The Shoemaker's Kid

You know the story about the shoemaker's kid -- the one who doesn't have any shoes. That's because his mom, the shoemaker, is too busy with her clients to focus on her kid's feet. (I wrote about the shoemaker's kid a few weeks ago in regards to resume samples, too.)

Well, as a professional resume writer who wears a lot of hats, I obviously feel like the shoemaker a lot of the time. I'm out here telling you about stuff you should be doing ... and should probably follow my own advice more than I do. What reminded me of this was seeing Jessica Simpson on The View this morning. She was asked if she had bought lots of gifts for her sister, who is expecting a child in November. She said, "I've been telling everyone yes -- so I'd better get shopping!"

I kind of feel that way with my newsletter. For example, in the May/June issue, the sidebar on the front cover had to do with sending an e-mail to past clients about updating their resume. It's a fabulous idea -- and, depending on how extensive your list of past clients is -- it's guaranteed to drum up some repeat business.

The bad news is, you have to have a client database to properly implement the idea. I've got a client database ... but it's a Rolodex. I faithfully fill out a Rolodex card for each resume project when I finalize it. Since I've been writing resumes for 12 years now in my business, you'd think I would have taken the time somewhere along the way to put it on the computer. But no, while I'm constantly updating other databases (including my list of subscribers to Resume Writers' Digest), I hadn't gotten around to creating the database.

So, in the "better late than never" category of things, I started the database on Monday, and I'm up to 12 contacts. Well, only a couple hundred more to go now. But I went ahead and sent out the e-mail to the first 10 (the other 2 were new projects I finalized on Tuesday), and I'm going to set a goal of adding 10 new contacts every couple of days (I'd say every day, but that's just not gonna happen, and I might as well be realistic). I figure by next May I'll be good to go. *smile*

So take it from me, and don't be a shoemaker. Take five minutes and start a task that you should be doing to improve your resume writing business -- whether that's starting a database (like I just did), putting together that list of frequently-asked questions you've always been meaning to write out, or starting a blog.

There's no time like the present!

You're Only as Good as Your Samples

I'm reminded of a comment Louise Kursmark once made at a resume writing conference -- it was something about the shoemaker's kids not having shoes — meaning, resume writers are often the worst when it comes to updating their own resumes ... and, in my case, their samples.

I was thinking about this today as I sent off a quote for a prospective new client and pasted in my usual list of sample resume links from the template quote response e-mail I use (samples of which can be found in my Write Great Resumes Faster book). The client loved them, and committed to the project, but my inner voice reminded me that it's been a while since I updated the samples. Another item for the to-do list.

I've written before about resume samples -- including whether you should or should not include them on your web site ... but the fact of the matter is, you'd better have samples of your work because SOMETIME a client is going to ask for them. You may do all of your work from referrals (hey, those are your samples talking too — only they're not fictionalized!), but not everyone is going to believe that you can transform their dull, ordinary resume into something extraordinary.

That's another of my goals — to create a set of before-and-after resumes. I've got plenty of the “befores” (I request the client’s existing resume as part of the quoting process), but I haven’t taken the time to match them up with the “afters” and update my sample portfolio. Yet another item for the to-do list.

Take a look at the samples you're using. Are they from two years ago? Are they out of date? Now may be the time to work on that. That may have to be the subject of a future post for new resume writers — how to fictionalize samples.