Become a Home Stager

A home staging expert is a combination interior designer, color expert, sales professional, and counselor. You will wear many hats in a home staging business - your end goal is to get the maximum sales value for your client's home.

How do you know if you would be good as a home stager? Answer these questions:

1. Do you enjoy decorating your house?
2. When you are visiting friends and family, are you constantly thinking of how you would design their house?
3. Do you see a fabric and immediately think of the paint colors and furniture that would work well with it?
4. If you walk into a room which isn't purposed correctly (e.g. someone using their dining room as an office), do you imagine how you would use the room properly?
5. Do you enjoy reading home decorating magazines and books?

The goal of the home staging is to stage the home in a way which appeals to the buyers. Once you place your home on the market, it is no longer your home, it now belongs to the home seekers and should be decorated and setup in the most appealing manner.

My wife and I recently sold our home and our dining room was purposed for everything but eating. We had kid's toys, a computer amoire, a playpen, and an old parquet floor. To prepare for our house to be sold, we ripped up the parquet and put in hardwood floors, cleaned out all of the kids' things and purchased an inexpensive table and chairs set. We hung up artwork we already owned and setup the table to look like a formal, modern dinner was about to be served. These changes contributed significantly to our house selling in 2 and 1/2 weeks. In Ohio. In February. In an awful real estate market. Right after the biggest blizzard in years. We went through and staged each room in the house and found success very quickly.

You can help other sellers find the same success through home staging.

What's great about the home staging business is that it is low (to no) investment and you can start as soon as you want! You don't need any formal training, but an eye for interior design is required. You can start the business and market your services to real estate agents and directly to home sellers.

Typically, a home stager is paid an hourly fee to help design and setup the house for sale. Most of the time, you can repurpose existing furniture, artwork, and decorations for the staging process and the home seller does not have to outlay a significant investment. For higher end homes, most realtors will pay your fee as a part of the home selling process.

Help sellers create a picture perfect look for their house and help buyers see themselves living there.

As I browse the hundreds of free business ideas available on ExploreStartups, it strikes me that though we have a lot of great, free information, we do not have the depth necessary to truly understand what it takes to open a business.

Today, we are launching a new store with guides to starting your own business. When we were making a decision whether or not to go this route, we reviewed the options available to entrepreneurs and found most books and ebooks available do not truly paint a complete enough picture for business startup and operation. Most of them were so general that most entrepreneurs would find the information lacking.

In contrast, we want to create guides which truly lead you down the path to business ownership. It isn't enough to simply throw together a document about starting a business - we want you to have the expert advice of people who have gone down the road before you. This expert business advice, combined with templates, forms, and checklists, will help you launch the business of your dreams.

We are pleased to introduce our first product: How to Start and Run a Coffee Shop. This ebook is the culmination of months of research, writing, and editing to produce a book we are proud of. This book is packed with 130 pages (letter size, not some cut down 6" x 9" like the other guys) of expert advice, support, and real world examples to help you start your coffee shop.

Producing this guide first was no surprise for anyone who knows my family: we have had a long time love affair with coffee shops. My wife has managed them, we have produced countless business plans to build our own. Jay Andrews does an excellent job writing a guide which not only shows you how to start your coffee shop, but also how to manage it on a day to day basis - and how to make it a success. This guide shows you how to create a business plan, open your coffee shop, hire and manage employees, write a marketing plan, execute the marketing plan, and more. Included in the download are samples and templates you can use in your business including an employment application, frequent customer punch cards, gift certificates, and more.

I am proud of this product and glad to make it the first one we sell in the ExploreStartups.com Store.

We priced this book at only $29.97 so as many people can enjoy it as want to. This isn't like a book you find at the store - the samples and templates alone are worth more than the purchase price. We use Google Checkout for credit card processing to ensure your data is secure - and for added measure, we use the highest security SSL certificates right here on our own server. The entire process is safe and secure.

Thanks for making ExploreStartups.com one of the biggest free business idea and business plan sites on the Internet. Over time, we plan on releasing more titles like this one, so check back and enjoy!

Campaign season for the general election is in full swing and creative entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the campaign slogans and gaffes to earn some extra money from the endless politicking.

If you have a creative mind and follow the political chatter, you can take advantage of the Presidential campaign and promote your business. Find some of the most creative political entrepreneurship here:

57 States Lapel Pin

After Obama says that he has visited 57 states now with his campaign for President, creative entreprenuers developed the 57 state lapel pin. Finally, a pin Obama could be proud to wear.

Creative T-Shirts

There are countless possibilities for the next gaffe, misstatement, or just to take advantage of the emotions and desires of a political campaign.

I'm here to tell you that... the time is NOW to start your next venture!

I know, all of the economic geniuses on CNBC are predicting a recession and things are tight. Believe it or not, the true business visionaries and geniuses are taking the time now to invest - because the bottom is the right time to build, not to retract. If you build now, you will catch the economy on the upswing and your investment will return far greater than you would ever expect!

Warren Buffet is taking an opportunity now, in this economy, to purchase companies, move further into bond insurance, and invest while the market is cooled. The epitomy of value investors, Buffet is a good sign that as the economy retracts, entrepreneurial visionaries will be setting in place their growth plans for their businesses and new ventures.

I am not offering this advice lightly or without skin in the game - along with the economic retraction which is occurring, my own business's revenues are falling - quite a bit off from last year. I am reliant on ad revenues and they are soft right now, but instead of pulling back, I am pushing forward with new site launches, an expansion of ExploreStartups, and a new venture to be launched shortly. The softness in many areas of the economy right now provides the perfect backdrop to launch new businesses and stake out new business territory.

Been thinking about putting off that next investment? Considering holding back for a couple of months, quarters, maybe until 2009?

Invest at the Bottom, not at the Top of the Cycle

It is likely many of your competitors are going to do just that - hold off on investments, hold back the new product line, or just exit some markets completely. If you want to be an average company, you should follow them down that path. If instead, you want to be at the top of the pack when the economy is on the upswing - invest now in the new business, machine, or expansion of your sales and marketing efforts.

Start a Foreclosure Cleanup Business

Business for cleanup companies is booming as thousands of people default on their loans and the home becomes owned by a bank - a very motivated seller. For every home cleaned out, there are a dozen others the bank hasn't gotten to, or just doesn't want to deal with.

The Real Cost to the Bank - and the Cost to Homeowners

The bank desires to unload the property and not lose any money on the transaction. Unfortunately, leaving the houses in the condition they are in will not result in a sale near going market price and the bank often cuts the price of the house to unload. The house in our neighborhood is priced at 25% less than the market value of the property. If the bank hired a cleanup company to recondition the property, it would probably make significantly more on the sale and not further depress home prices in the area.

What is the Business Concept?

You will be leading a crew to cleanup and prepare a house for sale. Your services would typically include cleaning all of the belongings and junk out of a house, but could also include services such as small repairs (e.g. holes in the walls), wall painting, new carpets, or landscaping.

Most companies who perform this service dispose of any junk from the house, but keep things of value (such as furniture, lawnmowers, or appliances) for 30 days before disposing of them. There is an added opportunity to benefit from the sale of these items through local second hand shops or through eBay.

How Much Could I Earn?

In the example I cited earlier, the home two blocks away is marketing for $40,000 less than going market value for a home of that size. Your company could fix up the home and the bank might be able to raise the price by $20,000 and still sell it. This provides an additional value to the bank which results in a higher willingness to pay for your services. Your company could charge from $1,000 to $5,000 to cleanup a home for resale.

How Do I Get Started?

You will need some industrial strength cleaning equipment and supplies to begin cleaning these houses. Additionally, you will need to either own a truck for garbage removal or lease a dumpster from your local waste removal company. You will probably also want to hire staff to perform much of the cleaning at the houses you are working with.

Start by selling your services to local realtors and community banks. Once you have sold to them, you will have some experience to work with larger lenders and financial services firms.

Creative Romance was published in 2004 and has enjoyed decent success with a good community of visitors to Romancetips.com. Now, as Valentine's Day approaches, I am reminded of my roots in the web business with Romancetips.com and how it has launched a dozen sites in a variety of topics.

Start My Own Publishing Business

One business idea I recently updated on ExploreStartups.com is How to Start a Publishing Company. If you currently have a book written, or have a platform to provide credibility, you can write a book and self publish it. The finances are such that it works out very well.

Print on Demand Economics

The improvements in print-on-demand technology has resulted in the ability to self-publish at a very affordable rate. Let's look at the costs to setup a book and how much money you could potentially make. Your setup charges as a publisher are about $150 to get a book ready with a print-on-demand printer. Once your book is setup, a 200 page 6x9 book is about $5 a copy. Let's say you set a $17.95 retail price and offer a 50% discount to booksellers (industry standard is 55%, but you can get away with 50% - or even 45%).

$17.95 - $8.98 (50% discount) = $8.97

$8.97 - $5.00 (cost per copy) = $3.97

As a first time author, you will probably get a deal with a publisher paying you a 5% commission on retail (minus returns, etc which we will ignore for the sake of this example). On a $17.95 retail price, you will earn about $0.90 per book sold in commission.

With $150 setup charge, you only need to sell 38 copies of your book to break even.

Let's say you had more cost in your book - let's assume you spent $1,000 to have the book edited, a cover design, the interior layout designed, and to purchase a stock photo for the cover. Your cost is now $1,150.

Now, you need to sell 290 books to break even. A good book signing will eat into a fourth of that. Speaking at a conference on your topic? Another 50 books sold. You can easily make back the break even if your topic is even mildly interesting.

Earning More with Amazon.com

As a publisher, you can sell your books directly on Amazon.com and earn even more income. On each product page, there is a button on the right hand side that says, "Sell Yours Here." Once you click on that link, you will be led through a wizard to sell your books.

Here's how the economics work out:

Let's say your 200 page book retails at $17.95, list your "new" condition copies for slightly less, such as $14.95. Amazon.com takes a $3.98 commision on the sale of your book:

$14.95 - $3.98 = $10.97

Amazon also provides a $3.99 shipping credit for the sale:

$10.97 + $3.99 = $14.96

You need to ship the book, so you go to the Post Office and choose "Media Mail" service. Media Mail is around $2 for a book.

$14.96 - $2.00 = $12.96

You have a little greater cost in books you print and ship to yourself - you have to pay shipping, etc. Let's say the books cost you $6 each.

$12.96 - $6.00 = $6.96

Now, you have netted $8.59 for the sale of a single book; much more than your $3.97 commission earlier!

One of the benefits of this method is that Amazon provides you the email address and physical address to ship the book. You are building a client list so as you publish future books, you have a great method to promote it.

Buy a copy of Creative Romance this year to enjoy your Valentine's Day with your partner.

Visit our self-publishing business idea to understand how it works and how you can start your own book publisher.

It's Tolerance for Risk, Right?

Actually, no. It is a common misconception that entrepreneurs have a higher tolerance for risk than the general population. Studies have shown that on average, entrepreneurs have the same tolerance for risk as everyone else. There are some entrepreneurs who have a greater tolerance and some who don't, but it is not a deciding factor for success as an entrepreneur.

A Supreme Confidence

One of the two attributes that are common in serial entrepreneurs is a supreme confidence in themselves and their business idea. Entrepreneurs have a tendency to be much more confident that their product or service idea will succeed than people in the general population. In the context of starting a business, this is a great attribute to have. If you didn't think your business was going to be successful, you wouldn't have the guts it takes to launch a new business.

Draw Conclusions from a Small Sample

The second attribute that is common among serial entrepreneurs is the willingness to draw conclusions from a very small sample. Often the sample has an N of 1, or in other words, the sample is the entrepreneur. Whatever the entrepreneur believes will happen must be what everyone else thinks as well, so it must be a success!

If you combine confidence with the willingness to believe the way the entrepreneur thinks is the way everyone should think, you produce a confident entrepreneur who has complete faith in their fledgling business. Studies have shown that successful entrepreneurs have had an average of seven failures before their success, unsuccessful entrepreneurs often have many more failures.

There are three things you need to be a successful entrepreneur:

1. Guts

First, you must have the guts to start a company and grow it into a success. You will find times throughout your startup where you don't think you will be able to make payroll. Times when suppliers are knocking down your door for payment and you just don't have the cash. Times when you have worked 100 hours in a week and not sure where you will find the energy for the next day. All of these things require you to have the guts to stick it out.

2. Brains

Successful entrepreneurs are often incredibly smart. It takes a talented person to balance all of the demands a startup company has and to come through the other side (hopefully) unscathed. The most successful entrepreneurs have enough intelligence to hire people smarter than themselves and give them the latitude to succeed.

3. Capital

Finally, your startup company must be well funded. The biggest obstacle most startups face is a lack of capital and funding at crucial junctures for company success. Make sure you have enough startup capital to make it through the tough times and grow your business (at least a year of funding). This may mean friends and family funding, angel investors, and even venture capital.

Do You Have What it Takes?

You must be prepared to do what it takes to make your startup company a success. Are you willing to commit 80 to 100 hours working? Can you take away time from family or pleasurable activities and invest it in your business? Are you able to handle the stress of business ownership?

Owning a business can be one of the most enjoyable things, but at times very stressful. If you have a family, you need them to buy in on how much time and energy it will take from you to make the business a success.

So now comes the time to make a decision, do you have what it takes to make it a success in your business?

• Internal capabilities and forces which will have a direct effect on marketing efforts
• External opportunities and threats which could affect the company
• Goals and strategies to achieve the company's goals

Generally, a marketing plan is prepared to set the direction of marketing efforts, to secure funding, or as a component of the business planning process. As a new startup, you might not feel you have the necessary information to complete a full maketing plan.

Planning is one of, if not the only, essential functions you need to perform as the business starts up. Not having a business plan and marketing plan for your company could prove detrimental to your success. If you haven't fully thought out how you are going to promote, price, distribute, and sell your product or service, how do you expect it to be a sales success?

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs (including myself!) do not complete this planning and do not forsee many of the obstacles to come in the first few months and years of a startup enterprise. To assist in this planning process, I created a one page marketing plan. The One Page Marketing Plan is not meant as a replacement for a full marketing plan, but something to help you in the early stages of a business when you do not yet want to commit to writing a full marketing plan.

The One Page Marketing Plan

The One Page Marketing Plan takes the essential parts of a marketing plan and condenses it to one page. On the One Page Marketing Plan, you will fill out sections detailing information about your product or service, your customers, your competitors, market intelligence, planning, sales planning, the 4 Ps, and a SWOT Analysis.

Description of Your Product or Service

This section is a summarized description of your product or service. For example, your description might be:

Description of Product or Service: Coffee Shop in Uptown Middletown

Be as descriptive as possible in the space you have.

Customers

The Customers Section is designed for you to identify your target customers and market segment. Who is your target customer? 18-35 men? 50+ women? College students in the German Village area of town? You should identify the target age range, gender, profession, education level, geographic residence, and home ownership as required. There is also a section for other information (job title, religious affiliation, hobbies) that may help to target your specific market.

Business Competition

In the Business Competition section, you will fill in details about your competitors. This will take some research - and it's not acceptable to say, "I don't have any competitors! This is a completely new idea!" It is extremely rare to have an idea which there isn't some form of competitor, so be sure to put some thought into this section.

Planning

The Planning section is for identifying what your company plans to do in marketing over the next year or two. What is your marketing budget? (You do have a budget, right?) What are your goals for the next year or two? What are the strategies you will pursue to achieve these goals? What are industry trends which may affect your strategies? (Movement to the web for advertising, decline of newspapers, increase in DVR usage)

Sales Planning

The Sales Planning section is much of the meat of your plan. How do you plan to price your product? Are you a cost plus firm? Value based pricing? Competitor based? Have you performed an Economic Value Estimation for your product?

The Placement area of the Sales Planning section is where you will fill in the details of the channels you will sell your product in. Will you have your own retail outlet? Resell through a distributor? Sell on the Internet? On eBay? How will you warehouse and distribute your product?

Promotion are the things you plan on doing to raise awareness of your product. Do you plan on producing TV commercials? Radio ads? Search engine advertising? What things will you do that cost little money? A PR campaign? Sponsor a golf outing?

The People section is designed for you to think about who will sell your product. Will you hire your own sales force? Are you the salesman? Will you use product reps? How will you handle customer service?

The Relationships area is designed for you to think about the people you know and how you can use them to promote your product or service. Are there key buyers in industry that will purchase your product? Are you friends with the local sports hero? Are there affinity groups you are a member of which will result in sales?

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis reviews the company internally (Strength and Weaknesses) and externally (Opportunities and Threats).

Strengths are attributes your company has which could be a competitive advantage over your competitors. Do you have a patent for your product? Do you have the only specialists in your geographic area working for you for this particular service? Do you have contacts your competition does not?

Conversely, the Weakenesses of your firm are things which put you at a disadvantage. Are you bad at sales? Do you need to hire a lot of employees? Are you new to the area and do not have contacts in the city?

Opportunities are things in the market which you can take advantage of for your business. Are there no other firms like yours in the area? Are you the only childcare facility in a new 5,000 home neighborhood? Are there no other law firms specializing in your area of practice?

Threats are external forces which could harm your company. Is there an economic recession? Do you have full employment in your city and need to pay higher wages to attract job candidates? Are you starting a mortgage company in a time of customer defaults?

Value of the One Page Marketing Plan

There is a lot of value in completing the One Page Marketing Plan for your business. We recommend you do this for your business, and every major product you launch.

Download the One Page Marketing Plan

Download in: Microsoft Word Format | Adobe PDF Format

I have found a lot of great designs – especially those on Flickr – which shows a lot of great creativity in business card designs. I would love to say “gone are the days of graphicless $9 boxes of cards from the local Printalottastuff,” but unfortunately, there are a lot of really boring cards still out there.

Come on people! Liven it up! Bring on the creativity, the panache, the thing that makes me want to keep your card. Design something that drives card scanners nuts and forces people to hand type your information in (all of the Cardscan owners out there hate that!).

There are endless possibilities with these little calling cards. I marvel at some of the typefaces selected, how a little type makes a big difference in the image I develop of a company. I hope this little collection of cards expands your thinking and makes you reach for something a little more fun than stock photography and a centered name and title.

Create a cool die cut and create emptiness on your card.

Tags for a business card.

Reflective design – the card is printed in mirror image.

Social mixer name card business card.

Metal imprinted card.

Your business card as a playing card. Notice the tools being held by both hands.

Tie a little rope in your card.

Create a tag out of your card.

A little popup guy on your card. Bonus points if it’s actually you.

Imprint your card on unique media or paper.

Plastic business card with cut out holes.

Price tag business cards.

Create a unique wrap for your card.

Dog tag business cards.

Very plain design.

Metal foil on recycled paper.

Interesting imprint and choice of paper.

Unique die cut with beautiful choice of typography.

Clear cards with opaque block.

Comment card attached!

Metal card with imprint.

Notebook paper designed business card.

Nice cut out for a cat business card.

Here’s your ticket sir.

A little floss with your business card?

Play off of your name with a famous logo.

Designing your card on your card.

Another “Hello” badge business card.

Return address label business card.

Cute design for a business card.

Clear design from facebook.

Business card for a personal trainer.

Nice design with rounded corners.

Plain and simple.

Nice design with rounded corners.

Long mini-cards.

Themed to flow from the letter head to the uniquely die cut card.

What Will You Find on ExploreStartups.com?

ExploreStartups.com has the largest collection of free business ideas on the Internet! We are adding new business plans, articles, advice, business directories, and more. Additionally, you will find new discussion forums for each business idea where you can discuss starting your own business with fellow entrepreneurs.

Each section is an individual business idea with articles, business plans, and a description of the business. This is a great resource to finding a business you can start!

Good Luck!

Good luck in your new business venture!