If so, being a resume and cover letter writer or even teaching others how to write a business letter could be an excellent business for you to break into.
In an increasingly competitive world with worldwide competition and global talent pools competing for almost every job, experts, executives and career professionals will pay top dollar for someone who can help them gain an edge on their competition. It could be as basic as giving people the advice to simply use a good looking template and tweak the information they’ve already gathered, or it could be a more thorough process of teaching people how to extract the most important details from their experience to highlight.
If you can wield your pen (or word processor) to give them that edge, you could end up making lots of money in a business with extremely low overheads. Above all, when establishing your first business, navigating the intricacies of the law is not always easy. If you are looking for legal help with your business, go to weisblattlaw.com. Want to know how to get your business idea started? Let’s look closer.
Step 1: Research Buzz Words and Phrases & Tell a Narrative
While paper and ink resumes and cover letters still have their place, in today’s world most job applications are submitted electronically and many large firms have software which works to automatically eliminate resumes which don’t contain specific keywords and phrases.
In order to help your clients get through these barriers, you’ll need to know what the buzz words are in their industry.The internet is a treasure trove of such information and sites like About.com and Forbes.com are excellent educational resources for learning about this side of the business.
It will help to create your own database for reference as the keywords for an aeronautic engineer will be significantly different than those a teacher or professor will require.
Build your own list on excel or another program and constantly update it as the industry evolves and changes.
You’ll need to keep up to date with changes in a wide variety of industries, so subscribing to trade journals or blogs related to different industries may be a wise decision, too.
Also, you must learn how to tell a narrative. The resume should tell a story of what the employer can expect.
Step 2: Get Experience
It will help if you have credentials and are known in the recruitment world, but even if you are a newcomer you can gain experience by offering to help a few executives or professionals seeking new jobs at a reduced price. Freelancing websites like Upwork.com and Fiverr.com are replete with writing gigs in need of completion on a budget. You can gain valuable experience, feedback, and testimonials on these sites, steadily building your reputation as a superior resume and cover letter writer.
Pro Tip: Offer your clients a little something extra by learning graphic design and give their resumes a facelift. Research has shown that striking, standout resumes have a much greater chance of making the cut. If you can’t learn graphic design or don’t have the inclination, hire the freelancers offering their services on the above-mentioned sites to do it for you and build working relationships with reliable, talented individuals. You can even charge extra for this service to increase profits.
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Step 3: Hunt for High-Value Clients
If you have connections in a specific industry this can be an excellent place to land your first clients. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, computer programmers and many others are always on the lookout for new opportunities, and if you can convince them that your services will help them land them, they’ll at least be interested in hearing what you have to say.
Apart from direct contact you can search for professionals on networking sites like Linkedin or industry specific community websites (think Rigzone for energy industry professionals) and approach them via message with an offer to talk further. Linkedin optimization is, in fact, a service in and of itself, and can replace or be offered alongside traditional resume writing.
Another way to find clients is to let them come to you. Building your own website offering your services and advertising on platforms like Google Adwords, Linkedin and Facebook can be a boost to any business and will likely help you expand your client base if the offer is enticing.
Step 4: Showcase Your Success & Build Your Reputation
You’ll want to get the word out to as many people as possible about your success stories. Remember that every satisfied client can be turned into powerful marketing material to bring in more business.
Showcasing your success on your website as well as building your own professional profiles on Linkedin and elsewhere will help you build your brand and demonstrate what you can do.
You may even consider building your own blog and capturing video testimonials from satisfied clients. Nothing speaks louder than photos and videos of real people testifying to the usefulness of your service and how using it led to their own success. Blogging on platforms like WordPress can be an excellent way to get the word out.
Summary – How to Start a Resume Writing Service
The resume and cover letter writing business is one that’s sure to grow in the future. As the world marches further toward globalization each and every year competition will continue to increase, and with 3 billion more people set to come online by 2050, the number of potential clients is only going to get bigger.
For digital resumes and cover letters, your costs will only be those spent on advertising dollars to acquire new business. If you’re offering hard copies, you’ll need to add quality paper, ink, and delivery into the expense column. When you are creating your business, it is important to cover all the eventualities that could go wrong. In the resume writing business, a customer could accuse the service as not being what they expected and try to sue you for not providing the service with the promised outcome. This is where E&O insurance could be valuable to you, protecting against claims that your business did not provide the service as guaranteed. Starting a business is exciting and should not be clouded over by something so simple as not having the relevant insurances to protect your business. Resume writing is an up and coming business venture and could provide you with large profits, especially as a new business, which is providing a reasonable cost for your services.
To conclude, with top firms charging $100+ per resume, it isn’t difficult to see just how profitable this business could be!