True story. Nancy, my office manager writes resumes. She is not particularly skilled in English or possesses what I would call impeccable grammar but she makes some spare cash on the side and has customers who actually seek her out to write their resume.
Here’s how she did it.
We own and operate a small publishing business in a small town. One day a customer came into our office and asked where they could get a resume written for a job they wanted to apply for in the next town down the road. We had no idea where this fellow could go, but Nancy offered to help and set up an appointment to get together to discuss the resume contents the next day. Her computer had a resume template program built in with the software package it came with so she pulled it out and starting looking over what the required fields of information were and by the time she had explored a bit more online for ideas she was set to help the returning customer the next day.
He arrived, as planned and had nothing. No notes, no record of employment or anything else related to what he had done for the past twenty years of his life. Lucky for him there were a lot of different templates that were available and Nancy asked the key questions such as name, address, contact information and general details about previous employment. She got creative and added such things as a ‘Job Objective’ and ‘Related Skills’ columns to the template and ‘Hobbies’ to basically fluff up his resume.
She asked him to come back in an hour and she went to work. The template on her computer was incredible as she just filled in blanks and the computer did the rest with design, layout, etc. When the customer came back he was presented with a professional looking one page resume.
I don’t think he was completely out the door when we both realized there was a need for such a service so we started to spread the word through our publishing business and my wife contacted the local employment center and let them know she was in the resume writing business. It didn’t take long and she started getting referrals from the employment center, results from local advertising and word of mouth from happy customers. This all happened by chance because of a customer asking if there was such a service in town.
The perfect business for retired or semi-retired writers.
Imagine how this could work for you if you are already retired or semi-retired. The start-up costs are minimal providing you already own a computer. If you do and it doesn’t already have resume templates in the software package you can download some from the internet. You can do just as Nancy did and notify agencies that deal with unemployed workers that you have a resume service and are available. The majority of people looking for work would rather not write their own resume.
One thing Nancy discovered is that a lot of her customers do not view some of their personal talents and skills as marketable. She lists them on the resumes she constructs which obviously attracts employers who learn more about a potential employee as a result. One more thing Nancy does that brings her repeat business is that she keeps original resumes on file in her computer and provides extra printed copies (for a fee) and future updates of information (again, for a fee) and has had success with that approach. One customer with a seasonal job sees her at least once a year to update his file.
To learn a bit more about resume writing and cover letter writing a good source online is located at Resume-Resource.com.
Nancy finds it rewarding to use her skills to help others find work. Imagine how rewarding it could be for you to do the same!