When Cathryn Tracy stages or redesigns a home her goal is always the same: “I’m there to create magic so that homebuyers will fall in love and homeowners will fall in love again.” Cathryn, or ‘Cat’ as she prefers, is the founder of and resident “Staging Diva” at Setting the Stage, a Dartmouth, Nova Scotia-headquartered home staging and interior decorating service. She describes herself as a “self-taught expert” first and a graduate of Debra Gould’s world renowned “The Staging Diva” Home Staging Business Training Program second. “I’d been doing interior decorating and staging for a number of years, but never as a job,” Cat explained when she spoke with Spotlight on Business in late September. “In 2016, I found myself suddenly unemployed because of a ‘restructuring effort’ so off I went job hunting. While I was researching and doing my due diligence about a sales manager position at a popular Downtown Halifax hotel, I was approached by a friend who was selling her house. She knew about my interior decorating talents as I had helped her redesign her existing home when she and her family moved in a few years earlier. Also knowing that I’m passionate about staging and decorating homes, she wanted me to help her sell her home – and I accepted! Her house officially hit the market in June of that year and it was officially sold in less than 60 days. During that project, another home owner and friend, approached me who was re-decorating her home and asked for my help as she was stuck. As these and other projects progressed I was asked the same question over and over again: ‘Cat, why are you still job searching? Think about it’. “With those encouraging words, now I’ve turned my passion into a business!” Setting the Stage today serves clients throughout the Halifax Regional Municipality, Truro, and the South Shore as far as Bridgewater and the Annapolis Valley as far as Kentville. By David MacDonald I f you’re one of Cat’s many clients or one of her business partners – who are the real estate agents, painters and pho- tographers, carpenters and furniture retailers she fondly calls “my colleagues” – you know that she doesn’t waste time. “Once I decided on this career path I very quickly got in contact with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development [CEED] here in Halifax,” she explained “who directed me on next steps.” “They work in conjunction with Employment Nova Scotia offering a program called the SEB program, which is the Self-Em- ployment Benefits program. I had to go through a few different stages in the 5 week application process before getting approved for the full 40-week program. It basically teaches you, through facilitation and workshops, how to actually start
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OCTOBER 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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