Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sylvia Gholston. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sylvia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

My business was an operation of two. I was the senior designer and my business partner (my husband) was the general manager. It was and still is very hard to sell staging services. So at the beginning I hired a fully commission salesperson. Well, they left without even a goodbye. We were moving the furniture in and out ourselves. That is hard work and good movers are needed desperately and hard to in my line work. Staging using movers is different from moving from one house to another. So we tried friends of the family and they left without a goodbye. But one young man enjoyed working with us and say me at a restaurant stated he wanted to continue to work with us. The rest is history with him. And then a good friend made a great recommendation and the team started and we have been doing this together for 3 years now. If I opened this business today, I would have hired movers first. Although we have other members of the team, hands down we would go out of business without the movers we have.

Sylvia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Dr. Sylvia Gholston and I come from Saginaw, Michigan. I left home to earn a degree in Biology from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That was the best decision for me and changed my life in remarkable ways. My partner and I wanted to open a now growing franchise in the food industry that we discovered while in college. And several other restuarants were on the radar. All fell through or we were just simply told NO. So we started looking in business that aligned with things we enjoyed doing. I designed my home space and my partner is always arranging things and beliefs that placement is key. So Showhomes of Cobb was the business we wanted to open. We want to work with realtors and homeowners that believe that staging is an essential part of the home selling/purchasing process. We love elevating spaces before going on the market and we love designing personal spaces that people can enjoy each day with a smile. We are so proud that we can aid homeowners with moving on to the next chapter of their lives as well as provide a guide to buyers that love the spaces we create so much that we purchase that home to start a new chapter in their lives. We want potential clients to understand just how important staging is in the home selling/purchasing process.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Communication helped to build my reputation in staging. I answer calls, respond to emails, listen to concerns, ask and answer questions with potential and current clients. Even individuals that decided to use another stager because of budget, they always state how great my communication is. Then these same individuals refer my services to another realtors or homeowners. They know that if they need great staging and service in a short period of time, they can call Sylvia at Showhomes of Cobb.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I new I could open Showhomes of Cobb because I was able to take care of three small children while earning my Doctorate of Business Administration. That was a tough time because I had to use every moment of the day to work on something so that I could have 3 hours or more to work on my dissertation. And I did just that. I learned how to adjust with communication and thought. I would do it all over again….but thankfully and I do not have to go through that again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.showhomes.com/studio/cobb
• Instagram: @showhomescobb
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvia-gholston-4504a9199

Image Credits

Jasmine Gholston