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How To Start A Home-based Resume Writing Business
By Ann Baehr, Tue Dec 27th
Do you find yourself at work daydreaming of running a home-basedbusiness, only to become paralyzed by the fear of start-up costsand how to get started? If you are a good listener who enjoyshelping people and have skills in the areas of researching,writing, and formatting documents on the computer, you mightwant to consider becoming a resume writer. Make no mistake - theindustry is huge and competitive, and you will not get richquickly. You can depend on a steady income if you work hard, butit won't be immediate. The national salary average for ahome-based resume writer ranges from $25,000 to $100,000depending on how much marketing you do, how many clients you canmanage weekly, how much you charge, and if you are working foryourself, in partnership with someone, or employingsubcontractors to write your clients' resumes and cover letters. GETTING STARTED If you are currently working and are not in a financial positionto take a risk, keep your job and start slowly by working onlyin the evenings and on weekend. As a home-based entrepreneur,you must feel comfortable bringing clients into your home. Ifyou have small children and your home does not have a separateentrance, make sure someone is able to watch your children toavoid interruption. Make sure your family is supportive and iswilling to keep the house clean and quiet when you know you areexpecting a client. If you are not comfortable with meetingclients in person, you can decide to work strictly over theInternet. Some resume writes meet at local libraries and coffeeshops to conduct their client in-take interviews.
START-UP COSTS To succeed as a resume writer does require a lot ofdetermination and hard work, but it does not have to cost anunreasonable amount of money to get started. Start up costs willvary depending on your investment. To begin, you will want topurchase an up-to-date computer with high-speed Internet accessand a good word processor such as MS Word or WordPerfect.Ideally, you should have a wireless laptop so you can sitsomewhere comfortably when you work or for when you want to takeyour computer on the road for whatever reason. You will alsoneed a laser printer, a desktop or internal fax (such ase-fax.com), and a second telephone line if you live with peoplewho use the phone a lot. Supplies include toner and resume paper(http://www.southworth.com) if you are providing resume printsto clients (usually local resume services; Internet-basedclients are satisfied with the electronic version of theirresume). Mailing clients hard prints of their resumes is anadded cost to them and you since you must charge tax on atangible item. Good resume paper averages three to ten cents persheet and postage costs depend on how many prints you aresending (can be a lot if the resume is two pages). MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS There are two sure-fire ways to generate new business. If youare looking to start small, local advertising in the YellowPages is the best way to get started. At first you can beginwith an in-column print ad (simply having a commercial telephonenumber gives you a free line listing in the Yellow Pages underyour business category, but will not generate as much businessand an ad would) and eventually graduate to display ads withcolor or large black print ads. Often, the charge goes directlyon your monthly phone bill. The other way is to launch awebsite. Unless you can do your own website, you will need tohire a web designer. Cost range from $200 a page and up for abasic website - and will increase significantly depending onwhat you want done. You will need to tell your web designer whatyou want the website to say and how you want it to look and workfor you, so be sure to do your homework by looking at otherwebsites to get a feel for content and design. After you have awebsite developed, potential clients must be able to find you onthe Internet. That involves Search Engine Optimization (SEO)techniques. This is the difference between coming up in Google,Yahoo, and MSN one page 1 or 150. You can do Internet researchon SEO strategies and teach yourself the necessary skills(recommended for the small business owner) or you can hiresomeone to do it for you. SEO costs range, and can be as much as$3,000 to get started and as much as $1,000 a month to maintainand increase your page ranking. There is also SEO software onthe market that you can purchase to help you manage the process. DEVELOPING YOUR SKILLS Client relationships and the art of resume writing and coverletter writing are probably the hardest part of all. There areso many occupations out there that you must have a generalunderstanding of most of them to engage in a good conversationwith a job seeker. They must be made to feel confident that youknow what you are talking about and will be able to do theirresume and cover letter. And, it is important that you know whatyou are doing in order to develop a good resume. Today's jobseeker is very savvy
and is capable of writing a fairly decentresume using a vast array of free information available to themin resume sample books and on the Internet. They hireprofessional resume writers because they need someone to provideconsultative advice and to write a resume and cover letter inway that they cannot. You can visit many free Internet sitessuch as the Occupational Outlook Handbook or rent resume samplebooks from the library to study various job types, clientsituations, and wording. The best way to learn is workingdirectly with clients. They will tell you what you need to knowsimply by answering your questions and telling you what they do,which should include their accomplishments. A slow, but effective and affordable way to get started is tovolunteer your free resume writing services. Who wouldn't takeadvantage of that, considering today's professional resumewriter charges anywhere from $89 for a very basic resume to$1,500 for a comprehensive executive resume. You can advertisingyour free services at your local community college, library, andhomeless shelter, as well as help friends, family, andneighbors. Once you have gained a working knowledge of various occupationalareas and have mastered the art of interviewing clients, youwill need to have very good word processing and documentformatting skills so you can create an attractive resume. Youwill also need to have a knowledge of the resume writing processso you can strategically lay the resume out on paper in theproper manner. For example, you should know that the Educationsection for a new college graduate is the first section beforework experience unless their work experience is extensive. Inshort, you need to know what will sell your client (job seeker)to a hiring company. This is why the resume is called amarketing tool. When you are done creating the resume, the client will let youknow if they are happy with the results and will work with youon revisions. When it is finalized, it is recommended to onlysend an email version of the resume to clients because they needto learn how to modify their resumes if they want to ensure asuccessful job search campaign (this is something you must teachthem). This is the more affordable and efficient solution forboth you and your clients because the hard prints quickly becomeobsolete. You should never send a cover letter in hardcopybecause the cover letter must be personally addressed to thehiring manager/company. This should only be provided inelectronic form i.e. email or disk/CD. Another very importantform of the resume the client will need is a plain text version(ASCII). You will need to learn how to convert and format theresume to plain text so the client can upload their resume tomajor job boards such as monster.com, hotjobs.com, andcareerbuilder.com. DEFINING YOUR BUSINESS A resume writer falls into two categories - a resume generalistor niche market. A resume generalist writes for all occupationaldisciplines and a niche market resume writer specializes in onesuch occupation such as teachers or career level such collegestudents. If you decide to target a niche market, you will beexpected to have an expertise in this area. So be sure to mastereverything you need to know in that occupational area. You mightnot get as much business as a generalist would in the beginning,but as the years progress you will grow your niche business ifyou work hard and smart. ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY Job seekers need to know they can trust you before paying you.One way is to establish yourself with resume writingorganizations. They include the National Resume Writers'Association (nrwaweb.com), the Professional Association ofResume Writers (parw.com), Career Masters Institute(cminstitute.com), and the Professional Resume Writers andResearch Association (prwra.com). Annual memberships range from$150 to $175. You will have the opportunity to network withother resume writers on an e-list, have access to monthlynewsletters, attend annual conventions (conventions are a fewhundred dollars to attend), and get certified by taking (tough)certifying tests to get certified as a professional resumewriter. Each organization has their own guidelines. Modest testtaking fees average a couple of hundred dollars and the averagefirst-time pass rate is 50% with the opportunity to re-testwithout having to pay additional fees. After that, the wait timeis generally six month or a year to test again for a fee. LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS Check with your local Chamber of Commerce and accountant to setup your business structure, business registration, and taxes.
About the author:Ann Baehr is a CPRW and President of Best Resumes of New York, aglobally recognized resume writing firm established since 1993.Notable credentials include her former role as Second VicePresident of NRWA and contribution to 25+ resume and coverletter sample books. To learn more visithttp://www.e-bestresumes.com |
