There is a fascinating project underway, courtesy of Deluxe (yea, the check people), where 9 small businesses were selected to receive a marketing revamp, $5,000 marketing dollars, marketing consultant and some coaching from SCORE.
ProjectRev is a "vital read" for anyone intrigued by marketing... and of particular interest to home stagers. Why? Coz there's one in it!
Felicia Frazier is a creative soul, who was downsized out of Limited 2 and is now a home stager in Ohio. The biggest surprise about running her own business?
“That I actually had to go out and get the business!” Frazier laughed.
“And the hardest part of that is knowing where to go, determining who that key customer I need to target is. What I learned from Project Rev was that I needed to be going after an older market. I was focusing on late twenties and mid-thirties, and I needed to be targeting homeowners in their late forties and up, along with Realtors.”
This has consumed me this morning!
1. Yes, "asking for the business" is the hardest and least liked aspect of a stager's life.
2. We have all long been confused as to who the target customer is - the realtor or the home-owner. After all, the home-owner pays you, yet more often than not it is the realtor that gets you the work.
3. Then this aging statement -- 'I needed to be targeting homeowners in their late forties and up, along with Realtors.”
Do any of you agree with this?
I put it up on my Facebook page and Michael Fortuna, a man I think of immeasurable discernment, wrote
""IMHO: I get more hands-on business from 50-65, but more vacants from 30-50..."
WOW! Really? I never noticed or thought to look at it this way. My clients were always just folks who wanted to sell their home. They seemed to be all over the place. Looking back I can't think of a through line among them! Except that many became friends along the way.
I'd love to hear your opinions on this ~
Comments(20)