After pioneering home staging in Kāpiti and Horowhenua back in 2017, Foxx and Filly Home Staging and Interior Design are now first time finalists at the Kāpiti and Horowhenua Electra Business and Innovation Awards.
Helping the real estate industry deliver better value to vendors and buyers when in the process of selling their homes, Foxx and Filly enable buyers to visualise the spaces that could make up their new home or investment.
They bring in furniture and stage a room, finding its full potential, always adding the finishing touches.
"Our goal is to show each space to its maximum potential, giving buyers a real appreciation of what they are looking to buy and how it can suit their lifestyle and requirements," Foxx and Filly principal designer Natalie Paroli said.
Foxx and Filly mother and daughter team, Natalie Paroli, left, and Jaki Bickerton.
For example, an empty bedroom may look too small for a double bed - but by staging a double bed in the room it allows the buyer to see exactly what the space can look like for them and how it can work.
First time entering the awards, and first time as finalists, the mother and daughter team consisting of Natalie Paroli and Jaki Bickerton are humbled and excited about being finalists.
"We had no expectations, especially after attending a function where we saw the number of awesome businesses we were up against.
Entering the awards is a chance for Natalie and Jaki to benchmark the business, take a closer look at what they were doing and on top of that be judged by external judges.
Before and after shots of a room staged by Foxx and Filly.
"We are striving to develop and achieve a well-balanced, successful and community focused business that not only makes money for its stakeholders, but also provides a stable working life for the team, is able to pay the team well for their contribution and to contribute to looking after their health and wellbeing.
"In addition to that we want to have a business that is customer centric and respectful of the environment.
"We felt entering these awards would enable us to take a close look inside at what we are doing with the results giving us a benchmark we can measure ourselves to."
With a lot of investment going into the business during the early stages, Foxx and Filly started out with enough furniture to stage three houses.
Developing trust-based relationships with real estate agents has led to huge organic growth, with Foxx and Filly growing from three houses worth of furniture to 50 houses worth of home staging furniture in just four years, financed entirely from trading to date.
"When we started back in 2017 the business of home staging was very new and we found that we seemed to be pioneering a new market here in Kāpiti and Horowhenua.
"As we have increased our base of agent relationships, our business has grown alongside that.
"We can respond to all sorts of requests from agents even those at the last minute and we do all the work ourselves within the team, not relying on external furniture movers, differentiating us from other staging companies."
The Kāpiti and Horowhenua Electra Business and Innovation Awards finalists have been announced.
