Michael Barlow is the Vice Chairman of Showroom Group, the holding company behind Vesta Home, the nation’s largest luxury home staging brand, along with a growing portfolio of premier staging and design companies across the United States. Together, these brands generate nearly $200 million in annual revenue and continue to reshape how high-end real estate is presented and marketed.
In 2017, Michael founded Fernish, a technology-enabled staging and furniture rental business built to support modern staging operations with scalable infrastructure. In 2023, Fernish merged with Vesta to form Showroom Group, creating a national platform designed to support growth through in-house logistics, global supply chain management, and proprietary technology systems.
Through this model, Showroom Group has acquired multiple leading luxury staging firms across the country, integrating them into a unified platform that supports operational efficiency, expansion, and long-term growth. By partnering with established firms and bringing founders into the larger enterprise, Michael has helped create new pathways for scaling staging businesses while maintaining strong operational standards.
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Scaling with Data: The Real Metrics Used Inside a High-Volume Staging Business
What separates staging companies that grow steadily and increase their margin from those that struggle to keep up with demand?
This is comes down to one thing: visibility into the right numbers.
In this session, Vice Chairman of Vesta, Michael Barlow will pull back the curtain on the systems, processes, and metrics used inside the nation’s largest and only nationally scaled staging operation.
Rather than relying on instinct, you will learn about Vesta’s own approach to manage growth, control costs, and make confident decisions across multiple markets.
This includes everything from disciplined tracking of pipeline activity and win rates, to all sides of the logistics and inventory equation that work together to create the operational clarity needed to scale.
Michael will walk through the core metrics that drive healthy staging businesses, including how to evaluate cost per install, track conversion performance from lead to close, monitor inventory dwell time, and understand the financial signals hidden inside daily operations.
He will also introduce a practical framework for stagers at a variety of stages for building dashboards and turning raw data into actionable decisions, helping owners and teams stay aligned and accountable.
Beyond operations, this session will explore how additional revenue channels such as furniture sales, attachment opportunities, and enterprise relationships can function as profit centers when measured and managed correctly.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding not just how to organize their numbers & metrics, but also with unique unlocks that help see around corners they might otherwise not know existed.
You Will Leave This Session With
A clear understanding of the core metrics that drive and determine the operational health of your staging firm, leading to a stronger operational mindset that connects daily activities to company performance.
Greater confidence in turning data into decisions and accountability across teams and markets, including identifying inefficiencies, controlling costs, and using numbers to support sustainable growth and expansion
This Session is Best Suited For:
Staging business owners at any stage ready to improve or establish strong operational habits.
Established staging businesses seeking more visibility into performance and profitability levers.
Vacant staging focused businesses managing inventory, logistics, and installation workflows
Mixed occupied and vacant service providers balancing multiple service types
Occupied staging focused businesses building structure around workflow efficiency and cost tracking
Design or styling led businesses expanding into larger-scale operations
Teams and multi-warehouse operations managing volume, inventory flow, and staffing efficiency
Owners focused on improving profitability through operational discipline
Owners managing teams or contractors who need clearer accountability systems
Owners refining systems, dashboards, and internal reporting processes
Owners focused on structured growth and expansion into new markets
This Session May Not Be the Best Fit For:
Attendees looking primarily for creative or design-focused education
Businesses that are not yet tracking basic financial or operational data
Content Focus:
Operational Metrics and KPI Development
Cost per Install, Labor Efficiency, and Unit Economics
Pipeline Visibility, Win Rates, and Conversion Tracking
Inventory Management and Dwell Time Optimization
Dashboard Development and Weekly Reporting Cadence
Scaling Operations Across Multiple Markets