It has been too long since I have had the chance to update my home staging friends on where business is going since I started up my new St Augustine home staging company, Rave ReViews Home Staging. It’s funny when you start a new company, things tend to start off slow and at some point, almost magically they skyrocket upward.
Recently this has been our experience. In the last week, we’ve closed a new contract with a local builder, the first of many to come. They have several new communities without models and this is the beginning of a phenomenal relationship.
I’ve also been networking like crazy, joining our local BNI Chapter, the Northeast Florida Builders Association, and the Sales and Marketing Council (of NEFBA). This has led to some fantastic relationships, including another builder’s relationship, a meeting with a local home flipper, and other various home staging consultations.
Attending local RESA meetings, I’ve also taken time to network with two of my biggest competitors, who happen to have very different business models. This led to a great referral to yet another builder that is currently building in 5 communities around Jacksonville. This goes to show that you should embrace your competition and find out how you can work together, not fear each other.
And finally, I hired a business coach. While I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to coach many home stagers over the years, I’ve never personally hired a coach. It has been on my list of things that I wanted to do. I’ve never known anyone to hire, however. I met my new one through my BNI Chapter. What I’ve learned about myself has been interesting. I’m also rather enjoying my homework assignments (and shhh.. don’t tell him, but it just might be working).
So, here was my week this week…
- Monday – Met with Flipper, networking function, meeting with Matthew Finlason to begin scheduling fall and spring Advanced Staging classes and design some new ones.
- Tuesday – My first listing appointment (yay! I got it, but we have to prepare the property first.)
- Wednesday – Showed property to customer, Closed builder contract, vacant staging quote
- Thursday – BNI meeting, 2 additional networking meetings, Business coaching session, Earned my Certified Military Housing Specialist designation
- Friday – Sales training session, networking, preview builder project, follow up on additional builder project
- Saturday – home staging consultation
- Sunday – (tomorrow) vacant staging quote, home staging consultation
By the way, have I mentioned that I now have my real estate license?
Leave a Reply