Why Home Stagers Should Use HoneyBook to Send Proposals

As a home stager, you know that creating beautiful spaces is just the beginning. Efficiently managing the business side of things is crucial to your success.

You need to figure out how to send your staging contracts to your clients to sign, and how to collect payments. You're handling credit cards, calendars, and sooo much more.

Maybe you currently keep things old school, with hard copies and ink signatures (so easy to misplace and so hard to organize!). Or maybe you're cobbling together multiple platforms, like Docusign, email, and Stripe.

We spent years trying to figure out the best way to manage this side of the business. There are several software options on the market that can meet the unique needs of home stagers, like 17Hats or Dubsado.

After doing tons of research and trying several options, we landed on HoneyBook for our own home staging business. Since implementing HoneyBook, we have streamlined our business processes, freed up our time, and upleveled our professionalism.

We are here to help you do this too! Below, we'll explain how we use HoneyBook in the day-to-day operations of our home staging and short-term rental design business.

If you don't use HoneyBook, you can likely apply some of the same processes to your own platforms (but if you want to use HoneyBook too, check out the discount code at the end!).

Organize Client Communication

The right customer relationship management (CRM) software will organize all of your client communication. For example, HoneyBook puts a project's bid request, home staging proposal, contract, emails, and any other notes in one place. Clients can select their staging package and Honeybook seamlessly allows them to sign and pay instantly.

Improve Efficiency With Automations

To take it to the next level, you can set up automations that are triggered throughout each project. Don't reinvent the wheel every time you need to send an email!

Here's our automated process for vacant home staging requests, all facilitated through HoneyBook and replicable on your own platform:

1. Client submits a form to request a vacant staging bid.
2. An automation sends them a pre-written email thanking the client for their submission, and lets them know our estimated response time.
3. Tasks are automatically generated for our team to create a project in Stageforce, check if the client wants a Realtor® referral, assign a stager, and draft a bid for the listing.
4. The client then receives the proposal, contract, and follow-up emails until the contract is signed.
5. When the staging package is selected, the contract is signed, and the first payment is made, an automation prompts us to schedule the stage. (PS: HoneyBook syncs with Quickbooks, the accounting software we use.)
6. Four days before the stage date, the program sends the client an email confirming their stage and reminding them of any actions required.
7. One day before the stage, our team member is reminded to call the client for confirmation.
8. After the project is completed, our system sends the client an email about what happens after staging.
9. Two days after staging, the agent receives a request to share the professional photos with us.
10. After 18 days have passed, we set up a recurring invoice through the software. 
11. Before the project end date, the client receives an email with destage details.
12. The week after destaging, we stop the recurring invoice and request a Google review.

If we had to check all these tasks off manually for every project, it would be sooo much more work, and we know something would fall through the cracks! Using a system like HoneyBook ensures we don't miss any details.

Automating the boring stuff = more time for doing what you love!

Ready-to-Use Templates for Home Stagers

As a certified Staging Design Professional®, you'll have access to dozens of customizable templates for proposals, contracts, emails, and more. You can use these as-is, but we recommend copying them over into your preferred business management software so you can easily plug-and-play all of your client communications.

While you can do this with whatever system you use, we made it even easier for home stagers who use HoneyBook! The vacant home staging proposal, PLUS the occupied home staging consultation report, are provided in the SDP® course as HoneyBook templates.

SDP® students can start using these templates with clients as soon as they sign up for HoneyBook with Staging Studio's special code. Just plug in the property details and your own home staging pricing, and hit send! HoneyBook collects the signatures for you.

Exclusive Offer: 30% Off Your First Year

We know how important it is for home stagers like you to have the best software and systems for your business. That's why we set up an exclusive offer for you!

If you sign up for HoneyBook with this Staging Studio link, you'll get 30% off your first year.

Plus, if you are a certified Staging Design Professional® Expert Level, you will also have access to our staging proposal and contract templates within HoneyBook!