I'm Low budget, un-accredited, inexperienced, pricey?, oh and ethnic! What could be the problem?

There are a lot of comments, and I haven't read them all.. so forgive me if I repeat something someone else said already.... the question isn't why aren't you getting business from your website, but what are you personally doing to get traffic to your website and YOU?  In my opinion, while a good website is a must, particularly in a business that is so visual, you must be out there pounding the pavement so to speak.  I've written many many blogs about this.  If you aren't getting business it is because you are waiting for the business to come to you.  Few businesses that have this philosophy actually suceed.  If you want to work, you must work to get the jobs!  If you want to suceed you must pick up the phone and start making appts at agencies or talking directly to agents.... it's called prospecting. 

If you have questions, I'm always happy to answer direct emails....

Shawn, I don't know what I can add to all this great advice.  The "I am black , I am a man & whatever" just doesn't do it for me - so what.  There are people of all  ethnic groups on here and of both sexes ( there still are only 2 of those right?).  Just get on with it -  staging is a hard business, there is all the education and the  getting the word out & still nothing happening. 

It takes time and patience, hard work and yes, some money.  You will learn more on AR that anywhere else I can think of and get great answers.

What you are experiencing is what a lot of us are   - so welcome to our world.

Shawn..it looks as though many people have given you such credible advice....

listen to Lenn about the SEO----it is SO important to understand this.

In the beginning..I felt the same way. It takes time to build relationships with Agents that you respect and "click" with.

I remember it was about this time last year,  I was feeling very frustrated and was waiting for "something to fall onto my lap".

It's not going to happen. Keep pursuing. Get the word out. A very good friend of mine, who was an incredibly hard working and successful stockbroker said to me." never-ending cold calling"....at least until your reputation gets out there!

good luck!

Julia

Shawn - you are going through phase one of being a business owner.  Get used to it.  All those excuses you listed are just that....excuses.  Give customers/realtors a reason to call you.  Besides building a website, what else have you done?  You can't just put up a website and expect the calls to come in, if it were that simple none of us would be blogging. Have you beat the pavement yet?  Done cold calls, let realtors know your there? Have you done email lists, dropped of brochures and business cards?  have you offered free consultations?

You need to invest in a better website package.  Yours seems to be hosted by some advertising site, which for me would seem to lack credibility.  Each time I click something, I see ads in the background.  That would not give me a great sense of comfort.

Your pics are good, but the quality isn't great on your website. The other issue is one you already mentioned...you dont have much experience so that is evident with your site. Why would you command a hih price if you have little experience to show you deserve it?  How many homes have you sold?  Why would I pay you a high price to stage my home?  I am just playing devils advocate here.  Initially you may want to employ a different strategy to penetrate your target market.  With a very small portfolio and few sold homes behind you, it might be hard commanding top dollar.

There is a lot of good advice here on AR though so keep checking in.

That vFlyer thingy on your profile is great though.  Incorporate that into your website. 

And by the way, my website aint the greatest, BUT when clients go to it, I get good feedback.  They love it and all the pics. I personally think it could use a lot of help!

And staging naked is fine...being an ASP has done nothing for me and I have no intentions of renewing.  Folks are more interested to hear about my M.S. and MBA than my ASP.

I agree on the initials being unnecessary.  I have a designation but it's not grammatically correct and I feel an idiot using it.  So I don't.

I started my business with one realtor... and our results sold me to the rest of her office.  Some of our agencies do a pricing review for each other at the very beginning of the process. The listing agent finds this very useful when explaining pricing to the seller, I suppose.  The result is that they see the place at its worst. Then on the Open House day... "is this the same place?  Wow!  How did you do it? etc."

I've done promotions of a free consultation (in v. slow months) and that has yielded great results - referrals, staging a vacant and lots of good will.

Among all the other things you're being told to do, I would recommend spending a couple of Sundays in the trenches with the realtors...at the open houses.  Especially the ones that have been on a while.  Those folks are t-i-r-e-d and fed up.  No-one's coming to see them anymore and they got tons of time to talk to you.  If you think you can help them, do it, while you're there... as a Stage/Pay It Forward investment.  If you know they're sitting on a dog, commiserate and tell them to call you when they're in the mood for some serious succe$$.

Then keep in touch, via email with jokes and helpful tips, all the while reminding them that when they've got a "go-er" to call you so that you two can fly together!

 Food for thought, wh?

Hi Shawn,

        I have a CD that's helped me in all areas and endeavors in my life, and I think it will help you as well. It's called Goal Setting and you can find it online under "Potentials Unlimited". If you listen to it while going to sleep, you'll get results within 30 days!! It got me to the World Trials...pre-qualifier for the 1992 Olympics in Judo, as well as writing 2million in business at my gym. It talks you thru self-hypnosis and then has you visualize whatever your goal is.  Give it a try!!! There's also another one you listen to when first waking up. It's called the Seven Chakra Meditation. It makes you feel energetic and very positive...RADIANT, in fact, throughout the day! You'll see an improvement immediately.  When your energy is positive, it's like a magnet and you'll attract all kinds of GREAT things!!!

 I'm anxious to hear your feedback!

                                                   Kim Carranza

Hi Shawn! A few thoughts for you... I am a new agent and completely understand the challenge of low budget!! Some tips I thought of:

1.Vistaprint has a promotion for FREE brochures, postcards, etc. all you pay is shipping and you can choose from all kinds of designs and customize it with your information. I will forward a copy of an email I got with all of their current promotions. :) If you have Publisher, you could make some great brochures to take to hand out at Real Estate offices. If you don't have it, you can download the free 60 day trial to get you started! That is exactly what I did, now I have some closings coming up and I will be able to buy the program for future use.

2. Take doughnuts, cookies, etc. (something cheap, since you have a small budget) to MANY real estate offices and ask the broker if you can have a couple of minutes to meet with the agents to present your business and services to them. I would offer free assistance to a select few, maybe focus on some homes that have been on the market a while that staging could make all of the difference in getting a sale or not. Staging for some open houses would be great too. Anything to get your name out there!  The more offices you visit, the more likely you will be to get some business. Internet is good, but there is NOTHING like meeting someone face to face and see a live presentation of their work. That will give you more of an opportunity to connect with some of the agents. I remind myself daily as I work knowing that I am not always going to get paid from every client I work with, what I reap is what I will sow. The more I give, the more I will get in return.

3. I don't see your gender or ethnic background as being a factor to me. I would be most interested in seeing examples of your work and getting to know your character.

4. Acronyms after your name has no reflection of talent and skill. The proof is in the work you produce! If your price is competitive with others, stick to it... people know they get what they pay for!~

Wish you the best of luck!

Melissa

Find an agent that believes in you.  Stage a home TO THE MAX..... and invite every Realtor that you have talked to and show them your stuff.  Make a decision as to the purpose of your website... info or direct marketing of you and your product.  Mine is strictly informational.  I do have prices for Reports but that is it.  I base 99% of my marketing and business on referrals.  Referrals come from people who know your work.  Call up those other Stagers that are busy and offer your time.  Nothing trains you like hands on experience and you need to have lots of pictures, knowledge, and experience under your belt in order to be confident with who you are and what you have to offer.

You can do this.  It does take time......but you can do it!

Shawn,

My experience has been that word of mouth is the best marketing, but that means constantly going the extra mile for your Clients. Complacency is not allowed. Talent and enthusiasm are what keeps the Clients coming back!

Shawn, What you are experiencing is what most of us did. You studied,planned, started your web site and now you are waiting for the business.....

Well you have to get out there and hit the pavement- go to every Real Estate Agencies to try to give presentations, talk to everyone you can about home staging and your business, blog-blog-blog, market-market-market and work on SEO on your web site. I had zero replies to my other web site so other stagers told me the same thing "work on your web site" I did and now I am busy in fact my problem is finding time to write a blog. So be prepared you will  spend all your time on building your business and staging for clients but hopefully you will succeed at both. Good Luck!

The problem is just like all of us have "You're a What?? What's a home stager?"

Leslie

i think most of these things you mentioned don't really matter. it doesn't if you are black or yellow or green or huge marketing budgets or not. i am an asian immigrant and 26. you would think that would deter me. sometimes people do mind that i am young. or i am a woman. or i am an immigrant. but ultimately my work speaks for itself.

ultimately it's your work, which is not represented at all on your website. i would recommend removing the dark background. it makes it difficult to read and makes your photos look darker. also work on your images. add more of your work and make sure you have proper lighting of the photos. if you haven't done that many jobs, do your own house and put those photos up. all of your photos look too dark. at last, look at other people's websites and see how they do it. craig's list should help you to get the word out there but once you get them on your website, it's your job to get them stay and browse through your site. if your site doesn't offer anything interesting or worth seeing other than 3 sets of photos. you won't have any chance comparing to someone who has 50 sets of well-lit photos on their sites. additionally, i personally choose to have my designations behind my name to add credibility. but many stagers strip those once they become well-established. but my point is, hey, i paid good money for those letters and i have no problems using them. the other thing is to really show your personality through your site. that's going to help making connections with your readers. blogging is a great tool for that.

hope this helps,

cindy 

Shawn,

The low budget part you'll have to work out.  Concentrate on online advertising, like you are right here.  Next, make sure that you get plenty of "before" shots, as well as the "after" shots.  

But, since you are a "And I'm a Black male stager, an absolute oddity it seems in the profession of home staging...." use that to your advantage.  It is almost a calling card for you.  You are not just another black, male stager... you are the black, male stager.  It is a point of differentiation. 

When I first joined my office, I was the guy.  ok, it was me and the broker.  But, I was the only actively selling guy in the office.  I told people that if they forget my name, I was the guy in the office.