Are You Ready For A New Creative Career?
In this post you're going to learn how to become a successful Home Stager in 2025, even if you have no startup funds, no experience, and no network!
I'll be teaching you the exact method I used to launch my staging career in 2016, when I went from a burnt-out insurance employee to the owner of a thriving Home Staging business in a few short months, and best of all I started with just $99!
WHAT WE'LL COVER:
- How to figure out if Home Staging is a good fit for you and your life
- Characteristics of successful Home Stagers
- How much money you can make as a Home Stager
- What you need to get started
- Your first 3 steps in starting your staging career
So let's get started! Here's how to become a Home Stager in 2025 - and spoiler alert, you don't need a degree or any certification to begin!
Is Home Staging a Good Fit For You?
Before you dive into any new career you should be fairly confident that it's a good fit for you, your life, and your dreams.
Staging is a very multi-faceted career simply because it usually requires becoming an entrepreneur. Many people flinch away from small business ownership because they feel that it's less secure than working for a big company, but I've always viewed it the other way around. When you work for someone else, their company could collapse, they could lay you off or fire you, they could move, they could reorganize and ask YOU to move...anything can happen!
But when you work for yourself, YOU are in the driver's seat. And if you have the guts to build something solid, then nobody can take it away from you. Not to mention all the skills you learn as a small business owner! Even if your business fails, you'll have acquired countless hard and soft skills that will make you even more employable in the future. That's why I see it as a win-win!
It can also fit into so many different kinds of lives, and so many different people have found success with staging!
So if you're on the fence and you're not sure that staging is the right career for you, I created a quiz to help you figure it out.
Take the quiz to see if Staging is a good path for you and your future, then come back here to learn your next steps:
Characteristics of Successful Home Stagers
Home Stagers are an eclectic bunch.
I know of lawyers, stay-at-home-moms, writers, nurses, teachers, Realtors, and so many more types of people who have launched successful careers in home staging using the exact methods I go over in this post. You don't need to be a super-aesthetic blonde with a perfect house and a degree in design to find success and fulfillment in this career!
However there is a list of characteristics that are pretty key, so let's list a few and why they're important:
- Determination & Grit - You have to be a self-starter and have an unwillingness to give up in order to succeed as a small business owner. If you're someone who can power-through tough times, staging might be perfect for you.
- An Eye for Design - You can definitely grow your design muscle, but if you're someone who finds design overwhelming, unnecessary, or boring, then you may want to find another career choice. However, if you love TJ Maxx and your friends and family are always telling you what great taste you have, you'll do great in this career! You don't need to be a genius, you just need a natural ability and affinity for making things look great.
- People Skills - Don't get me wrong, I'm a card-carrying introvert and still I've found success as a stager, but if you can't turn it on when necessary and have no idea how to talk to people, you may want to develop that skill before diving into entrepreneurship. But don't sell yourself short just because you're a little shy, lots of people find ways to make it work!
- Organizational Skills - Being a small business owner means you wear ALL the hats, from admin, to finances, to sales, and on and on. If you can't keep it all straight and find ways to stay on top of things, you'll struggle from day one. But if you have reasonable organizational skills and a willingness to acquire more, then you'll be in good shape!
- Resilience - In order to succeed in small business, you have to get used to hearing the word 'no' without giving up. Having a thick skin is helpful, but ultimately it comes down to a refusal to give up or give in, which brings me back around to determination. That's why it's listed as number one - it can help you overcome all kinds of other challenges! I'm a pretty sensitive person but I've built up a tolerance for rejection and criticism over the years that has been a huge key to my success.
- Eagerness to Learn - Did I mention you'll be wearing allllll the hats? Well, that also comes with constant research, experimentation, and trial-and-error. You'll always be finding one more thing to learn, so if that doesn't sound like a fun challenge, then you may want to mosey along, because you'll be a student every single day as you build up your business and your skills.
How Much Money Can You Make As A Stager?
So many people ask this question and are frustrated with the answer, because it really truly is different for every single stager. Every business is different, every business owner is different, every city is different...there are so many factors that go into it.
But ultimately, the sky's the limit!
That being said, I'm going to do my best to give you a realistic idea of what you can expect to make.
According to Google's AI, Home Stagers in the United States can earn a median total pay of $69,535 per year, with an average salary of $62,483. But keep in mind, that's MEDIAN. There are stagers in bigger cities or who have built up big companies and make more like $80,500 or more!
But the most important thing isn't the annual salary - it's the hourly wage. If you want to work full-time, then the above numbers are relevant. But if you're looking for a healthy side-hustle or a part-time job you can do while the kids are in school, then what matters is how much you can make in that time!
So for example, if you offer 2-hour staging consultations at $300 and you do just four per week, you're already looking at a $62,400 annual salary minus expenses, which are very minimal for consulting. (We're talking simply the cost of a laptop or phone, business cards, a website, and business licensure.)
Finally, it's all about your hustle. Inevitably it comes down to YOU. If you're willing to keep going and MAKE it work, then you will find a way. Ultimately you'll get out what you put in.
However, if you're going to make excuses when it gets hard and give up if without putting in the work to grow your reputation, then you'll make a much lower amount.
I've seen stagers with the same training and background who walk completely different paths. One will do an ego-free full-court press and their business will boom from the beginning, while another will make excuse after excuse, complain about the unfairness of their situation, and never truly get off the ground.
So the moral of the story is that if you're willing to do the work, you can make a very healthy income as a stager...you just have to truly want it, and refuse to give up.
What Do You Need To Get Started?
In order to launch your staging business. you'll need:
- The time to put into training, building your business, and sales (you can start part-time though, so don't quit your day job yet!)
- A couple hundred bucks to invest in training/education, business cards, and business licensure
- Insane amounts of determination and drive (If it was easy, everyone would do it!)
"But don't I need thousands of dollars to buy inventory?"
If you want to start right away with Vacant Staging, then yes you'll need some money to invest in your initial inventory.
However I've developed a system to start your staging business that relies on consulting first, and helps you build your inventory over time.
You can of course start right away by purchasing the furniture & décor you need if you have the funds (click here to access my Amazon shopping lists for new stagers), or you can learn how to do it bit by bit in my crazy-affordable staging course for beginners, Stager Starter! This is the method I used - in fact I only had $99 to my name when I started my business, and I've taught stagers all over the world how to pull it off.
Your First 3 Steps in Starting Your Staging Career
There are thousands of ways to go about launching your business, but here are my top three first steps that I've seen work for hundreds of stagers all over the world:
STEP ONE: LEARN YOUR CRAFT
Get Some Training from someone you trust.
Now there are lots of staging courses to choose from, but when I started my staging career I had one hell of a time finding a course that had training that was relevant to my small budget or lower-income area. In fact, I invested in one industry-approved course that cost over $1200 and left me just as lost and confused as before!
That's why I created my own course for new stagers, and priced it WAYYYYYY below all the other courses. (If that seems a little shady or too good to be true, listen to this podcast episode about why the staging industry's approved courses are not my cup of tea and why I created my own course.)
STEP TWO: GET YOUR BUSINESS IN ORDER
Getting the business set up is the next step in your journey, but it's so easy for this step to become a distraction rather than a stepping stone toward success. You don't need to have every single thing figured out in order to start putting yourself out there.
In fact, all you really need is a business license, a Facebook Page (Or Instagram, but Realtors spend a ton of time on Facebook and we've found it to be the most valuable for us), some cute business cards (Canva will be your best friend!), some photos of yourself (you can DIY this if you don't have the budget to hire a photographer - just be sure to look up some tips on getting great shots), and some before & after pics of your work!
Ok this is the point when lots of people freak out because how do you get pics of your work before anyone will hire you!?!
But here's the key - it doesn't have to be a paid job. You can style or stage your own home, a parent's living room, a friend's bedroom, or absolutely any space you can get your hands on. You can even style little vignettes (groupings) of accessories and take close-ups for your portfolio - it doesn't have to be a whole house, or even a whole room!
Before & Afters will be the single most valuable tool in your sales & marketing tool kit. Take as many as you can, and post them on your FB page. (Be sure to also feature these on your website which you'll need eventually - I recommend Pixieset which is what I used to create this Blog. Click here for $20 off your first month!)
STEP THREE: GET THE WORD OUT!
Now it's time to tell the world about your business! This is where most people get stuck, because they think that posting on social media and cold-calling 3-5 Realtors should be enough, and when their phone doesn't start immediately ringing, they give up. But if you have the grit & determination to overcome this first big hurdle, then you'll reap the rewards that others gave up on!
Trust me - it's SO worth the effort. What you'll can build can be incredible if you put your mind to it, but what you'll learn about yourself along the way will be even more valuable than you can ever imagine.
It can be tough to get your head around the best way to do this, so I created a ridiculously valuable free resource to walk you through the exact steps I used to go from a nobody to the most trusted stager in my region!
BONUS RESOURCES
Feeling super motivated to create some momentum?
I've created a lot of great resources over the years, including my Instagram & TikTok accounts where I regularly post advice and tips for new stagers, along with a web page packed with more resources like downloadables, a contract template, a la carte mentorship calls, more podcast episodes, shopping lists for newbies, and more.
Be sure to bookmark it so you can always find your way back in case you need more help, encouragement, or tools that will help you succeed as a new stager in 2025!
You CAN do this.
All it takes is a refusal to quit, and the right advice to follow along the way. And while you can't trust just anyone to offer it, I hope you'll trust me to steer you toward a clearer path than I walked...because I want nothing more than for you to create a life and career you love.
I hope this post was exactly what you needed to light a fire under you so that this year you can find the kind of freedom and pride that I did since opening my staging business.
Much Love & Happy New Year,
- Amy 😊
