Home Stagers Dont Undervalue Your Services
Home Stagers Dont Undervalue Your Services
It makes me cringe when I hear figures as low as $31.45 per hour being touted as ‘great income’ for a home stager. That is an impossibly low rate for any independent professional to charge, but an expert home stager should actually be making at least double if not four or five times that amount.
Home sellers stand to profit anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 after employing the services of a home stager, so they are willing to pay a premium for that expertise. The cheapest stager in town will only attract clients who don't really value what a home stager does. After all, if you save a few hundred dollars on staging advice but you don't get the results you hoped for, what was the point?
The knowledge of an expert home stager is extremely valuable because of the effect it can have on how long a home takes to sell and its final selling price. A two hour home staging consultation should cost anywhere from $250-$800. After the initial consultation, a home stager can make at least $1,000 if the client wants the stager to complete the home staging project for them. This figure can go as high as $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the needs for that property, the home stager's expertise and where they live. Typically costs will be higher in major urban centers where house prices are also higher. If the home stager has to furnish and/or accessorize the home, that price can creep even higher.
Now back to why I object to anyone advertising $31.45 as a good income for a home stager. It completely devalues what we do and the difference our work makes to a client. Not only that, it misleads aspiring stagers into believing that this is a good income.
Even bumping that pay from $31.45 up to $40 per hour, if you do three two-hour staging consultation each week, that works out to $240 per week or roughly $960 per month. If you also do three “full-blown” staging projects each month which each take you five hours, you can make an additional $600. That’s an unimpressive $1,560 per month or about $18,700 per year.
Depending on where you live, that amount would classify you as part of the "working poor," and comes out to around what you'd make answering phones or asking "would you like fries with that?"
When you're self employed, you have lots to do that you don't get paid for. For example, talking to prospective customers, standing in line at the bank, doing your paperwork, etc. So when you are working on a client's behalf, you need to make sure you are well paid for it.
If you charge a rate of $300 per two-hour home staging consultation which is still at the lower end of the industry standard, those same three staging consultations a week will give you $900 per week or $3,600 per month. Those three “full-blown” staging projects per month will give you another $2,250 per month. That’s a total of $5,850 per month or $70,200 per year.
That’s $70,200 per year versus the $18,700 you would make earning $40 per hour.
If you want to grow a profitable home staging business rather than dabble in home staging as a hobby, you have to charge a fair rate for your services.
I can’t fathom a home stager charging anything close to $30 or even $40 per hour unless they are working full time for another company who will be reselling their services at the more appropriate rate. Advertising a home staging hourly rate of $31.45 does nothing but de-value the service. As a home stager, you’re operating a business. Can you possibly sustain (let alone grow) a successful business of any kind at such a low hourly rate? When you’re operating a service-based business, time is your product and we are all only given so much of that each day!
Home Stagers Dont Undervalue Your Services - To learn more about this author, visit Staging Diva's Website.
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Home staging is an extremely lucrative career if you know how to properly charge for your services.
It makes me cringe when I hear figures as low as $31.45 per hour being touted as ‘great income’ for a home stager. That is an impossibly low rate for any independent professional to charge, but an expert home stager should actually be making at least double if not four or five times that amount.
Home sellers stand to profit anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 after employing the services of a home stager, so they are willing to pay a premium for that expertise. The cheapest stager in town will only attract clients who don't really value what a home stager does. After all, if you save a few hundred dollars on staging advice but you don't get the results you hoped for, what was the point?
The knowledge of an expert home stager is extremely valuable because of the effect it can have on how long a home takes to sell and its final selling price. A two hour home staging consultation should cost anywhere from $250-$800. After the initial consultation, a home stager can make at least $1,000 if the client wants the stager to complete the home staging project for them. This figure can go as high as $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the needs for that property, the home stager's expertise and where they live. Typically costs will be higher in major urban centers where house prices are also higher. If the home stager has to furnish and/or accessorize the home, that price can creep even higher.
Now back to why I object to anyone advertising $31.45 as a good income for a home stager. It completely devalues what we do and the difference our work makes to a client. Not only that, it misleads aspiring stagers into believing that this is a good income.
Even bumping that pay from $31.45 up to $40 per hour, if you do three two-hour staging consultation each week, that works out to $240 per week or roughly $960 per month. If you also do three “full-blown” staging projects each month which each take you five hours, you can make an additional $600. That’s an unimpressive $1,560 per month or about $18,700 per year.
Depending on where you live, that amount would classify you as part of the "working poor," and comes out to around what you'd make answering phones or asking "would you like fries with that?"
When you're self employed, you have lots to do that you don't get paid for. For example, talking to prospective customers, standing in line at the bank, doing your paperwork, etc. So when you are working on a client's behalf, you need to make sure you are well paid for it.
If you charge a rate of $300 per two-hour home staging consultation which is still at the lower end of the industry standard, those same three staging consultations a week will give you $900 per week or $3,600 per month. Those three “full-blown” staging projects per month will give you another $2,250 per month. That’s a total of $5,850 per month or $70,200 per year.
That’s $70,200 per year versus the $18,700 you would make earning $40 per hour.
If you want to grow a profitable home staging business rather than dabble in home staging as a hobby, you have to charge a fair rate for your services.
I can’t fathom a home stager charging anything close to $30 or even $40 per hour unless they are working full time for another company who will be reselling their services at the more appropriate rate. Advertising a home staging hourly rate of $31.45 does nothing but de-value the service. As a home stager, you’re operating a business. Can you possibly sustain (let alone grow) a successful business of any kind at such a low hourly rate? When you’re operating a service-based business, time is your product and we are all only given so much of that each day!
Home Stagers Dont Undervalue Your Services - To learn more about this author, visit Staging Diva's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, 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 over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. 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 career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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