Tips for Home-Based Resume Writers

Home-based resume writers face special challenges, including establishing credibility with prospective clients, managing their time, balancing work and personal responsibilities, and overcoming isolation issues.

Tips for home-based resume writers include:

• Being a professional and looking like a professional begins with one simple factor -- how we think. What you convey to your client will be perceived.
• Create an effective working environment. Acquire a comfortable desk and chair and make sure your room decor and background music are what you need to feel at peace during the day.
• Use technology to bolster your image. Services like ICS (Incoming Call Solutions) offered by UReach.com, TelCan, and Big Planet offer phone solutions such as "follow me" call forwarding, accepting faxes by email, etc.
• Create a social network. In addition to resume writing and career development affiliations, consider SCORE, Chamber of Commerce membership, and entrepreneur.com.
  

Marketing to Women

Eighty percent of all consumer purchasing decisions are made by women. Understand and implement the "EVEolutionary Truths" set forth by Faith Popcorn and co-author Lys Marigold in their book, "EVEolution" and tap into this powerful market.

Here are some ideas:

• Connecting female consumers to each other connects them to your brand. How can you connect one female client to another? Hold a free workshop at your local library and encourage the women who attend to introduce themselves to each other.
• If you're marketing to one of her lives, you're missing all the others. Women wear many hats, so you might design your worksheets to be completed in shorter segments so women can work on them while waiting for their child at one of their many activities.
• Market to her peripheral vision and she will see you in a while new light. Pick a child-friendly bookstore and offer to co-sponsor a brief talk on the careers industry at the same time they offer storytime to kids. Do the same thing at your local library.
• Walk, run, go to her, secure her loyalty forever. Make it convenient for her to work with you. Set up your website to handle requests for services.

Cultivating Referrals

Once you've been in business for more than a year, you should have a solid network of referrers. These can be clients, people in your network, other careers professionals, other business owners, etc.

If you don't have a network, get one! Think of some strategic partnerships you can develop. Be creative -- how about a referral relationship with your dentist? Or hairstylist? Or a divorce attorney? Or a mental health therapist who does career testing? Or a recruiter? An employment lawyer? The possibilities are endless.

Incorporate your request for referrals into your business. Tell clients that you get most of your new clients by referral -- and you'd appreciate, if they're satisfied with your services -- that they tell other individuals about you. Help them understand what kind of clients you're looking for ("Sam, as a senior executive yourself, you may comes across another executive who has been downsized and isn't having much success with traditional outplacement. If you are telking with someone like that, give me a call -- perhaps I can help him/her."

Develop (or enhance) your Reward for Referrals program. At a minimum, you should always send the referrer a handwritten thank you note.

Resources for Older Workers

Thanks to Bill Murdoch for this list of sites offering resources for older workers.

Compiled by US News & World Report, this aggregation of sites will be useful for your clients who are 50+.