Life Experiment #3: Start A Part-Time Resume Writing Business In 30 Days
December 15, 2008 by Allen Rinehart
The economy is tough, people are losing their jobs left and right. Financial institutions are crashing. Automakers are begging the government for bail out money. Seems like the perfect time to start a new business.
But not just any business, a business helping people find new jobs. For the next 30 days, I’ll attempt to start a Resume Writing business.
Why resumes and why now?…
Hypothesis: With the unemployment rate at an all time high of 6.7% (which is 10.3 million Americans by the way), it’s created an ideal market for people who need help finding a new work. The unemployment situation has also created more competition for those same jobs, which leads to job seekers turning to experts for help in their interview process. I predict that I can start this type of business with very little money & experience, a small investment of time, and in the process be able to help many other people find new jobs. My goal is to have the business up and running with at least one client by the end of those 30 days. Here’s how I plan on doing it…
Procedure:
Since I already have experience in writing and marketing, I thought this business would be the perfect fit for me. Costs are low (Maybe $200 or less) and it’s home-based, so work can be done in the morning, during my lunch break or anywhere else that I have free time.
As a writer, there are a few key things to focus on with business to become an expert at what I do.
Most writers are either writing, reading, or talking to become better at their craft. I feel the best way to become competent and confident in whatever business you do is to have more experience and knowledge than your clients. Those come only through making a dedicated effort of learning and doing everyday. Here are the skills I plan to practice on a daily basis:
- Reading Everyday - My goal is to read at least a 1,000 pages (or 33 pages/day) of material this month related to the resume writing business including blogs, websites, books from my local library, and the course I purchased on running a resume writing business. I’m going to dedicate at least an hour a day to this.
- Writing Everyday – The goal in this area is to produce at least one ebook and at least 10 articles on the subject of resumes and job searches which I will then use to market my business. I’m also setting a goal of reading each of the 20 sample resumes included in my resume business kit ten times each and recopying them by hand three times each doing one a day for the first 20 days. This was an exercise I learned from a previous writing course I’ve taken and its one of the best ways to subconsiously implant certain styles of writing into your head.
In order to create my business plan, I put together a set of questions to ask myself. Here’s a set of 30 questions I asked my myself prior to starting this challenge. I used the questioning technique that I’ve picked up from starting journaling trial last week. I wanted to explore all possible angles and really find out everything I could think of prior to starting this business. So here are some of questions I asked myself…
- Why do you want to start this business? What’s your mission?
- What is the goal of this business?
- What is something measurable that you want to accomplish and by when?
- Describe your vision for your business? What is the ideal day-to-day operations look like?
- What is everything you need to do to be “open for business”?
- What are the negative aspects of starting this business?
- What are the positive aspects of starting this business?
- What is the problem (client’s pain) that you’re trying to solve?
- Who are your major competitors and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
- How is you competition solving your customer’s pain/problem?
- Who are the target markets that your competitors are reaching?
- Is there a niche that your competitors are overlooking?
- Are there services your competitors aren’t offering that you could offer?
- How does your solution address the customer’s pain/problem?
- How much are you clients willing to pay to solve this problem?
- Are you pricing your goods and services competitively in regards to your competition?
- How do you expect clients to pay for your products/service?
- What kind of support do your customers expect from you?
- Where would customers typically look for solution like this?
- What marketing materials do you need to sell your services/product?
- Describe the sales cycle. Start from when people find out about your
business till when they get the product and pay. - Do you have a backend product? Is there anything you can sell after the inital product?
- If you where your own prospect, how would you find your business?
- How much time are you willing to dedicate to this business?
- Do you need employees or are you doing everything yourself?
- How do you plan on financing this business?
- What are all the costs involved in this business?
- What do you consider a “success” with this business?
- What happens next after you’re successful? What’s your next step?
- What’s your exit strategy? At what point do you give up and move on?
I also created a simple to-do list of everything I could think of that I needed to do get this business started. You’ll notice that a large portion of the tasks relate to marketing and promotion. I felt that this was one of the most important aspects of the business. I could have the best writing skills in the world, but if no one knew about my business, it’d be very hard to continue doing it. I’m also focusing on mostly on low-cost or free gureilla marketing tactics to reduce my inital overhead on this project. Here’s my list of everything I need to do:
- Administrative:
- Register my business name with the county clerk.
- Open a business checking account.
- Get a business phone.
- Create a simple accounting spreadsheet.
- Put a budget together with costs.
- Calulate my over and breakeven point.
- Publicity:
- Try to get local publicity tailored to the current economy. A lot of people are losing their job, so editors will really be drawn to someone who’s helping those people get hired.
- Submit releases to free press release sites.
- Website:
- Register a domain name.
- Have a free ebook on the site that I give away in exchange for emails addresses.
- Have a blog that’s updated every week with new articles.
- Have resume email course with tips on finding a job & writing a resume.
- Create an email newsletter and send it out once a week.
- Seek out free classified sites for local advertising.
- SEO / Web Advertising:
- Put examples of good resumes on Flickr.com
- Comment on resume/job search blogs.
- Put an ad on Craigslist.
- Have a glossary of resume & job search terms on my site.
- Have a gaint list of links with job search resources on my site.
Then email these websites to let them know you’ve
linked to them and would appreciate a link back. - Submit new articles to article sites every week on resume tips.
- Add website to directories.
- Guest blogging on other blogs.
- Use twitter, digg, delicious, stumbleupon, squiddo to get additional links.
- Networking & Associations
- Join the Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches
- Join the Nation Resume Writers Association
- Join the Houston Chamber of Commerce
- Join related groups and post questions and comments on Linkedin.com & Facebook.com.
- Email Career Coaches & HR Managers with a lot of experience in the field with questions on what people are looking in a good resume. Use material for articles & blog posts.
- Guerilla Marketing
- Create business cards. Put business cards in every where I have an oportunity including when I pay a bill, visit a store or inside books related to resumes.
- Hand out flyers at the next local job fair or even get a booth at one to advertise my services.
- Make a T-shirt from CafePress.com and give them away.
- Create a funny holiday for the business.
- Send follow-up emails to clients to check in on their job search.
- Send a congraduations once they land a new job.
- Get a portal rubber stamp with my URL and put it on everything.
- Create some bumper stickers and give them away.
- Send clients a birthday card & a card for every holiday.
- Host online resumes of clients for free.
- Hold a contest for free resume writing services.
- Answer questions related to writing resumes on Yahoo Answers & Linkedin Answers.
- Ask clients for suggestions for improvementa dn reward people who answer.
There you have it. A complete break-down of my plan to start my new business. This is going to be one of my hardest 30-day challeneges yet, but even if I don’t continue it after the trial, it’ll be an amazing learning experience for future projects.
Is there a business that you’ve always wanted to start, but have always put it off?
What’s holding you back from at least trying it out this month?
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Tags: 30 day challenge, 30 day trial, 30 day trials, business plan, resume writer, resume writing business, start your own business
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