How Much Do Resume Writers Charge?

I received this question via email yesterday from a career professional:

"Bridget, do you have any information -- or from your own experience -- about the average price charged by resume writers? I think in one of your programs you mentioned something like $500? I think this is probably high. I have been looking at some websites, and they charge $179-$199 for a professional resume. $500 probably is for a resume writer who is well known in the industry. Can you forward me pricing information? Thanks."

Here's my response:

I do have current statistics on pricing for resume writing services in the U.S. 
The figures for an average resume and cover letter have been pretty steady for the last 3 years -- around $500. The average number of resumes written by professional resume writers is 2-4 per week, according to the 2011 survey data.

• 29% of resume writers charge $100-$299 for a resume and cover letter
• 35% charge $300-$499
• 12% charge $500-$699

"Resume mills" -- with multiple writers -- tend to charge less than a single writer web site. 
Certified writers generally charge more than non-certified writers. Resume writers who charge more than $1,000 per project tend not to put their prices on their website -- they quote client projects individually.

I pulled up five random websites from thenrwa.com for illustration:
-- http://www.WriteStepResumes.com/Services.html (Alabama) - $199 to $399
-- http://www.awriteresume.com/services.htm (Arizona) - $299 to $1199
-- http://www.eischensresume.com/services (California) - $200 to $750
-- http://www.Career3D.com/services.html (Colorado) - $297 (resume re-write)
-- http://www.srbcg.com/reacutesumeacute.html (Connecticut) - $299+

All are substantially above the $179-$199 rate ... but again, none of these are "resume mills."

Here is a profile of the "average" resume writer -- 
excerpted from the "Profile of a Professional Resume Writer" special report, which you can get free here by putting in your name and email address. (Offer is for professional resume writers and career coaches -- not for jobseekers, please!)

Get the Profile of Professional Resume Writers Report Here

Profile of the "Average" Resume Writer
Based on the survey information collected, here is the profile of the "average" resume writer:

She is a female in her mid-50s, a self-employed resume writer who has been writing for 11-15 years. She is certified as a resume writer who belongs to one professional association (either the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARW/CC) or Career Directors International (CDI).

Our average resume writer works from a home office primarily, but occasionally meets with clients in person -- usually in a public place, like a coffee shop (not a separate business office). She spends 24 hours a week writing, and another 15-20 hours a week on administrative and marketing activities. She writes 2-4 resumes each week, and her average package - for which she charges $350 - includes a resume, cover letter, and references document. She collects the full payment upfront for her work and uses a combination of a questionnaire and phone interview/phone consultation to gather information from the client.

As for income, she brings in gross revenues of $3,600-$5,600 each month, and she nets around $55,200 per year after taxes.

Although she has her own profile on LinkedIn, she's not actively soliciting clients on LinkedIn, nor does she do very many LinkedIn profile development/overhaul projects -- primarily because she's unsure of how to market this service and what to charge. She gets most of her clients from her website or referrals. She has a personal Facebook account, but not a Facebook Business Page (if she does have a Facebook page for her business, it has fewer than 100 "Likes" or "fans.") She doesn't have a Twitter account, or if she does, she's not using it very often.

When it comes to keeping up with trends and information in the industry, she relies on her professional association, resume books, and teleseminars (mostly free, but 1-2 paid ones a year) for information. She doesn't attend professional conferences (either in-person, or virtual ones).

Her biggest frustrations revolve around getting new clients (especially educating them about the value of a professionally written resume), and the hassles of being self-employed (recordkeeping and taxes, managing the processes and paperwork associated with client management, and having to wear "all the hats, all the time"). She's not in this just for the paycheck -- she'll often spend an average of an hour of her time with her clients to help them with other aspects of their job search (answering their questions about job searching or preparing for the interview), and won't charge them extra for this assistance. She loves the work that she does, especially when clients let her know her work has helped them land their dream job.

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Notice that the "average" resume writer charges $350 for a resume and cover letter, but the survey data found that $500 is the "average" across all survey respondents. In profiling the "typical" resume writer, I used the most commonly provided answers, not the "average" calculated. Note too that the survey is based on self-reported responses. 

Want to learn more about who resume writers are, and what we charge? If you're a resume writer, career coach --  or are interested in becoming one -- enter your name and email address in this form and you'll immediately receive access to the "Profile of Professional Resume Writers" special report, and emails with resources that will help you become more effective in your work and in your work with clients.

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Average Resume Writer Profile: Professional Conferences

Our “average” resume writer has been to a professional association conference before. There was one that was only a couple hours away, so she decided to go when she found a $49 one-way Southwest Airlines fare. It was a good experience.

The opening reception was lots of fun, and she met a lot of new people … including some names she recognized from the association’s email list.

The first day’s morning sessions were very good – the first one was really relevant – it was on a resume writing topic, she recalls … but the second session was on something she wasn’t really interested in. Lunch went well – the food was pretty good, and she sat by a couple of people she met the night before. After lunch, she decided to check her voice mail messages, an discovered one of her clients needed a change to his cover letter. Fortunately, she had brought along her laptop, so she went back to her room and made the change and sent off the file. She’d missed the first after-lunch session (it was on using Microsoft Word), but she made it for the next one, on pricing your services. A great session by Susan Britton Whitcomb on resume writing strategies rounded out the day.

That night, she joined in the scheduled activity, a dinner at a famous local restaurant, followed by a show. She hung out in the hotel lobby afterwards, talking to some fellow resume writers until nearly 1 a.m., then called it a night.

Morning dawned too early. She slept in a bit and missed breakfast. The first session of the day was something about websites, and she already has one, so she went next door to Burger King and had a Croissanwich and coffee.

She got back in time for the last morning session, on organization, time management, and client management strategies. She picked up a few tips she vowed to put into practice when she got back home.

Lunch again – sitting with her new group of friends. They decided it was too beautiful of a day to spend inside … so they skipped out of the Friday afternoon sessions to head out to the beach that was just a few blocks away, and then dinner at a restaurant just off the ocean.

Saturday morning dawned, with a continental breakfast (the same food choices as Thursday, she noticed), and the first session of the day on interview coaching techniques. Very interesting! The second session was on conducting career assessments. A couple of people left mid-way through, though, collecting the suitcases they had stashed at the back of the room.

The conference ended at 1 p.m., but she had a 1:30 p.m. flight, and in this post-9/11 world, that meant getting to the airport by 12:15. She’d have to duck out of the last session herself, leaving before the closing banquet.

Sitting on the plane on the way back home, she paused to reflect on the trip. She met a couple of new friends, picked up some new tricks, and got a nice tan. Her total expenses were only about $1100, including the conference registration, hotel, plane fare, meals and drinks. Not bad.

She’d do it again, if the conference were somewhere fun, and the sessions looked interesting.

Average Resume Writer Profile: Marketing/Advertising/Public Relations

Speaking of marketing and public relations support, our “average” resume writer has a couple of thoughts on the process.

She’s been in the Yellow Pages for years, but her ad isn’t as big anymore. That’s because the kinds of calls she gets as a result of the ad aren’t as good as they used to be … there seems to be more price-shoppers and tire-kickers than before. Her Yellow Pages rep keeps trying to sell her an upgrade to an “enhanced” online listing, but she’s not convinced by the numbers he’s throwing out.

Online is the place to be, she thinks, but I think I can do more with my money on my own. She’s got a website. But it’s mostly an “online brochure,” and she updates it about once a year. She’s got some information about the services she offers, the logos for the professional associations she belongs to (even the ones that she used to belong to – whoops, forgot to take the logo down when the membership lapsed). Organizations change, but her website is stuck in time… there’s a reference to the Professional Resume Writing and Research Association (PRWRA) – now Career Directors International, and she followed Wendy Enelow’s advice to put the Career Masters Institute logo on her site … but now it’s “The Alliance” and she still has the CMI logo on there … even though she forgot to send in her renewal last month (or was it the month before that?)

She’d like to build her network, but who has the time? She’s sure there are some groups out there she could speak to and possibly get some business out of, but has no idea where to start the contact process. She did one speech last year to a Kiwanis group, but it seemed to be a lot of self-employed folks (insurance agents, doctors, lawyers) and she didn’t get any new clients from it.

She’s heard PR (public relations) can be a good way to increase her profile with prospective clients, but when she sent out a news release last year, they didn’t print it – but she did get a call from someone in the newspaper’s advertising sales department, wondering if she’d like to run an ad. Come to think of it, though, they did run a short item in the “Business Profiles” section of the paper when she got her CEIP certification, and while her neighbors noticed it, none of the prospects who called in the next few weeks mentioned it. There was also the call from the reporter on her voice mail message after she got back from a four-day weekend, but when she called him back, he said the story he was interviewing for had already run.

One of her biggest challenges (after generating leads) is converting prospects into customers. When people call on the phone, they seem really interested, until she tells them the price. Some of them do decide to buy, but a lot of them say they are just starting the process and aren’t ready to buy yet. She thanks them and tells them to call her back when they’re ready to get started (but she usually doesn’t get their e-mail address or phone numbers). If she does get their e-mail address, she sends them information about her services, and some of those people end up calling her back to engage her services.

But she’s tired of justifying her prices to people who call her, so she per her prices up on the website and created a PayPal link so people can just order online instead of calling to ask her how much she charges. No one has ordered using the link yet, but she just put it up a few months ago, so it’s still new.

Next Time: Average Resume Writer Profile: Professional Conferences

Average Resume Writer Profile: Existing Client Base

Having been in business for a number of years, our “average” resume writer has worked with thousands of clients – yet she doesn’t have a formal strategy for client retention and reactivation. Heck, she doesn’t even have an updated database of clients. She’d like to create a program to tap into those clients – like a $8/month continuity service that provides an annual update, an online archive of the client’s documents, access to job search information, and a discount on related services (like background checks, salary reports, and resume distribution services)… but it’s not something she wants to develop or administer.

She’d also like some marketing support. One of the biggest challenges of working by yourself is balancing the workload. She’d like to send out a quarterly newsletter or postcard, but what if she got 30-40 returning clients all at once? She’d be swamped. Plus, updates don’t pay as well as new projects – even if you charge by the hour. So it feels better to just keep focusing on getting new clients.

Next Time: Average Resume Writer Profile: Marketing/Advertising/Public Relations

Profile of an Average Resume Writer

I always create a profile of the “average” resume writer, based on the statistics from the Resume Writers’ Digest annual Industry Survey.

This year, instead of including the profile in the issue with the survey findings, I’m creating a multi-part profile of the “average” resume writer and posting it as a series on my blog.

She (resume writers as a whole are overwhelmingly female) is in her early-to-mid-50s and is a full-time business owner. She has been writing resumes for 11-12 years and currently works from a home office. She is certified as a resume writer and belongs to the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARW/CC). In the past, she also belonged to the Career Management Alliance (the “Alliance”), but her membership lapsed a few months ago and she hasn’t gotten around to renewing.

She spends 22 hours a week writing 4-5 new resumes and fulfilling other services for her clients, including updates, some career coaching – most of it for free – and a few resume distribution projects. She spends another 10 hours a week on administrative tasks (billing, recordkeeping, tax compliance), and marketing.

Her average resume packages is a resume and cover letter, for which she receives $275 to $325. That likely includes 30-60 minutes of “free” advice for the client on using the resume or providing instruction in the job search process — usually doled out in phone calls and emails after the resume draft has been delivered.

Her gross monthly revenue is between $4,000 and $5,000 — netting her around $38,000 after taxes annually.

Next Time: Average Resume Writer Profile: Existing Client Base