Issue #5
March 22, 2006
IN THIS ISSUE:
  • Use a simple business plan to boost your bottom line ... fast
  • Send us your questions, we'll send you answers
  • Resumes for young people: How much to charge?
  • How are your computer skills?
  • Share your success stories, tips, and ideas
  • Three smart ways to back up your files
PROFIT BOOSTER:
Use a Simple Business Plan … and Follow It to Faster Profits

You don't need a long, annotated business plan – complete with spreadsheets and growth curves – to chart your path to success as you build your resume writing business.

But you should have a plan. And that plan should include some specific monetary goals and timeframes.

The truth is: Your business – your revenues – will grow at the rate you envision them growing. If you lack that vision, your business will lag.

Now, professional resume writing is a relatively straightforward enterprise. But don't let that simplicity lull you into thinking that you don't need a solid plan.

When you tear out of bed in the morning, you need to have a clear understanding of where you are heading.

Your first step should be to set some very concrete goals – both long-term objectives as well as the short-term tasks you'll need to do to move toward them. Set specific time frames along with monetary goals.

If your goal is to take your resume writing business from an "idea" to a part-time venture – and then, finally, to a full-time enterprise – you should be able to say to yourself:

  1. In 60 days, I want to be writing 5 resumes per week, at an average of $350 per resume. That translates into $1,700 a week.
  2. In 6 months, I want to be writing 18 resumes per week, at an average of $400 per resume. And I want at least half of my orders to include a cover letter or other related service at an average add-on fee of at least $100.That translates into $8,100 a week.

Write those goals down. In a simple table, show the timeframe you're looking at and your projected (1) number of resumes, (2) average $$ per resume, and (3) total revenue – per month, quarter, and finally per year.

Guess what? That simple table is the beginning of your business plan! Seeing the numbers on paper is one of the most powerful ways to move your business forward.

Of course, you can hire a professional consultant to help you create a business plan, but that can be cost-prohibitive. However, there are lots of excellent – and good-value – resources out there, among them: 

  • The United States Small Business Administration provides excellent information on preparing business plans. (www.sba.gov)
  • The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) is a non-profit resource dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth, and success of small businesses. Working and retired executives and business owners donate their time and expertise as volunteer counselors, and provide confidential counseling and mentoring free of charge. (www.score.org).
  • Some great software packages are available as well. I prefer Business Plan Pro, sold by Palo Alto Software (www.paloalto.com). The Standard Edition costs $99.95 – and is very easy to learn. (The software has several "wizards" and tutorials, as well as comprehensive online resources and knowledge banks.)
LET US ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS:

Please keep in touch – and allow us to help you succeed. Do you have a question about how to get your resume business started, how to grow your business, or how something "really works"? By all means – ask. In future issues we'll address your biggest concerns and lay out answers to help you succeed – fast. Contact us at: resumewritingsuccess@awaionline.com

RESUMES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU CHARGE FOR YOUR SERVICES?
By Julien Sharp

Knowing what to charge for your services can be one of the greatest challenges for a new resume writer – and it's an issue that, quite frankly, never really goes away. I know I still find myself, after years in the business, wondering if I've upped my fees enough or if I should be charging more for an extra service I'm offering …

Over the next few months, I'll revisit this topic several times.

This week, in time for you to start gearing up to serve young clients in their summer-employment push and recent graduates looking for their first jobs, I'll focus on how to best meet their needs and what to charge these folks.

First of all, understand that this is likely to be your lowest-end market in terms of per-resume price. At the same time, remember that it is also the biggest segment of your market. There are a heck of a lot more people in the low-income brackets that need resume help than there are at the top. The point is ... you should be prepared to serve both ends of the spectrum.

Now, that being said, somebody looking to land a $10-an-hour summer job or an entry-level, just-out-of-college position in a corporation is simply not going to pay you as much as an executive searching for a $100,000+ career move would.

How much are we talking here?

Well, say you're looking at a general resume, one-page long. (And that's likely a safe assumption. Young people don't usually have much material to include on their resumes.)

A resume for a young high school or college student looking for a summer job might typically earn you $100-$150.

A resume for a recent college graduate, however, is worth more like $225 – or even up to $300, depending on the complexity and the type of employment being sought.

Keep in mind a couple of things ...

  1. Prices for resume services vary not only according to your client's level of experience, but also according to your client's location. A young client in New York City might reasonably expect to pay $300 for a resume ,while a similar client in Duncan, Oklahoma or Scottsbluff, Nebraska would only pay $150-$200 for one.
  2. Also, remember that you can up your fees by bundling your services. Providing a cover letter (or, more likely, multiple cover letters) for your clients can help them better target the specific jobs they're going after. And it can help you to earn more on a single project.

How much do you charge for add-on services like cover letters? Again, the short answer is: It depends. Typically, you can charge anywhere from $125 to $175 per cover letter.

Concentrating on the young-person's market, it's probably safe to figure that you could charge $50-$75 for a cover letter for a summer job seeker and then a bit more – back to that $125 to $175 range – for a recent graduate seeking a professional job.

What's it all add up to? Well, do a bit of quick math and I think you'll find that this market can, in fact, prove quite lucrative.

Let's say you were to produce 12 resumes for young people in a month. And let's assume that, in your market, you earn an average of $200 per resume. (Assuming a combination of college grads and summer job seekers.) That nets out to $2,400!

And let's say that half of those young clients also have you write cover letters for them. You write, on the average, two cover letters per person. That's 12 cover letters at an average of $100 per letter. (You will likely give a discount for multiple letters.) That earns you an additional $1,200. All told, that's $3,600 in just a month. And remember, that's at the lowest end of the market!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Julien Sharp has been working with resumes for 20 years – writing, screening, and evaluating them. She's a member of the American Writers & Artists Inc. (AWAI) Board of Advisors and one of the creators of AWAI's Resume Program. For more information about this money-making blueprint or independence and financial freedom, click here: http://www.myresumebiz.com/rwss]

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Highly Recommended

Are you worried that your computer skills are holding you back?

Learn how you can fix your “problem” areas … and find solutions to all kinds of problems you might be facing at this very moment by clicking here:

http://www.awaionline.com/computerbasics/

SEND US YOUR GOOD NEWS, TIPS AND IDEAS

We love to hear about your successes. If you have good news to share – how you landed a new client, made the transition to full-time resume writer, or even a technique you've found works wonders, please tell us at: resumewritingsuccess@awaionline.com

FROM THE TECHNOLOGY DESK:
Three Easy Ways to Back Up Your Files

About three years ago, I became very busy. My business began to "boom," and I found myself contracted to write more and more projects each week. I found myself doing nothing else but working in order to meet the deadlines.

My burgeoning schedule required writing at all hours, quite often while in bed late at night. I set my laptop on the bed to reach for a fallen paper one night, and inadvertently spilled a mug of tea … onto the computer.

The computer was fried, and the hard disk was trashed too. I did have a backup that I'd made a month or so earlier, but all of the articles, press releases, and resumes I had written in the past month had to be redone.

Several days of work gone, because of double stupidity: a tall, top-heavy mug of tea perched near the computer ... and no backup.

Backup is so crucial – and yet so often overlooked. So much so, in fact, that, according to TECHWR-L Magazine, "Geek" culture has a law: The chances of losing your data are directly proportional to the length of time since your last backup.

I have learned from my mistakes – and hope you will take my story to heart if you have not been as diligent in backing up your data as you should.

Since that disaster, I have been on a continuous quest for the "perfect" backup system – and I have found several ways of making sure that my projects are always duplicated. Below are several methods and products that I use to make sure my documents are protected. If these don't work for you, you can choose from the many other options out there. Just make sure you do something!

  1. Second Hard Drive. I have really appreciated my Maxtor One-Touch hard drive (www.maxtor.com). It easily connects to your computer via USB. You can schedule regular backups, and can tell the unit what files to include at a touch of a button. I back up my entire "C" drive. The initial backup takes some time, depending on the number of files you have, but each subsequent backup will only add the files not already there. And I'm not a one-member fan club for the product: In February of this year, readers of SmallBusinessComputing.com recognized Maxtor for best storage and backup solution for the third year in a row!
  2. IBackup.com. IBackup is a secure, online storage/ backup, remote access and sharing solution for consumers and businesses, with a unique combination of backup and storage functions. I used this as my primary backup until I got the Maxtor unit. In this system, you literally "upload" your files to a secure online storage. The downside is that you have to continue to pay, on a subscription basis, for the storage, and this can be quite expensive if you have a lot of files. (The service lets you choose from a wide range of plans that best fit your requirements.) Those with slower Internet speeds will find it cumbersome as well. The real upside is that you can literally access your files from anywhere in the world – as long as you have a computer and an Internet connection.
  3. Flash Drives. I use a 1-Gigabyte flash drive. You might have seen these – they can be carried on a keychain, or even around your neck (a fashion statement considered de rigueur for any budding techie). While they are not efficient for backing up all of your files, it is amazing how many Word documents you can get on a 1-GB unit. I use this if I don't have time to do a full backup of my computer. Every day – or several times a day, depending on the volume I have produced – I save any new work on the flash drive, which I keep plugged into my laptop. It's a great way to "take your work" without having to take your laptop or lug around a bunch of (now nearly obsolete) CD-Roms.
COMING NEXT ISSUE

In the next issue of Resume Writer Success Strategies, learn how to overcome the challenges a client's background might present – such as large gaps between jobs, or having been fired from a position – that will make writing a blockbuster resume a bit more difficult than usual.

* ABOUT RESUME WRITER SUCCESS STRATEGIES *

Resume Writer Success Strategies is a FREE weekly newsletter from the American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.

© 2006 American Writers & Artists Inc.

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