Posts Tagged ‘staged4more’

back to normal :) well, semi-normal

Monday, May 11th, 2009

I have been feeling pretty unbalanced and abnormal for the past couple weeks, mainly because of CSP’s Staging Convention in Toronto, San Mateo County’s Housing Expo as well as wrapping up the Sustainable Building Advisor class this past weekend.

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I am actually very happy to report that while in Toronto, we (Staged4more) actually won Green Bud Business of the Year award! In additions, CSP unveiled the eStager course that I authored, which is a technology 101 course for stagers of all backgrounds and denomiations (for more of my tech work, you can go to smallbizgurltalkstech.com). It was a very nice trip indeed and seeing old friends in the staging world.

Staged4more at SAMCAR's Housing Expo

Staged4more at SAMCAR's Housing Expo

We also participated in the San Mateo Housing Expo that SAMCAR (our realtor association) hosted. It was really nice to meet a lot of visitors and agents. Also got some real great questions in regards to our Live Green Live Smart green training, which is now approved by Califiornia DRE for 8 CEUs for Realtors.

The banner on the left is actually made completely out of recycled materials. The banner itself is printed on recycled soda bottles and the stand is made from recycled aluminum. (from EcoShowPiece who was great to work with)

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And YES! Finally finished up my Sustainable Building Advisor class! (Well, almost anyway. Exam in June) I really cannot believe 10 months passed so quickly. It felt bittersweet to finish up the class. It was a really robust and well-rounded program, although we could definitely do more work on social equity in green building, like affordable housing issues, etc. All and all it was a great green education. It definitely touched on a lot of the science behind green building. I appreciate while there were philosophical debates, but that was not the focus of the course. I personally feel there are just too much philosophical debates in the green world sometimes. It can get quite frustrating.

Now that these major milestones are achieved… back to our regular programming ;)

Staged4more Turns 3!!

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Y-A-Y. :)

Here are a few of our new updates & plan for 2009.

Come see me speak at Brook Furniture Los Angeles Home Stager Appreciation Event

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

I was very honored to be invited and got invited to speak. The most incredible thing is of course visiting seeing friends in the staging industry and meet new ones. :)

If you are coming to see me speak, PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS WORKSHEET:handout-los-angeles-stagers-appreciation-event

Brook Furniture is generously hosting a day of networking, learning and lunch for all Los Angeles Home Stagers. And the best part? Its FREE!

Who? All professional home stagers are invited

Where? Brook Furniture Distribution Center

18960 E. San Jose Ave.

City of Industry, CA 91748

When? Monday February 9, 2009, 10:00AM

The Agenda:

10:00 – 11:00 AM Networking and socializing

11:00 AM-12:00 Noon Presentation about SEO (search engine optimization) by Professional Stager Cindy Lin of Staged4more

12:00 – 1:00PM Lunch and presentation about adding custom window treatments to your offerings for additional income, presented by Ashley Whittenberger from The Interiority Complex. Lunch is generously provided by Brook Furniture.

1:00 – 2:00 PM Tour of the Brook Furniture Distribution Center. A behind the scenes look at their warehouse facility.

2:00 – 3:00 PM Presentation about Feng Shui and how it applies to home staging by Feng Shui Expert Sharon Ball

3:00 – 4:00 PM Additional networking and socializing

This event is free, but please RSVP so we can get an accurate head count. Here is a link to the Evite:

If you have any questions, you can email Michelle Minch at Michelle@MovingMountainsDesign.com or contact Connie Tebyani (805)553-9952 or Connie@PlatinumHomeStaging.com .

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Diary of a Stager

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Although I have moved Staged4more into its current location (3,600 square feet commercial building: see blog Angel Singing Moment!) for awhile now (umm like 6 months?), the warehouse still looks like a hot mess. (‘Tis the woe of a solo-preneur!)

Even though a lot of racks are up, I am still in the process of building more shelves to accommodate weird-shaping inventories like florals, tabletop accessories, etc. It feels like we are under construction every day! (And we actually are… Right now we are adding faucets in the front part of warehouse for a mini kitchen!) The kitchen cabinets you see are actually old kitchen cabinets (more…)

A New Year Gift For You (Free Download)

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Hello Staged4more community!

Thanks again for your amazing support in the past few years. I know I have been quiet on the blog lately, but with good reasons. Staged4more had received great press opportunities in 2008, such as staging for HGTV and awards (2008 Make Mine A Million competition winner in Micro category and Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Award). All these are very exciting. What is even more exciting is what I have in store for you in 2009! :)

*2 real estate marketing books will be published this year
*an eco-friendly real estate product line
*a home accessories product line
*new website (yes, we are growing out of this one!) that will have online shopping capabilities and more free useful content for you
*trainings in areas like green training, color designs, redesigns, etc.

As a token of appreciation for all your wonderful support since I founded Staged4more, here is a 2009-staged4more-real-estate-goals-calendar. You can print on any letter size paper of your choosing. All you need to do once you printed is cut them up and put them in a CD case for your desktop. (see photos below) I have also letterpressed these calendars and gave them out as gifts to clients, vendors and some of our Facebook fans. If you would like a letterpress copy, please email me directly at cindy (at) staged4more (dot) com. We have very few copies left.

Here are some photos:

HAPPY NEW YEAR! enjoy the calendars!

The Angels Singing Moment!

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Courtesy of Floating Imitations via Flickr

This week I totally had an out of body experience. It is one thing to see your company name on letterheads, but it is another to see it goes on the side of a building!

Originally I was quoted by a building signs company to pay $1200 for brand new building signs. Really? $1200? Thanks, no thanks. So I went to Loew’s and matched a bucket of the paint to the building color (It came out close but still slightly off since the sample was fairly dirty from years of dust and rain. But the funny thing is the paint doesn’t look matched with our neighbor on our left side, but matches the neighbor on the right side. So I guess it is sort of close!).

I also ordered stencil from an internet company that specializes in outdoor stencils. So yesterday I had two of our movers painted in the morning, then had them climbed onto the trellis to put the stencil up. I had them folded the stencil in half to determine the center line, eyeballed the middle roughly, then place the stencil onto the wall.

Scott was making sure the stencil will be hung evenly

To put the stencil up, peel off the backing so the sticky side of stencil is revealed. You want to make sure you have the letters on correctly, not backward. This is why you sometimes see vehicles with their advertising backward, because they didn’t pay attention when they applied the stencil. Once it’s on, you need to make sure all the air bubbles are out by using something like a ruler or spatula to smooth the stencil out.

Smoothing out the stencil Peeling off the front part of the stencil covering

Started to paint Finishing up painting!

Then it is ready for paint! Technically you should dab the paint lightly, because the paint can seep through under the stencial and not have a clean look. We thought we would be okay since we applied the stencil pretty carefully, so we layed out the paint pretty thick.

We left it to dry over night, and the next day I climbed up the trellis myself to peel of the stencil. It came out with little dots around the lettering (paint still seeped through under the stencil) but since the building sign was so far away, most people won’t notice anyway.

2 ladders & many deep breaths later!

It was challenging to climb up, I ended up using 2 ladders (I never was very sporty when I was growing up, let along climbing trees…). It was scary but thrilling.

All and all, I just still can’t believe now there is a building with our company name on it!!! WOOHOO! It was definitely an amazing feeling! It feels like that my small business has gone to the next level!

The second best part was that the whole thing cost $200, instead of $1200!

San Francisco Bay Area Home Staging Firm Owner Wins Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Award

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Sam's Club Logo

Sam’s Club® Champions Women Entrepreneurs to Celebrate Sam’s Club 25th Anniversary

Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Awards Announced in North Carolina. Click here to meet the entrepreneurs.

The Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Award winners were selected based on their business profiles, their commitment to community and their personal development. Awardees will receive one-year of paid professional business coaching, free access to Count Me In’s educational resources and seminars (valued at over $7,000.00), and a Sam’s Club Business Membership, made through a separate donation from Sam’s Club. The winners will also benefit from inclusion in the Count Me In organization’s community of like-minded women entrepreneurs who inspire and mentor each other.

“Count Me In is making a difference for women business owners and the communities where they live and work,” said Sharon Orlopp, senior vice president, People Division at Sam’s Club. “We applaud the CMI mission and believe this investment will further their efforts to support the economic independence, professional development and the success of women.”

From accountants to organic food distributors, handcrafters to bodywork therapists, skincare product producers to civil engineering consultants, the Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneurs represent a broad array of industries and professions across the country. San Francisco Bay Area, California-based Cindy Lin own and operate Staged4more Home Staging and Redesigns, a company that specializes in creating spaces that sell. Cindy Lin is not only a burgeoning business owner; she is also a leader in her community. She not only participates in her local community to help other small business owners through her organization effort of BizTechDay, a technology bootcamp that helps 500+ San Francisco bay area small business owners to turbo charge their businesses, she also actively participates in local woman business entrepreneurs community by taking leadership roles in organizations like pow.wow women’s network and SF Small Biz Women. Additionally, raising awareness of home staging industry is part of her company’s mission. In 2009, Lin plans to launch a real estate initiative that aims at reducing waste during real estate resale process. “It was amazing to win this award. It feels validating that I am doing something right.” said Lin.

About Sam’s Club®
Sam’s Club is a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., (NYSE:WMT). The first Sam’s Club opened its doors in Midwest City, Okla., in 1983. Today, Sam’s Club serves more than 47 million U.S. Members with locations nationwide and in Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Sam’s Club offers exceptional values on merchandise and services for business owners and consumers. Online merchandise and Club information is available at samsclub.com.

About the Wal-Mart Foundation
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and the Wal-Mart Foundation are proud to support the charitable causes that are important to customers and associates in their own neighborhoods. Through its philanthropic programs and partnerships, the Wal-Mart Foundation supports initiatives focused on enhancing opportunities in education, job skills training, sustainability and health. In 2007, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and the Wal-Mart Foundation gave $296 million to communities across the United States. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.

About Count Me In
Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence is the leading national not-for-profit provider of resources, business education and community support for women entrepreneurs seeking to grow micro businesses to million dollar enterprises. Count Me In launched the Make Mine a Million $ Business to inspire one million women entrepreneurs scale their businesses to a million dollars in revenue by 2010 by providing tools, skills and the support of a nation-wide community of peers.