Watch the premiere on YouTube Friday October 23rd at 10 am
Guest: Alisa Sparks, Founder of Linden Creek
Host: Felicia Pulley, Creative Director of RESA
“If I keep doing this, I won’t have a business.”
— Alisa Sparks
“It forced my hand to delegate, train and hire so much faster than I ever would have.”
— Alisa Sparks
Before founding Linden Creek, Alisa Sparks spent a decade managing multimillion-dollar budgets for the Navy and Marine Corps. She loved the numbers, but evenings and weekends renovating homes and building furniture gave her the creative outlet her career was missing.
Home staging offered a way to bring those interests together. Alisa used vacation days to meet agents and builders, saved enough to reinvest her early earnings, and tested demand before leaving her full-time job. Within four months, she had hired her first employee.
Her reason for starting the business was personal: she wanted a career she enjoyed and the flexibility to be present for her daughters. When she became a single mom a year into the business, delegating became a necessity. Training others to take on responsibilities helped her build a company that could operate without her being involved in every task.
“I think the biggest thing is I’ve learned the importance of simplifying what we do and being exceptional at that.”
— Alisa Sparks
Even with a finance background, Alisa underestimated what her first staging project would cost. An $800 job sounded exciting until she added up the shopping, preparation, inventory, and hours spent cleaning and moving furniture. Driving home, she realized she had earned less than minimum wage.
That experience changed her pricing immediately. It also started an ongoing practice of reviewing the time and expenses behind the work, including everything that happens before her team arrives at a property.
As Linden Creek grew, Alisa applied that same thinking to its services. Saying yes to every opportunity had spread the business too thin. Focusing on vacant staging, referring occupied projects to other companies, and eventually outsourcing moving allowed her team to concentrate on the work they did best.
“I thought staging couldn’t be systemized, but I realized we did systematize it because my team did it without me.”
— Alisa Sparks
Franchising was never part of Alisa’s original plan. When a friend suggested it, she questioned whether a creative business could work that way. Then she recognized that her team was already delivering results using the systems they had built.
Linden Creek’s first franchise location became an opportunity to test the model, identify gaps, and improve training. After its first year, that location had achieved three times the sales Alisa generated in her own first year. At the time of recording, Linden Creek had grown to 20 locations.
For Alisa, that growth also reflects a shift in purpose. What began as a way to create flexibility for her family became an opportunity to help other owners build their businesses. That commitment to sharing knowledge extends to her involvement with RESA®, speaking at RESACON, and building relationships with fellow stagers, including local competitors.
00:34 Meet Alisa Sparks
01:27 From corporate finance to home staging
03:43 Testing the business before leaving her job
06:05 Saving for the leap and reinvesting for growth
11:49 What to consider before starting a staging business
14:02 Motherhood, boundaries, and learning to delegate
16:15 Hiring her first employee within four months
21:46 The $800 staging job that changed her pricing
27:10 Finding RESA® and researching the industry
28:26 Why narrowing her services improved profitability
32:26 Building relationships that bring repeat business
36:50 Finding clients in a city where she knew no one
46:57 Turning inquiries into client relationships
48:17 Qualifying leads and discussing pricing minimums
50:35 The software behind Linden Creek’s operations
51:07 Positioning staging as a marketing service
55:50 Proposals, project scope, and renewals
57:15 Closing rates and following up with prospects
59:20 From booked project to staging installation
1:00:31 Why she switched to outsourced movers
1:17:32 Exploring franchising and sharing her systems
1:19:23 Growing Linden Creek to 20 locations
1:22:37 Community, competition, and sharing what you know
1:25:09 Communicating value when competitors charge less
1:29:46 Alisa’s advice: Lean into the discomfort
1:31:07 Where to connect with Alisa
Alisa Sparks knew her numbers. But after charging $800 for her first staging job, the former finance professional drove home, did the math, and realized she had made less than minimum wage.
In Episode 13 of The Staging Insider™, Felicia Pulley sits down with the founder of Linden Creek to talk about the decisions behind building a staging business that could grow beyond her.
Alisa shares why she hired her first employee within four months, how becoming a single mom pushed her to delegate, and why saying no to certain services helped her build a more profitable business. She also walks through how her team qualifies leads, communicates value, and follows up on proposals.
From early pricing mistakes to a franchise with 20 locations at the time of recording, this conversation gets into what growth actually requires: knowing your costs, trusting your team, building relationships, and being willing to change what’s no longer working.
If you’re figuring out when to hire, what to charge, or how to stop being the person who does everything, there’s plenty here to take back to your own business.
Alisa Sparks is the founder of Linden Creek, a home staging and interior design business that began in Raleigh, North Carolina, and expanded into franchising.
Before entering the industry, Alisa spent a decade managing multimillion-dollar budgets for the Navy and Marine Corps. Her interest in renovating homes and creating interiors eventually led her to home staging, where she combined her financial background with a creative business of her own.
Alisa built Linden Creek with an emphasis on systems, team development, and a clear understanding of the costs behind the work. At the time of this conversation, its franchise network included 20 locations.
A RESA® member since 2017, Alisa helped found the RESA® Carolinas Chapter and has shared her business experience as a RESACON speaker. She values professional community and helping other owners learn from the decisions, successes, and mistakes behind her own growth.
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Hosted by Felicia Pulley, Creative Director of the Real Estate Staging Association®, The Staging Insider takes you behind the scenes with today’s most influential stagers. From creative strategies to business realities, every episode dives into what it really takes to thrive in the staging industry.