We started a home furnishing biz with £0 and no experience – now we turn over £70k a MONTH and even employ our parents

WHEN Beth and Mel Holland-Banks told their families they were quitting their full-time jobs to become professional home stagers, they were branded “insane”.

The couple, who desperately wanted to quit the rat race, are now the face of success after starting their million-pound business with £0.

They have even splashed some of their wealth on a £50,000 Range Rover and £70,000 Mercedes-Benz.

Beth and Mel are professional home stagers, where they furnish Serviced Accommodation, HMO’s, Show Homes and Properties for Rent on behalf of property developers and letting agents. 

They were able to start the business without investing any money by making clients pay for all of the furniture and homeware up front. 

Six months after launching as a side hustle in December 2020, Beth, 27, and Mel, 29, were hitting six figures.

It was enough for them to quit their jobs earning £40,000 and £50,000 respectively in medical sales.

And the young entrepreneurs from Huddersfield were so busy with orders, they employed Mel’s mum and dad as chief shopper, van driver and furniture remover.

Their business turns over an eye-watering £70,000 a month and has achieved more than £1 million in sales over the last three years. 

They’ve splashed their riches on their £40,000 dream wedding, a £6,000 honeymoon and a limited-edition Range Rover Evoque worth £50,000.

“It was Christmas 2020 and we were both really dreading returning to work in January 2021, so I said ‘let’s do it’,” Mel recalls about starting the home staging firm.

“I had a love for interiors and had been running a property Instagram account, so we thought property staging would be the way to go.

“It was strange at first, as the decision making stops with us but we wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Beth, who described the corporate world as “brutal”, adds: “Our grandparents were excited but very much like, ‘what are you doing? This is insane, what if it goes wrong?’”

Beth and Mel made a measly £20 from their first install. But the following month, they turned over £13,000.

They couple met in 2016 on Tinder and hit it off straight away. 

They soon bought a four-bedroom home worth £375,000 in 2020, but worked long hours, with Mel away from the house up to 16 hours a day every week, to stay afloat. 

Mel started to document their home renovations on Instagram and the account quickly gained thousands of followers.

Desperate to quit their high-pressure jobs, Beth spoke to Mel about utilising her skills and talent to start a new business - and the concept was born.

The pair researched into the idea of home staging and came across a five-day course by Liv Conlon, founder of StagerBoss, on Facebook. 

This gave them all the background and skills they needed to set up a home staging business.

Mel’s mum brought sandwiches, the dads were lugging furniture up so many flights of stairs and my mum was driving back and forth

Beth Holland-Banks

“We set up Signature Property Stagers with Companies House in December 2020, but it took until August for us to be in a position with work and mindset to actually start working on it,” Beth says.

“We didn’t invest anything. By October 2021, we’d managed to book multiple jobs, including a property for The Great House Giveaway on Channel 4.

“It was nerve-wracking and we were so keen to appear on the show that we only earned £1,000 from doing the job.

“Our family helped so much in the early days - building furniture and carrying boxes.

“Mel’s mum brought sandwiches, the dads were lugging furniture up so many flights of stairs and my mum was driving back and forth from home to the property to keep checking on our dogs.

“We made the mistake of buying dining chairs from a high-street shop, and they had more than 70 individual parts and screws and we had to build 12. It took hours.”

As the month’s passed, the couple learned the most efficient ways of working, and they expanded their client base to include serviced accommodation, such as AirBnbs and houses of multiple occupancy.

By October 2021, Beth and Mel had booked multiple jobs, and by February 2022, the company was turning over £25,000 per month.

In April 2022, Mel, who dreams of staging houses like the ones in Netflix’s Selling Sunset, left her full-time job and in May 2022, Beth quit full-time in corporate too.

Then in October 2022, a year later, they hit a six-figure turnover of £303,000.

Hitting six figures within the first six months felt like a real turning point

Beth Holland-Banks

“Hitting six figures within the first six months felt like a real turning point for us as neither of us had planned on leaving our jobs so soon,” Beth says. 

“Yet there we were with the prospect of really taking our business to the next level.

“We could see all our hard work and working long hours, including 14-hour days and at weekends, coming to fruition.

“Better yet, it was all for ourselves and we were able to reward our families for helping us to get there.”

Now, the couple employ three property stagers, five decorators across the country and six flatpack and furniture removal guys.

Thanks to the boost in their earnings, Mel and Beth were able to go all out for their wedding in September 2023.

They then jetted to a five-star hotel in Cyprus where they stayed in a swim-up room - costing £6,000 for a week.

The couple have also bought a new A Mercedes GLC worth £70,000 and a limited-edition Range Rover Evoque worth £50,000.

They’ve also renovated their home and converted their garage into a gymnasium.

The couple didn’t even realise they’d hit the £1 million sales mark in three years until their accountant mentioned it to them.

Despite having no background in interior design, they’ve won awards for Best of Houzz Service Winner 2023 and Business Awards UK: West Yorkshire Business Awards 2023 - Businesswomen of the Year.

“If anyone is thinking about making the leap, I’d say go for it,” Beth urges.

“It definitely paid off for us.”