August 13, 2008
Interview with Cindy Lin: The Current Staging Landscape
I’m wondering what your day is like?
My day to day is very different. It’s like snowflakes, no 2 days are alike. On days when I am doing installations, my call time starts at 7am to pull inventory, or the night before to pack everything up. With bigger jobs I tend to rent a box truck, which means it’s extra hours to pick up and return vehicle. Typically I spend 5-8 hours on job site with 1-2 assistants. That does NOT include prep time and clean up time after we return to warehouse.
On days when I don’t have installations, I have things range from appointments to visit home owners for consultations, meeting with potential vendors, meeting realtors, networking events, to admin work like invoicing, billing, writing, researching, working on expanding my business, marketing, continue education, cleaning inventory, cataloging inventory, moving furniture, shopping for new inventory, working on current trends, reading, LOTS of things to do.
I typically work 6-7 days a week, ranging from 6-12 hours per day.
And how you feel the market is doing?
Market is market, there will be hot times and cold times, busy times and slow times. It’s cyclical, just like any business. Like ice cream truck does better in summer than winter, or coats are more popular in winter. We have ups and downs as well in real estate. The market timing depends on where you are in the country. In San Francisco bay area, the market certainly has slowed down a little, but not dramatically slowed down as media portrayed. We have a very unique market in San Francisco bay area where supply is still lower than demand.
My business certainly has slowed down, but I think that largely has to do with me being distracted from moving into a much larger commercial space, developing products and launching new business ventures that compliments my current core staging business, as well as other travel engagements for work-related interests, such as speaking at the latest IAHSP Conference, which is a conference for stagers who completed ASP/ASPM training programs.
Do you see more visual merchandisers or interior designers in the industry?
I have observed that the few stagers who have been in this business a significant longer time (10 years +) started out as interior designers. There are other success stories with stagers who came from the visual merchandiser background, but that’s a much smaller population. I also have seen former set designers, lawyer, stay at home moms, bankers and all sorts of careers and backgrounds.
I myself came from a non profit world, then onto real estate as a buyer’s agent, then was trained in staging. From my observation, going to staging school is the growing trend. More and more % of stagers in the current market have graduated from a staging school at some point of their careers. I also have seen many interior designer transition or add staging as another services that they provide to cultivate a new stream of income for themselves.
What type of folks are successful in home staging?
Truly in this business, having a successful home staging business is NOT only about making the home look beautiful and inviting. And in ANY business, having a successful business is not just about the creative, fun and glamorous part of the business. It’s also about business training and how to sustain yourself in the long run. I see many stagers come and go. A lot of issues I see are:
a) don’t have financial support/planning
b) jump in too soon without research
c) has a rosy picture of staging business is an easy and low-overhead business
d) have no clue what they are doing: how to negotiate with clients, work with people, how to price their services properly, lack of direction and etc.
e) lack of business skills
Most people don’t realize that starting a business is easy but maintaining one is hard. It’s a significant investment of time, money and your lifestyle may be sacrificed along the way.
I have written many blogs on these subjects, feel free to browse through this Staged4more website. Also I recommend anyone who is interested in real estate or staging to become a member of Active Rain, it’s a FREE real estate community that I received many great advices when I started out as a newbie and still continue to receive many great advices now I am more seasoned.
:)
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