Over the last two posts – how to price your home staging services Part I and Part II – we have been talking pricing strategies and how to make good money in the home staging business. Here, we will look at how having a team (or just an assistant) can affect your pay… in a good way!
Think of the situation this way;-
If a job would take you 5 hours on your own, and only 4 hours with an assistant, you would be able to take home more for your day.
Sound crazy? Me too – I’ve had to look at this a number of ways!
Assume you are charging $95/hour.
Quoted price to client: $475 [$95 x 5]
$475 – $40 [Cost of assistant is $0 x 4 hrs) = $435.
Now, divide that 4435 b y 4 and you’ll see you’re earning MORE than your hourly rate – you’re getting $108.75
Nice job!! You are now able to expand your day to include 2 assignments perhaps instead of just one.
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What would happen if you had a team member and assistant? This job will now very likely have been reduced to 3 hours actual work. As we teach our home staging training students, let’s look at the numbers again:
Quoted cost to client: $475
Cost of Assistant: $10/hr x 3 hrs = 30
Cost of team member: $20/hr x 3 hrs = $60
$475 – $30 – $60 = $385/3 hrs actual work = $128 your hourly pay
Getting the hang of this?
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Now imagine that you are an established company, and that you can send different teams out to do different jobs on their own, with only limited oversight. Take a look at how this works:-
Quoted cost to client: $475
Same as above but with a team lead, a team member and assistant? This job reduced to 3 hours actual work.
Cost of Assistant: $10/hr x 3 hrs = 30 Cost of team member:
$20/hr x 3 hrs = $60
Cost of team lead: $50/hr x 3 hrs = $150
$475 – $30 – $60 – $150 = $235 – YOUR PROFIT! And likely you never left your desk. Or better, you’re out doing consultations and estimates continuing to build the company.
As you can see, you want to get to a team set-up as soon as you can, because then you are leveraging your time. A magical notion.
For these and other great home staging techniques, please check out our home staging training packages.
Sarah says
I am currently a lead designer at a staging company out of Seattle. The company is pretty small but growing. We have the owner, the manager/senior designer, 2 lead designers (including myself), 2 assistants and 4 movers. I feel I am being underpaid for my position. I make a salary of $2,900 a month before taxes. I have been with the company for 2.5 years. I work 35 to 40+ hours a week and don’t get paid overtime. I would like your expertise. What is the average pay for a lead staging designer? Am I being underpaid? Thank you