Finding It Hard to Stay Motivated?

I read on her Facebook page today that Kathy Sweeney started her resume business, The Write Resume, 25 years ago today. (Congratulations, Kathy!!) My resume writing business was founded in 1996 (15 years last year!). Longevity in the resume writing business isn't rare -- there are hundreds of resume writers who have been in business for more than 10 years -- .... but staying motivated can be a challenge.

In the beginning you were likely gung-ho about starting your resume writing business. Maybe some of that fire is starting to flicker out. (It can ebb and flow...) So, how can you stay motivated?

When times get tough, you may decide that you want to throw in the towel. Confronted by a PIA client (think: pain in your keister!) you might think to yourself, "Wouldn't it just be easier to go get a job?" After you've spent the last 14 hours writing resumes, handling client emails, doing all the financial paperwork and recordkeeping that goes along with keeping your business running, and squeezing in some marketing activities so the phone will ring tomorrow, you might be both physically and mentally tired.

Before you give it all up, however, consider a few ways that you can help yourself to regain your zest for running the business.

First, ask yourself a few questions:

• Why did you start the business in the first place? Don't underestimate the power of your memory. Were you working for someone else but wanting to be your own boss? If you don't want to return to that way of life, then donít give up when the chips are down. Was it because you had a desire to help others? (Most resume writers have a little "social worker" in us.) Who did you help today?

• How are things looking for other resume writers? It could be that everyone is having a slow season. Evaluate your growth compared to others in the careers industry. 

There are two things that can motivate you to keep going here:

One: Other resume writers are doing better than you are. A little friendly rivalry is healthy. You can opt to step up your game and learn from whatever others in the careers industry are doing to make financial gains where you are not. (For example, LinkedIn profile development writing is a growing area. Would learning some new skills and expanding the types of services you offer rejuvenate you?)

Two: If other resume writers are in the same boat, you can rise above the mediocrity. Remember what you started your resume business for. If you are going to make a living and reach your goals, keep the big picture in mind.

• What are your goals? Every resume writer has to remain focused in order to move forward. Your goals set the path along which you will travel. But, if your goals are non-existent, or they aren't strong enough to support your business, then it is time to re-evaluate and change them to become the appropriate platform to help you gain success.

Now that you have asked yourself some questions, here are a few suggestions to help you continue to push forward.

• Get sage advice. Consult a trusted advisor. The leaders of the professional resume writing associations can give you perspective. (Frank, Laura, Wendy, Louise, Maria.) They can help you to regain your focus and also set a new course for your business should you need that.

• Partner up! Reach out to another resume writer and team up to form a support group for each other! If you're stuck while writing a particularly difficult resume, you can reach out for inspiration. You can post encouraging notes on each other's Facebook walls. (Or use Facebook's "Poke" feature to let him or her know you're there for them.)

• Gain camaraderie on forums. Visit and become a participating part of professional association e-lists and online forums. You can find out tips to help you move forward in your business. Consider attending a conference offered by one of the major associations or taking online training.

• Get access to tools to make your work easier. Don't reinvent the wheel! I use an inspiration book to help me when I get stuck in writing. And you can use tools from BeAResumeWriter.com -- like each month's unique Pass-Along Materials to help your clients (and market your business).

It's natural that you're going to have times when you struggle in your careers industry business. Taking it one day at a time (hoping and planning that tomorrow will be better than today) can keep you going through the difficult times.

NRWA Conference Preview

Yesterday, I was on a free teleseminar call sponsored by the National Resume Writers' Association (NRWA), previewing their upcoming conference in September in Portland, Maine. While I'm unable to attend due to family commitments, I was interested in hearing what was planned -- and I'd like to share a couple of the highlights with you.

(You can listen to the call recording here).

The call was facilitated by Kathy Sweeney and featured several of the conference speakers, including Barbara Safani, Kimberly Schneiderman, and Norine Dagliano.

On Friday, Sept. 23, Barbara will present on "Social Media in Job Search: No Longer Optional."

• "A resume isn't enough anymore," she says.
• Social media profiles allow candidates to better compete.
• Resume writers have a great opportunity to educate clients on what else is out there (in terms of social media profiles and tools) besides LinkedIn.
• This session is important because "resume writers need to keep up with the times."

On Thursday, Sept. 22, in one of the concurrent breakout sessions, Kimberly Schneiderman will present "Boiling It Down: Marketing Your Most Accomplished Client Through a One-Page Document."

• These one-page documents won't replace the resume, but are an additional tool.

On Saturday, Sept. 24, Norine Dagliano will talk about "Same Client - Different Story: Tools and Strategies for Crafting Career-Change Resumes."

• She's had numerous clients coming to her with the challenge that "what they had done, they may not be able to do anymore."
• Traditional resume formats don't work for career changers.

Finally, Kathy Sweeney talked about the presentation she'll give on Friday, Sept. 23 on "Trademarks and Copyrights 101: How to Protect Your Business Name, Logo, and Intellectual Property." On the preview call, Kathy talked about how she's had her website content copied, her articles stolen, and her business name used by other people. She also talked about how she had unintentionally used the name of another business (despite conducting a trademark search). After she had invested time and money in creating a website, blog, and radio show, she received a cease-and-desist letter from another careers industry professional who, she soon discovered, owned that brand. She immediately changed the consortium name, but had to re-record 12 radio shows with the new name.

Sweeney said her talk will help resume writers:

• Protect your business
• Protect your reputation
• Protect your intellectual property
• Make sure you're not infringing on someone else (even accidentally).

For more information about the NRWA Conference, or to register, visit the NRWA website.

A two-pay conference registration option is available for one more week.

Are You SEO Ready?

Are you one of the resume writers who considers advertising in the Yellow Pages so "last century"? Do you get most of your new resume clients online? Is your website ready to be a primary source of new business for you? Is it optimized to meet the needs of the search engines that drive the majority of visits to websites like yours?

If you're like me, you wonder how you can get your website to show up on search engines so you can keep attracting new clients. And how you can get more traffic using paid listing services -- but ensure that you're spending your money wisely. Nowadays, you're not just competing with other resume writers in your area, you're competing with writers around the world for clients. Are you ready?

This is one of those topics where we, as resume writers, are going to need to learn some new tricks if we're going to still be selling our resume writing services into the next decade ... so we might as well invest 90 minutes to learn the strategies that will keep our phones ringing (and e-mail boxes full!) for the future.

Kathy Sweeney, NCRW, CPRW, CEIC, CCM, is presenting a webinar tomorrow (Thursday, July 31) at 3 p.m. EDT that you should attend if you want to learn how to maximize the Internet as a source of new clients. If your website is producing the kind of traffic that has your phone ringing off the hook, by all means spend tomorrow serving those clients. But if your appointment book is less-than-full, invest the $39 and attend Kathy's webinar. (Even if you can't make the live session, you can receive the webinar recording and materials after the session -- but if you're a Mac user like me, you'll want to attend live -- see the technical note below).

In the webinar, you'll learn how search engines find your website, effective keyword selection, the importance of meta page titles and meta tag descriptions, the difference between "natural listings" and "paid listings" (and the different types of paid listings), how to submit your website to directories (many of them for free!), how to negotiate relevant reciprocal links, and much more.

Register for the seminar HERE.

The 90-minute webinar is just $39. If you're not able to attend the "live" webinar, Kathy will be recording the audio and the actual "on-screen" presentation of the webinar. So even if you can't make it on Thursday, you will still receive the recording, video, and materials at the conclusion of the source. (See the special note below for MAC users.)

About webinars:
Attending a webinar is not much different than attending a teleseminar. But instead of just using your phone, you use your computer to follow along. You must be at your computer and on your phone at the same time. You will need to be able to "view" the webinar
on your computer.

System requirements:
* PC-based attendees: You'll need Windows 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server or Vista. To view the recorded video from the webinar, you must have Windows Media Player, Version 9 or higher.
* MAC folks (like me!) you'll need MAC OS X 10.3.9 Panther (or newer) to see the webinar. Although Kathy will be recording the video and audio, if you're a Mac-based resume writer, Kathy suggests you attend
the live webinar, as you will not be able to view the webinar video afterwards unless you have access to a PC (or run your Mac dual platform, my husband tells me. *smile*)

If the link doesn't work, visit the Resume Writers Resource website and click on "Teleseminars and Webinars."

Note: When you sign up for the webinar, you will be sent an "invitation" to register for the webinar. You must use the link Kathy will send you and "register" for the webinar or you will not be able to participate.

Teleseminar with "Best Branding Expert on the Planet"

Branding is a huge topic -- not just for resume writers who are looking for more business, but for our clients, who are trying to differentiate themselves from their competition and land the interview.

Kathy Sweeney, of Resume Writers Resource, has lined up a world-renowned branding expert, Rob Frankel, to present a teleseminar at 3 p.m. EST today, "The 10 Worst Mistakes That Are Killing Your Brand."

• Identify the 10 most common mistakes you're committing right now, which result in killing your brand on a daily basis.
• Discover 10 solutions to correct the situation, which will allow you to fix the problem immediately.
• Answer your questions on specific branding problems with your own company.

Frankel is author of the book, "The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build a Big Time Brand -- On the Web or Anywhere Else," and CEO of Frankel & Anderson. He has been featured on NBC Nightly News, ABC-TV, CNBC, FOX News, and National Public Radio. He has also been featured in numerous print publications, including Newsweek, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Times.

The 90-minute teleseminar is just $25. To sign up for this teleseminar and/or check out the Resume Writers Resource course offerings, click here. Even if you're not able to attend the live session, you can still pre-register and receive the audio recording and materials after the session concludes.

Resume Writers Resource

The careers industry has professional associations. We have conferences. You even have a trade magazine (that's me!). And now resume writers have an independent company that will help facilitate success, Resume Writers Resource …

Kathy Sweeney, NCRW, CPRW, CEIC, CCM has built her company, The Write Resume into a well-recognized brand -- and now she wants to share her expertise with other resume writers. Of course, Kathy has been sharing her secrets for attracting media attention and cultivating lasting client relationships for years. Her presentation on "Enhance Your Business Visibility and Increase Your Revenue" in Scottsdale in September 2006 at the NRWA Career Conference yielded tons of ideas for me. During her time as NRWA President, she mentored countless new and "emerging" resume writers. Now she's offering her services to the industry.

"The more you put yourself out there, the more your name will become known."
-- Kathy Sweeney, 9/15/06

One of the most exciting services offered by Resume Writers Resource (from my perspective) is the Press Release Writing Service. Even if you don't want to become a household name or have your company featured on the AOL home page, you will be amazed at the amount of business a single article written about your resume writing services can offer. For about the price of 1-2 resume projects, you can attract a dozen new clients ... ones who aren't just looking for the lowest-priced provider, either.

(The next Special Report from Resume Writers' Digest will give you actionable ideas on how to generate publicity for your business. But if you want to save some time, or don't want to wait for the report, contact Kathy.)

Kathy is also bringing affordable teleseminars and webinars to the industry. Her first offering, "The Nuts and Bolts of Implementing Interview Coaching Into a Resume Writing Business" will be offered tomorrow, Thursday 2/14/08 at 3 p.m. Eastern. The cost is just $25.

Kathy's experience will be a valuable "resource" for the careers industry, so be sure to sign up for her e-mail list to be notified of upcoming events.