Selling Homes by Setting the Stage

Lori Matzke is the founder and president of Center Stage Home, a company that assists real estate agents and homeowners prepare their house for market. After introducing her services in 1999, it wasn’t long before she gained enough exposure and recognition for her work to add affiliates in major cities nationwide. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she now conducts workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Canada, recently published her first book, “HOME STAGING: Creating Buyer-Friendly Rooms to Sell Your House”, and still offers staging and consultation services in the Twin Cities Metro. Lori is a frequent contributor to the Minneapolis Star Tribune column, “Staging It,” and has been featured in numerous print and on-line publications including Realtor Magazine, CBS MarketWatch, and the Toronto Star.Her proficiency in the industry and down-to-earth appeal has allowed Lori the opportunity to appear as a guest speaker at real estate conferences, home and garden expos and in television and radio broadcasts across the country, sharing her knowledge and experience in the art of staging a home to SELL!

Barbara Kavovit, Founder of Barbara K

Originally told to Darren Dahl and Inc.com.

“One day I heard my mom talking to some of her friends about how hard it was to get things done around the house without a man around, like hanging picture, fixing a leaky faucet, and tightening a doorknob. That’s when a lightbulb went on for me.

“I realized that women are tired of having to rely on men to help with home improvements. I thought women might like to deal with another woman instead. So I went to a local printer to have some business cards and fliers made up. Then I went to the mall and started talking to women about how I had just started a home-improvement business and asked whether there was anything I could help them with.

“After I lined up a job, like putting up Sheetrock, I would go to the phonebook, find the contractors that could do the work, and check out their references. I would then drive the contractor to the job and talk with the customer as he did the work. I made my money by charging the homeowner more than the contractor was charging me. My first year, I made $25,000.

“After a while, I actually decided that I wanted to learn about things like plumbing and carpentry myself. I also expanded the business into the corporate world after I landed a few contracts for small repair work at companies like IBM, Coca-Cola, and Reader’s Digest. Then, in 1995, when I was 23, I landed a condo-development project in Weehawken, N.J. All of a sudden, I had a name in the industry and was earning more than $2.5 million a year.

“Between 1995 and 2001, I moved the business to Manhattan and grew revenue to about $50 million a year, got married, and had a baby. Then 9/11 happened and everything just stopped. All of a sudden, I had to lay people off. It was a real time of uncertainty.

“Things seemed to hit rock bottom not long afterward when my husband and I decided to get a divorce. I remember going to fix something in my apartment when I realized that my ex had taken my toolbox. I was upset. Then, after watching an episode of ‘Sex and the City’ where Samantha has trouble hanging her curtains, I came up with the idea to create the perfect tool kit for women.

“I wanted my tool kit to look like the iMac — slim and stylish — and it would have all the tools and parts needed to fix the 10 most common home-repair problems. I spent $8,000 on a prototype and partnered with a manufacturer in Taiwan to make the tools. The big break came when we landed Bloomingdale’s as our first customer. I even got them to do a window display for it. Everything kind of took off after that.”

Barbara K currently has 10 employees and sales of $12 million.

Visit her website at www.barbarak.com.