Branding vs Marketing

Branding: The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. ~ Small Business Encyclopedia

Marketing: The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. ~ American Marketing Association

In simple terms, your brand represents who you are, and marketing refers to the act of delivering your brand message. When I was first starting out, I didn't have much of a marketing budget, so instead I focused on branding my business. By making myself, and my business, a memorable brand, I generated tons of word-of-mouth referrals! From my cute pink consultation tool belt, to my letterhead, logo on my vehicle, website, marketing materials, and adding a touch of "pink" in everything that I did and wore, I not only provided great service to my clients, but I was easily remembered. When someone drove by my house and saw my company's sign on the lawn, they didn't write down the phone number or website to call me right away, but when they searched for my company online, they recognized my logo and my brand.

What does this mean to you and your business? Establishing, and promoting your brand will help you to stand out. The greater your brand recognition, the better your chances of being remembered when someone is looking for you. Remember that 97% of your clients are not looking for you, but when they are ready to find you, you’ll want to be sure that your company is top of mind.

When considering how you wish to brand yourself, and your company, you’ll first need to establish what your brand stands for:

• Who are you?
• What is your business?
• What do you stand for?
• How will you create your “brand” recognition?
• Does your brand have a story?

The foundation of your brand is your logo, everything else is simply a means to communicate your brand, including but not limited to:

• Website
• Promotional materials (business cards, flyers, postcards, brochures, lawn signs, etc.)
• Uniform
• Colour
• Phrase
• Policy

Enlist the services of a professional to design your logo – this is your company’s first impression, and you want to ensure that it’s a clear and positive one. Your logo is not only about the graphics, but also the colours and the font that you select. Choose your colours carefully – remember that these colours will then be used in all future branding. Take into consideration the science behind the colour(s) that you choose. Next, decide whether or not your name will be a part of your logo, and consider what other elements you wish to see – it may be abstract or specific, depending on what you wish to portray.

In addition to your logo, a catchy tag line can also help to establish your brand. This would generally be printed with your logo, and essentially become your company’s mantra.

Ex: SLS Academy - Home Stager Training Redesigned for Tomorrow's Home Stagers

Branding extends to every aspect of your business, from how you answer your phones, to what you and your team wear, your e-mail signature – everything. Be consistent, and be memorable.

Want to learn more? We walk you through creating your own brand and marketing plan in our Business of Staging course - learn more by clicking here.

www.StyledListedSold.com

SLS Academy Announced as Award Finalist from Home Staging Association!

The Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) recently announced SLS Academy’s Client Care Package as a finalist for The RESA® Most Innovative Product or Service of the Year™. How exciting!

SLS Academy will be exhibiting at the 2017 RESA Convention in Las Vegas Nevada at the M Resort Jan 19-21, 2017, where the winners will be announced and presented with their prestigious awards. This annual convention is a huge industry event and a great opportunity to connect with home stagers from around the globe!

“We would like to thank everyone for their participation in the awards process, without the support of our membership we would not be able to recognize so may well deserving people in our industry. All of the finalists in all categories can be seen at www.HomeStagingIndustryAwards.com. All of the winners will be announced at RESACON2017 during the awards banquet January 19, 20, 21, 2017 at the M Resort in Las Vegas”, said Shell Brodnax, President/CEO Real Estate Staging Association. 

About The Real Estate Staging Association®
The Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) is the trade association for professional real estate stagers and redesigners For more information on the real estate staging and the convention visit www.RESAConvention.com.  For more information about the awards please visit www.HomeStagingIndustryAwards.com. For more information about real estate staging, or to find a professional stager or redesigner call 800-201-8687 and speak with Shell Brodnax, or visit the RESA® Web site at www.RealEstateStagingAssociation.com     


Learn more about this award-winning Client Care Package!

Inside the Client Care Package, you'll receive access to tips and checklists to use for your clients and you to create the ultimate consultation experience, while helping you to upsell your services.

All of the documents provided are in .doc format so you can edit them, and they're completely customizable with your logo and contact information.

Plus, there's an included tutorial on how to use them!

www.StyledListedSold.com

Use Your Bio to Promote the Star that You Are

Written by Fred Berns

Is your bio boosting or blocking you?

Is the personal profile on your website, social networking sites and in your marketing materials qualifying you for the kind of clients you want?  Or, is it disqualifying you?

Before you can sell your staging services, you have to sell yourself. That’s why your bio is your most important personal marketing tool.

Some Keys to a Killer Bio:

1/ “Only” (as in, “I’m the areas’ only home stager who…”) is your Million $$$ Bio Word.

2/ Other Bio Words that ROCK: First, Newest, Oldest (longest-established), Largest, Award-Winning

3/ Your staging skills don’t matter. What matters is how clients benefit from them.

4/ Don’t dwell on your “don’t’s.” Don’t fret about the experience, clients, degrees, certifications, and awards that you don’t have.

5/ Highlight, don’t hide your past. Explain how your current clients benefit from the skills you gained from past employment.

If your bio undersells and fails to differentiate you, it is handicapping rather than helping you. You can’t afford that. But you can afford this:

Register by Dec. 31, and I’ll create for you a Killer Bio for half the regular price. 

Your new bio will spell out your special-ness and position you as a uniquely-qualified, one-of-a-kind staging professional.

Register for your half price bio by contacting me at Fred@FredBerns.com, or 303-589-3013.

You can’t get good clients with a bad bio.

The promotional profile I can create for you will give you credit where credit is due, establish you as the “star” that you are, and help you take your staging business to the next level and beyond.

Fred Berns,  a keynote speaker at RESA’s 2017 home staging convention, is the only staging industry business coach and speaker who creates personal bios and other promotional materials for stagers worldwide. 

A Day in the Life of a Stager: How My Week Went “Kaboom” in a Matter of Hours, and I LOVED it!

Today I thought that I would tell you about my week (or at least my week so far, as it’s only Tuesday as I write this). Monday started like a typical day. In my morning meeting with my assistant we discussed our expectations of the week. The books were looking pretty light over the next few days (for home staging clients), with only a couple of bookings that day, and pretty much nothing the rest of the week. This is not surprising, since kids return to school in just a few weeks. This is something to keep in mind when you’re starting your home staging business – the real estate industry has peaks and valleys, and most regions are affected by these real estate “seasons”. In our home staging company, we always bump up our design availability for this time of year to help to compensate for the slower selling season and maintain a steady cash flow through to the fall market boom.

So here I am Tuesday (early) afternoon now, and reviewing our fully booked calendar, and wondering how we’re going to make it all work! In addition, there are likely still changes to be made before the week is done. So I have cancelled the plans that I had with a friend for Thursday night, and we’re all pulling up our boots and getting to work.

So what happened?

Well, one of my home stagers met with a client yesterday for a vacant home staging consultation. Though we don’t usually “hold” home staging dates until we have received proper confirmation (signed contract; down-payment; credit card authorization) from the client, we understood the urgency of this particular project, and their insistence that they would be moving forward with the home staging (even though they had no idea yet what it would cost), so we tentatively booked them in for Thursday when we booked their consultation appointment, with hope and a prayer that they would hold true to their word.

In the meantime, we received notice that another staged property had sold (yay) so we needed to arrange for destaging that now. Both projects require movers, and the destage is in a condo, which requires the scheduling of the elevator as well. While all of this is happening, my assistant speaks to a new agent that has heard wonderful things about our company (naturally), and needs a consultation, then staging for a client of his in one of the rural areas that we service.

So we think that we can prep the staging on wed, destage the condo on Thursday, finish the prep on Friday, and stage the large house on Monday (and Tuesday morning since it’s a large house). After a little arm-twisting, we secure the movers for this, but the condo management can’t get us the elevator until Tuesday. Ok, so prep the staging on Wednesday now, stage Thursday and Friday morning, and pack our destage on Monday for the movers to arrive on Tuesday morning at 8am, the only time we were able to secure the elevator for! While my other stager is managing the large vacant home staging on Thursday, I will meet with the new client so that he can get started with prepping his house for staging.

Now remember the part where I said that we bump up our design availability? I have 3 other appointments already booked for design clients this week, on top of everything you’re seeing here. Needless to say, we’re rolling with the punches!

The moral of this story is that this industry is unpredictable, and you need to be willing to have some flexibility, shuffle things on occasion, and make compromises to be successful. Yes, our policy states that we need 5 days notice for destaging, and 5 days notice for staging, but if we can work a miracle or two when we need to, it keeps everyone (including my accountant) very happy. The home staging industry is fast-paced and ever-changing – be up to the challenge and roll with it. I love that my day seldom goes as expected – it keeps life interesting!

Want to see more stories like this? Join our FREE Facebook Group, To Be a Home Stager

www.StyledListedSold.com

Everything I Know... I Learned from Bartending ~ by Shauna Lynn

When I began bartending in my third year of University, I had no idea the long-term impact that this would have. I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, which is why I studied Business as my minor, but little did I know that the best business lessons I would learn would come from my real-world hospitality experience. I often joked that I was getting paid to make drinks and socialize – two of my favourite past-times! I didn't realize then that I would later attribute much of my success to this fun industry. Bartending helped me to graduate from University debt-free, while still allowing me the time I needed to complete my studies. Following school, it acted as a great “break” from a stressful career as an analyst. And when I was laid off from my last corporate job with mortgage payments and bills to pay, it provided me with a full-time income and the time to re-evaluate my life focus and next steps.

As I began my career as a Home Stager and Designer, bartending provided both the financial and mental relief that I so often needed to get through until my new career became a success.

In the spring of 2013 I officially bartended my last shift at a local restaurant, and the day was met with somewhat mixed feelings about this. Everything I am, and how I have shaped my business to where it is today, can be attributed to the hospitality industry. You can take me out of the bar, but you'll never take the bartender out of me. Some things that I have learned through my bartending over the years and will continue to apply in my business, as well as in life:

• If you don't have the answers, ask someone. When that fails, fake it and hope no one notices. 
• No matter how badly you screw up, apologize, take responsibility, fix it, and smile.
• When things get crazy, keep moving forward - you'll get to the end eventually.
• It doesn't feel like work if you're having fun.
• You get what you pay for.
• It never hurts to ask.
• Snapping your fingers or waving money around does not get you things faster, but sometimes a smile will.
• "Shut up and listen" is an effective strategy.
• Don't be afraid to state the obvious - "that sizzling plate is hot", "the suicide wings are spicey", "be sure to make the bed before showings" 
• Everyone has a story, don't pretend you know what it is.
• When all else fails, cheers to another day!