industry can offer useful insight and information.
You can use people and connections to expand your company and gain a lot of success by spreading the word about your services.
By using connections for your benefit and contacting friends and relatives who are involved in the property market, you might be able to quickly generate strong partnerships and develop professional relationships with other companies.
11. Get Ready
Launching a home staging business will take some of your time, however, it is necessary to get an online presence and get attention. You are going to need software to help with the management of your company and multiple other tools.
The tools will be necessary to get a financial plan set. You will need an accounting tool and a marketing plan.
Get A Business Card
You should think about getting a business credit card that will help you to separate your personal and business expenses. You will also be able to create a strong and trustworthy business credit history for future expansions.
Set Up Accounting
One of the most important parts of running a business is sorting out and managing the finances. Accountants do the riskiest job out of all of your employees, as any extra zero in the sheet could cost your company a lot of damage.
As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to carefully and thoroughly go through every accounting detail of finances before finding the most trustworthy financial manager for your company.
Marketing
A foolproof marketing strategy is essential. If you want to have a big number of customers, you need to be prepared from the beginning, create advertisements online and get a social media presence.
There are multiple platforms to market your business, the home-staging business allows you to create aesthetically pleasing posts and publish engaging content.
Therefore, social media is going to be very helpful. People often scroll through Pinterest while looking for new home design ideas. You should also get a Facebook and an Instagram account.
You will need to get yourself at the top of the Google search results. To do so, not only will you need a strong Instagram profile, but a well-developed website as well.
Developing a functional, easily navigated website is going to need a professional developer. This brings us to the next step.
You can give out flyers on crowded streets and in malls, post videos on YouTube and other popular streaming platforms, start blogging and give out referrals.
Another good marketing tool is starting a podcast, talking about your business, your services, and the benefits of hiring your company.
Any type of advertisement that will get the public attention can be helpful as long as it is carefully planned and well thought through.
12. Build A Team
There are several professionals you will need on your side. You may be a professional interior designer yourself to start a home staging company in the first place, however, having several sets of eyes and skills is never bad.
As your business grows the work will get more and more overwhelming, so you will need a strong team of educated professionals on your side.
As your business grows, you can hire people to complete simple tasks and help around. The more you develop, the more help you are going to need.
Conclusion
By following the steps above, you will be able to successfully launch a home staging business. Your company will thrive if you take every detail under consideration and work with an open mind.
