With our company having 41 actively staged vacant properties I've been asked a lot about how we do it. I was having lunch with one of my clients last week - who is a top producer in the largest company here locally - and we were discussing this. She has a friend who is in the RE business who is having a tough time making ends meet. One of the commonalities we have found is that while we are asked all the time about what we do, rarely does anyone actually do it who asks! This seems crazy to me.
Why do you ask if you don't want to know? Do you really think it is just karma, luck, or the Gods are just smiling on us that day? No, it is hard work, a consistent attitude & worth ethic.
Years ago I used to own a craft business. It was a great business! I was in some of Hawaii's best tourist and craft boutiques. I had my wares in the Governor's mansion, was nationally published and had a great following. Before the economy really turned in Hawaii, I sold out at nearly every show. Still, once in a while, I would overhear someone shopping say to a friend, "I can make that." One of my friends actually had heard it so many times she made a sign that said, "Sure you CAN make it, but WILL you?" Isn't this true of the work we do now?
How many times have you been to a great seminar, read a great inspirational book, stumbled across a really informative blog or heard a top producer in your business lay all their secrets on the table? Now, if you are not working as much as you like let me ask you one quesiton..... Are you doing what they told you to do?
Again, if you answered that you don't have as much business as you would like, I bet your answer is either, "No" or "Well, I'm doing some of it." Maybe your answer is even, "Well, I am doing this, but I kind of changed it a bit to fit me better." Uh huh... and is it working for you?
Over the past year I've told everyone in AR how I run my business, what my secrets are, what makes me successful and how I market my business - not with generalities, but down right specifics. When I read Stage it forward, The Art of Marketing You, Real World for Newbies, and countless other communities, I see other stagers and agents giving sage advice. So, now I ask.... if you want to be successful, if you want more business than you have right now....Why aren't you doing it?
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. She now operates as the CEO of First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign as well as an instructor for Staging And Resign and regularly speaks at the StagerList Expos and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.822.2622 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
If you would like Marro's team to provide information on staging a property in the state of South Carolina, or the Greater Charleston Area, please visit www.WeStageSC.com, email marro.melissa@gmail.com or call 843.822.2622.
Good tips, thank you for sharing
Hi Melissa,
Isn't it amazing how much luckier you are the more creative and consistent you work?
Hi Melissa,
That comment above is mine. My computer short - circuited and left my name out!
Hi Melissa...great advise and so true.
Melissa, last year I did it all, everything I was told to do and I doubled my business. All those "tips and tricks' work, as long as you DO them! Good post!
Great post.
Yes, I did it all, and it pays off.
Hard work usually does.
A great motivational line for anyone who has a business...I'll need to keep repeating it to myself to get me going!
"Do as you have always done...and you will get exactly what you have always gotten."
You always hear, in new business start-up, to take some time to grow your business every day. That's nice. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, and maybe one day you might get out of the red. What happens if you spend 8 hours a day for two weeks? Or a month?
What if you go nuts and hand your business card to everyone you meet, get out there and meet some realtors at the fifty jillion open houses that are going to be happening tomorrow due to the three day weekend?
What if you quit complaining about how slow your business seems to be growing, that your trainer made it sound so easy but it's not, and that the market is just slow right now? What if you chose to make the most of the next 30 days by doing every possible thing you've ever heard to market your business?
The first two or three encounters will be wierd, awkward even. But after that, telling people about your business just rolls off your tongue, and you'll learn that everyone wants to know more! Staging is intriguing. It's all over t.v. Use the momentum generated by all this energy and funnel it into your marketing, your interactions, and the way you think about who you are and what it is you are really doing.
"I help home sellers secure the maximum equity from the sale of their home."
I help Realtors make their customers happier and in a shorter period of time using the proven techniques of staging."
"I help buyers experience the realization that they have finally come home."
It's fun! It makes you feel good! It's better than tequila!
And Melissa, you are so right. The answers are right under our noses, by successful stagers like yourself and many others here on AR.
We have to do more than read the words and nod our heads. We have to DO something. No one who says they've "done everything but it's just not working" is being honest with themselves. Does every Realtor in town know you by name? Do they all have your brochures and/or business cards? Have they all seen your portfolio?
When you can say yes to those three questions, and you still have no business, then you can sit down and blog about how crappy business is, and how disheartening it is that no one is calling you. You don't get comfortable marketing yourself in front of a computer screen. You have to have some face-time with a Realtor. Then you Lather, rinse, and REPEAT!
~Michelle
It has always been true in the real estate industry that those who sit in the office talking about how the 20% who are doing the business are doing it or being critical of it are in this same category as you are speaking of here. It is amazing that they spend so much energy talking about doing and not doing...but it'll always be job security for the 20% of us. Carry on Melissa and knock it out of the park. Good weekend to you. With admiration
Melissa, great post! Work ethic is a very important factor to me as well as having the proper attitude. You have to stay positive even when things are not going the way you expect. And you should work every job like it is a million dollar job, so that you build a solid reputation. Also, you definitely have to constantly market and get your self out there. You have to work your business in order to see rewards!
Michelle - thanks for posting those quotes. I think they are way more interesting than just the "I help homeowners get their homes prepared for sale". I think I will use one of your lines the next time some one asks.
I think some people make their jobs look so easy and effortless so therefore to outsiders it looks like it is easy to do. Talented people - professional athletes to movie stars, and great home stagers - make it look effortless.
No one realizes all the hard work, hard knocks, creativity, and education that goes into making it look effortless and easy.
You're exactly right - I shouldn't be worried about giving away my "secrets" because most poeple WON'T do what I suggest. Thank you for your posts on this subject.
Melissa, once again you have proven why you are successful...you have earned it. I know the things I should be doing that I am not. It really isn't a mystery. If you want it bad enough, you need to step out of the comfort zone and push forward. Thanks for taking the time out of your very busy life to inspire and encourage the rest of us.
oops, that was me, not logged in...sorry.