How I quit my job, started homestaging and started making 3 times more money

“It rang in my head that life is finite”

I can say for sure that I am doing my job now. I loved all my works that I had before, and I completed them at the moment when I realized that I had done everything I could on them, and I had to move on. This is when you no longer learn anything and can give nothing to your workplace.

Before leaving for homestagingI have worked in several places. Right before her dismissal, she was a brand manager at Kontur - she promoted the employer's brand, that is, she made sure that they wanted to go to work at Kontur. She was a copywriter, an event organizer, and a PR manager there. Before Kontur, I worked in the editorial office of an online publication as an advertiser, and immediately after university, as a PR specialist on the radio. In each place I learned something that helps me now: I have gained contacts, some media exposure, organization, managerial experience.

In 2020, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. And it rang in my head that life is finite and we must with it

do something Here and now. It is impossible to wait by the sea for the weather, to wait for something to change by itself.

This was in the summer of 2020. I had the idea that I needed to change something, but I still didn’t understand what it was. And I worked for another year in the office: I completed my projects and thought about what exactly I should do. But when I already decided for sure that changes are needed, everything somehow gradually begins to take shape on its own.

When I was employed, I didn't do homestaging projects, I didn't even really know about it. Few people knew about him then. But even then I tried myself in working with spaces. For example, I worked in parallel landscaping premises. I really liked this process of transformation - when life appears in space. And I guessed that it was worth moving in this direction.

“I accidentally stumbled upon information about what homestaging is”

I've always liked marketing when you help people get the most out of their asset. I also liked the aesthetics and design of the rooms. But I didn’t want to go exclusively into design, because there wasn’t exactly that marketing component there. Still, design is more about making it beautiful for a particular person, and homestaging is about making a home like the maximum number of people, potential buyers. And if the design may not pay off, and sometimes it is done without regard to the budget at all, then in homestaging all investments should not only recoup, but also bring profit.

I accidentally stumbled upon information about what homestaging is and realized that I was interested in it. I went through some short week-long marathon, even collected some prizes for the participants and realized that this is my maximum, because it is a mix of marketing and beauty.

This is not pure design for the sake of design. This is the packaging that helps to get the most out of the object.

In simple terms, homestaging is the preparation of a premises for sale or rentin order to implement it later at a higher cost and faster.

After this mini-marathon, I realized that I wanted to study more seriously, and went on a big course with Maria Makusheva, a Russian-speaking Spanish specialist. While studying, I began to take the first cases. And she went into full service at the end of 2021.

In general, I believe that any skill, and homestaging too, can be learned. It's just that for some it's faster and easier, for others it's more difficult. Someone has a certain vision, a talent for combining textures, colors, then it’s easier for them. If not, don't worry, it will just take longer.

Another question is that it is impossible to study the theory repair and say that you are fully prepared to work. Everything is learned in the process. Each time you will have new situations, new tasks, and they will have to be solved along the way. Yes, you need to know some basics of repair. And then this base will simply begin to grow with a new and new background. My experience helped me, because we always made repairs in our apartments ourselves, invented something ourselves, figured it out.

But at the same time, you always have the opportunity to consult a specialist. And it is very important to contact experienced craftsmen in order to become better. For example, if I need to solve something with the light, I go to an electrician who has been doing just this for 20 years, ask him for advice, squat with him, watch how he works, and learn.

Very strong in homestaging managerial component, because it is important for you not only to make repairs, but to meet the deadlines and budget. To do this, you must manage deliveries, workers, logistics, so that there is no downtime and this organism works without interruption. If something doesn't arrive and get done on time, the whole process gets messed up. My ten years of managerial experience helped me a lot in this. This is also project management, just in a new area for me.

“I saw with my own eyes how a miracle turns out of textiles and several cans of paint”

To start looking for cases, you must first turn to your surroundings and tell everyone what you can offer. One way or another, the issue of repair will be relevant. That's how it happened to me. My husband's brother needed it very quickly sell an apartmentto have time to buy a house that they have already found. I decided to try to take on the case without pay, for the sake of experience. I then staged and held shows - I did everything.

We made this apartment and sold from the first show. Imagine people came and said: “We can’t eat and sleep, we saw your ad, we want to watch the apartment "‎, and after watching they asked not to show it to anyone else, because immediately fell in love.

Then I realized that homestaging really works. I saw with my own eyes how almost a miracle is obtained from textiles and several cans of paint. Because we sold not just an apartment, but comfort.

Then there was an interesting case in Armenia. We went on vacation and rented a cool stalin with a luxurious balcony, the potential of which was not used at all.

This cluttered balcony annoyed me, and I quickly did homestaging without a budget: I tidied up, laid it on a table a beautiful tablecloth, I bought a bouquet of daisies from my grandmother, photographed it in the sun, and it turned out completely different mood. The owner liked it very much, he even wanted to do a joint project, but for some reason it did not work out.

There were cases after which I was very burned out. On Lunacharsky Street, we made a dead three-ruble note, the budget for which was 300 thousand. I did everything on a turn-key basis, including decluttering. I remember there was a closet full of old fur coats. We tried to sell them, but no one wanted to buy them, and as a result, I sent them to the customer by SDEK to Moscow. A giant package has arrived. I carried it all on myself, saved on movers to meet the budget. You can’t do this, I teach my girls this from the very first cases.

In such apartments, it is still better to do major repairs, and not cosmetics. We made white walls, fresh linoleum, because we did not have the money to level the floors under the laminate. At 300 thousand, even a new kitchen fit. The apartment was sold profitably, but for some time I didn’t even want to drive along this street anymore.

It's always like this: the smaller the budget, the more human resource is spent. Anything is possible, but it's exhausting. But you fill your hand and get tremendous experience.

“I enjoyed doing this even when I was getting very little for my projects”

When I started doing this, homestaging in Yekaterinburg just started to develop. It turns out I was one of the first. It seems like a risk, but it didn't take long for me to explain to people what it was. At the beginning of 2022, there was a crisis, and when this happens, everyone starts looking for new tools to sell their assets, they think what to do to sell or rent an apartment as quickly as possible. Therefore, in my case, the circumstances, and my ability to convey to people the importance of this matter, and the first cases that I showed on social networks, formed one whole.

I sincerely talked about my path in social networks, showed projects, reported problems.

My main fear was that I had no guarantees that things would work out, that leaving the office would justify itself. But I still enjoyed doing it, even when I was getting very little for my projects. I drew energy from them and understood that it was mine.

In the office, I earned 60-80 thousand. When I left all this, at first there were small checks, at first I received about 40 thousand at best. At the same time I processed and took on everything in general to understand what is closer to me. I made premises for rent, for sale, I somehow did the office of a psychologist.

Yes, there was much less money and stability during that period, I was worried, but my feelings decreased in the course of work.

I quit in September 2021, studied for several months, worked out some kind of base, received little. In January 2022, I earned 60 and reached about my office salary.

And in the spring of 2022, I began to overtake this salary. In March, she earned the first 150 thousand. Then many people began to sell apartments sharply, and I got orders. Things went up and up.

Now there are a lot of orders, and the income is corresponding. In August, I earned about 300 thousand net. Of course, every month I close differently, depending on orders. But I thought that on average this year I received about 250 thousand a month.

“My employees receive more than in some agencies in Moscow and St. Petersburg”

One of the problems I have is delegation. I thought that no one but me could cope with the task. But at some point I realized that if I do everything myself, I will stop eating, sleeping and breathing, because there is simply no time.

If you are not delegatemeans you have time. Therefore, when I had more customers, the situation forced me to hire employees.

I found my first assistant in the homestayers chat. I watched everyone there, saw her messages. She knew where to buy, was guided by trends. I realized that she understood, and offered her cooperation, and then it went on.

We call ourselves Bureau Sverdlovsk. Now 5 people work with me, one of them is remotely from Georgia. Their salary fund is about 200 thousand. Most of them are paid by the piece, for the project. Plus, there is one employee on a salary - an assistant who solves many different tasks.

My employees receive even more than in some agencies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The average salary of a stager is about 5,000 per day, but you need to understand that this is episodic, project work.

Our work is hard and there are all sorts of Unexpected situations and jambs. We never look for the extreme. If something happened to someone on a project, someone who is available and can help rushes to the rescue. And then we reflect together.

It is very important for me to create a comfortable atmosphere and be interesting and pleasant for employees so that they want to work with me.

“We do not hide the shortcomings of the apartment, but reveal its potential”

At first, I had tiny budgets for projects - 10-15 thousand. Now the budgets are different. House 100 sq. m we are laying about 1.3 million. But it can be done well and inexpensively. The most important thing here is to turn the angle from “I go into the apartment and I feel sick” to “I see my future here.”

If there is no budget, you can still sell an apartment very cool. To do this, you simply need:

1. declutter and clean up the room.
2. Sell ​​or throw away old broken furniture.
3. Remove all personal items, dryers, children's pots, clothes.
4. Remove your photos from the walls, because it is psychologically difficult for people to drive into an apartment where a bunch of pictures of another family hangs.
5. Remove all unnecessary from kitchen surfaces.

Then you have to wait for sunny weather to shoot the result. Well, write down what time the sun comes to the apartment in order to indicate in the ad, for example, that the windows face east and this allows you to enjoy a cup of coffee in the rays of the morning light.

This is the potential of the apartment. We do not hide her flaws, we do not deceive. We show a clean room that has potential. It just needs to be revealed.

True, now I small budgets I don't work anymore. I take on this sometimes, simply because the object is interesting to me. For example, an extension to the Ryazanov estate is currently in the works, and I wrote a paper on these estates at the university. So I became very interested in the project.

Now I refuse to work when we either do not have a connection with the customer, or when the location is not very interesting to me. It must be understood that this is always a mutual risk. We analyze the market, look at how much such apartments cost, what budget needs to be developed in order to reach the upper limit of the fork and even exceed it by 15-20% when selling or renting.

Some houses still have restrictions. For example, you can very beautifully make Khrushchev, but the very environment of the house, the district will not allow it to be sold for 9 million in Yekaterinburg. Therefore, we calculate the expediency of all expenses, and if the customer understands this, then it’s good.

We take risks with him, because my fee depends on the sale.

We treat our clients differently. With pre-sale preparation, we often have a percentage of the sale, but always with an advance payment. Plus, I take the last stage of payment when I finished my work and handed over the object, I don’t wait for the final deal. I used to wait, but when selling a lot of other inputs, work realtor, For example. Or the customer may fall in love with his renovated apartment and put an inflated price at which it cannot be sold. Such an apartment costs a long time, and you have to wait for payment.

Therefore, now we are doing the work, photographing everything beautifully, writing a selling ad, recommending a price, calculating a percentage of this price, and that’s it.

For apartments that we are preparing for rent, we charge per meter.

“Thanks to our projects, sales of country houses have grown”

All my favorite projects are related to people. I once made an apartment for a customer, which has now become mine girlfriend and part of the team. She is a designer herself, she had a cool, but a bit unfinished apartment. She and her husband were forced to leave quickly, hastily post an ad, and the apartment stood without demand. And the inhabitant could not discern the potential of this premises, it had to be presented, completed. It was a super-cooperation in terms of trust. As a result, the apartment was sold profitably, and communication resulted in friendship.

I also really love our cases with houses. A house builder approached me and offered to cooperate. Selling as usual country houses? You arrive, the sales manager in galoshes meets you, and you go around the territory. We wanted to change this system and the very first in the Urals made it a demo, as we call it, “under slippers”.

This is a fully finished and furnished house - an example where a buyer can come, put on slippers and feel the atmosphere of a cozy country life. Everything is in its place there: every candle, flowers, flavors. Naturally, thanks to this, sales quickly went uphill in the first month, because it is easier to make a purchase decision when you see this life, you feel it.

The second branch of cooperation is the packaging of houses for those who want to buy ready-made housing not only with finishing, but also equipped with furniture, textiles, and turnkey decor. The developer is selling me as a package offer, and the queue for it is six months ahead.

This is different from design. The difference between a designer and a homestayer is that designer does everything for a specific customer, coordinating every detail. We coordinate the budget, style and work. I will not coordinate, for example, door fittings. The main thing here is the trust between me and the customer. We make estimates, mood boards, we discuss some positions, of course.

But in general, the less the customer interferes, the better the result.

So in the case of the preparation of houses, we agree on budgets, a concept, but we also work on trust and do not approve each rug with the customer. At the same time, we thought that since we are doing this, it might be worth developing some typical solutions for houses. But in our country, in the end, each house turns out to be different, with its own character.

“In the office, I often did not see the result of my work”

When I left the office and went about my business, there were big changes in my head and in my life. Although I think change starts from within. First you decide to take on more responsibility, and then the rest, including money, starts to catch up. More money means more responsibility.

What I didn't like about the office was that I often didn't see the result of my work.

That is, you are constantly working, you are in a routine, but you do not clearly see the fruits of your labors. It makes you feel bad, it can burn you out.

And now you have worked for a month, and your client has +1.5 million. You can digitize the results of your work and feel satisfied. Plus, you just see that you make people a little happier.

It was not an easy process, and work at a construction site is still stressfulbecause a lot of the unexpected happens. At first I panicked a lot. But now I have already learned stress resistance. Recently, my tap broke at 5 am before giving up, and I noticed that I reacted very calmly to this. Everything has already happened, so the situation just needs to be resolved.

Then I need to learn how to fully relax and take work out of my head. Because your business is almost 24/7 work. The family does not see you, and if you have children, you spend very little time with them.

Therefore, it is very important to delegate and distinguish between work and free time. I am learning this. I began to control less, more trust my employees, who are doing a great job.

Now I want more people like that around me. Therefore, I want to teach how to work the way I see it. I really need employees with my vision, with whom we could do more interesting projects.