Home Staging Blog by Jennie Norris

Two of our four children are involved in swim team this season and I am off to a swim meet today . . . but I was thinking about parallels between swimming and our Staging businesses. . . .

I know many Stagers are struggling to get business and many have closed their doors recently due to the economy and the demise of the real estate market.  I think a lot of these people did not have a long term business plan because anyone that has been in business knows that a market for any product or service is not going to remain "hot" indefinitely.  There will be ups and downs.  And what we are experiencing is just part of the normal business cycle even though most out there as Stagers are experiencing it for the first time.

But with so many avenues of income for us as Stagers I really have to believe that when the going got tough, these people (some of them) forgot the basic life preserver for us in business: Marketing. 

We can never escape the importance of staying out in the hunt, of networking for business, and using what we have done to help us get more.  There are many creative ways to market from the internet to materials, etc. - but NOTHING is as effective as the hole in the front of your face - your MOUTH.  Whether it's on the phone or in person YOU talking about YOU is the best form of marketing.  Relationship building comes from one-on-one conversations.

On a swim team (our business) a swimmer on a team has to learn many different types of strokes - breast, back, butterfly, and freestyle in order to compete.  Even if they are not as good at one over the other, they are put in during the season to compete - and this helps them improve. 

• Just like a swimmer, a good Stager has more than just one type of service to offer a potential client.

Before they ever swim in a meet, the swimmers have to first demonstrate their abilities by trying out and being judged.

• This is like our proposals.  We have to prove our ability to serve the client and we may even be compared to others in our field.

Then they have to practice, practice, practice - every day for an hour just swimming laps and practicing their turns.  Practice makes perfect.

• This is like our jobs we do - that may be the same sort of jobs but each time we go out we gain more skills, we get faster, we get more ideas, we get better at what we do in Staging.

Then the Swim Meet comes - and the swimmer is assigned to a group and told what they will be competing in that day.  They do their best and hope to get a ribbon for placing in the top 5.

• This is like our Staging work - we hope that we do a good job and when recognition comes, it's like the icing on the cake.

But what would happen if the swimmer got a cramp or just gave up mid-swim and just treaded water in the lane?  They would eventually tire to the point where they may not be able to swim anymore.  They might even sink out of exhaustion from expending all that energy going nowhere.  Now, imagine this swimmer in a large ocean.  Now what would happen?  Not a pretty thought and yet that is what is happening to many Stagers.

• If we stop moving forward and just stop our progress then we are in essence moving backward, or just "treading water."  If we are just hoping to "get by" until the market turns good again, we are essentially expending energy and using up our resources and not doing anything.  We are not moving ahead.  That means we are being left behind as our business sinks and our morale is lost.

When we expect a life preserver to be thrown to us - what do you want yours to say?  Get a "real" job?  Give up? or Get out and MARKET!  I hope you will do what it takes now to preserve your business so that you can be in this for the long term.