Press

Small business owners tell how they've fought back against hard times

By Lore Croghan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Jill Vegas is an 'apartment stager' - she decorates and spruces up apartments that are for sale and uses her own furniture and artwork.

You help me, I help you, Everybody wins

Jill Vegas stages - that is, spruces up luxury apartments up for sale. These days they need to look especially good since buyers with big bucks are harder to come by.

To boost the style quotient of the apartments she stages, the Williamsburg resident procures pricey paintings and drawings to hang on the walls - but doesn't have to pay for them.

The works are on loan from artists and gallery owners looking for fresh ways to get noticed by potential art collectors. The pieces are also for sale, but in a subtle way. Vegas leaves cards listing the prices of the art in a discreet spot in the apartment rather than posting them by the art.

"I'm creating an instant impression," said Vegas, 37, who keeps a lid on spending at her Chelsea office by limiting her part-time secretary's schedule to two days a month. "Instead of generic photos from a furniture-rental company, I use really cool paintings."

The article is here at Daily News