Multiple Streams of Income for Your Resume Writing Business

I talk often about resume writers who trade "hours for dollars" -- if you're only writing resumes, you're missing out on the opportunity to create passive income and recurring revenue that can put a couple of extra dollars in your pocket each month -- or completely ease the peaks and valleys of resume writing by providing steady, ongoing income...even while you sleep.

Sounds great, huh? When some people think of multiple income streams they think of "get rich quick" schemes that do nothing but take your hard-earned money. However, there are some easy, effective ways to create multiple streams of income in the careers industry.

Ideas for More Income

• Work with multiple clients simultaneously. It's hard to maximize your income when you're working with one client at a time. After all, there is only one of you, right? But have you considered offering groups or workshops? For example, Tina Kasklak Nicolai of Resume Writers' Ink is offering a "Do-It-Yourself Resume Writing Workshop" next month. For $50, she can work with a whole roomful of folks for a couple of hours (and some of them are likely to hire her to write their resumes, once they figure out how hard it is to "Do It Yourself"). Income potential: $150-$1000.
• Set up a blog. Blogs are not only a good place to communicate with your market, but also a place to earn a bit of extra income. Find ways to monetize it. (Affiliate links, Google Adsense, links to Clickbank programs, and selling ebooks are just a few ideas.) Income potential: $5-$200/month.
• Take a part-time job. If you're just building your resume writing business, or if you're struggling to make ends meet, consider taking a part-time job -- especially one in the career services field. Your local university may have a need in their career services office for someone to work part-time. Other possibilities include: employment offices and recruiting firms, government career services, or local nonprofits that serve jobseekers (like Goodwill). It will take a balancing act to get everything done each day, but you will have that security of knowing your bills will be paid and your family taken care of until you can leave that job for good. Income potential: $500-$2000/month.
• Create a product of your own. Maybe an ebook or workbook on a topic related to the job search. (Instead of doing a "general" book, however, I recommend something more specific -- for example, resume and cover letters for the specific niche you serve, or a job search guide for your geographic area, listing major employers, job search groups, employment resources, temp agencies and recruiters, etc.). You can sell your information product on your website, blog or on another site for greater exposure. Read "Making Money Writing Ebooks" -- it's January's "Special Report" for bronze members of BeAResumeWriter.com. Income potential: $25-$500/month.
• Start a Career Membership Site. Create passive income and/or recurring revenue by providing membership programs on careers-related topics. I have an 8-day LinkedIn training program that sells for $15. Once you set it up, it runs itself! Income potential: $15-$1000/month.
• Affiliate marketing. The best thing about affiliate marketing is that the person with the product gives you all of the tools that you need to promote their product in your affiliate toolbox. This makes it easy for you to begin taking advantage of this stream of income.  And, your revenue can grow as your business grows. Possible affiliates include ResumeSpider, Allison & Taylor, and multiple products in the Clickbank Marketplace. Check out this blog post for more details about affiliate marketing. Income potential: $10-$300/month.

Are you looking to have more than one source of income? Put one or more of these ideas to work for you today!

No Wonder Job Seekers Are Confused: Part 5

Here's the last blog post in a series I'm doing to refute the ideas in what I believe is a misguided article: "Five Out-Of-Date Job Search Tactics" from Bloomberg Business. (You can feel free to weigh in using the Comments section below.)

They say:  (Avoid) "Gratuitous Research."

This one cracks me up. Apparently, the author feels you can be "too prepared" for a job interview -- and that, rather than coming across as an informed, intelligent, interested job seeker, she thinks that looks like "brown-nosing."

Really? And yet, in that same section, she advocates looking at LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and Glassdoor to prepare for the interview. 

So which is it? I think it's a fine line. A job seeker can't point out that they prepped for the interview by "spending the weekend researching the company"? That's "groveling"? I think that's showing that the job seeker takes the interview seriously. 

I think you can "advance a business conversation" by referencing where you heard about the "Acme Explosives-Toontown Motors merger" -- you might find the hiring manager has some insight into the author of the article you read -- particularly a bias from the article's author that may not have been apparent to the casual reader but that impacts the inference in the article.

All in all, this article underscores the problem with a lot of the mainstream media articles aimed at jobseekers today. There is a need for careers-related content (as I point out in my "Feed the Media" teleseminar -- available in the "Free Level" of BeAResumeWriter.com), and unfortunately, that leads to a lot of mis-information being spread as "gospel."

But it's up to us as careers industry professionals to speak up and refute mis-information when we see it.

No Wonder Job Seekers Are Confused: Part 4

This is the fourth in a series of posts refuting an article in Bloomberg Business on: "Five Out-Of-Date Job Search Tactics". (You can feel free to weigh in using the Comments section below.)

They say: (Lose the) "Endless Bullets."

I actually agree with the advice about not overusing bullets on your resume. (Recruiters giving advice on resume writing are usually the ones who strongly advocate for bulleted lists.)

A focus on accomplishments is also critical, and the author gets that, too.

But be careful of using too "breezy" of a tone in the resume. It's still a business document, after all.

In the next blog post: "Gratuitous Research."

No Wonder Job Seekers Are Confused: Part 3

This is the third post in a series refuting an article in Bloomberg Business on: "Five Out-Of-Date Job Search Tactics". (You can feel free to weigh in using the Comments section below, and check out yesterday's post on "Creaky Cover Letter Language" here.)

They say: (Saying) "Here's Why You Should Hire Me" is out-of-date.

Last Friday night, on the ABC show, "Shark Tank," all five "Sharks" (potential investors) made an important point to the gentleman pitching his company, Salespreneur. (Dave Greco)

Daymond John asks the pitchman (who is supposedly a master salesman) to "sell me this pen." The guy does so, for about 20 seconds, but quickly turns his attention to asking for an investment. Daymon John interrupts him and asks him again to finish his "pen pitch." He does, but forgets to ask for the order! The sharks were quick to point this out to him. 

Not only is the third point in this the Bloomberg article confusing, but it's also missing an important distinction for job seekers. Companies need great employees just as much as employees need jobs. It's often been said that interviews are a lot like dates -- you're looking for a "match." In the interview, the interviewer is getting to know the candidate better, especially how the prospective employee will "fit" into the company. But it's not a one-sided conversation. The job seeker is also assessing the interviewer and the company. If that's not done by sussing out qualifications (on both sides), what's the point?

Which leads to the next statement in the article. I agree with this: "People get hired when a hiring manager believes, intellectually and emotionally, that the person sitting in front of him or her can do the job."

But then the whole rest of the section is about how job seekers shouldn't "grovel and beg" for a job? What? Since when is presenting your qualifications "groveling"? In surveys of pet peeves of hiring managers, not once have I read, "Applicant presented his/her qualifications and then asked for the job." 

In more than 15 years in the careers industry, I've read hundreds of books on the job search. The author claims that "tons of job-search books and articles (nonetheless) encourage job-seekers to grovel and beg." Funny, I've never once read about that in a job search book.

I've also never seen a book with an idea that a thank you note to follow up to an interview should include "10 reasons you should hire me" -- but a cover letter that matches up the job requirements with the applicant qualifications  can be quite effective. I certainly don't equate that with "mewl(ing) and beg(ging) for a job."

And what about this line: "We never, ever want to construct lists of reasons an employer should hire us." First off, the use of "always" and "never" in an article are usually a red flag -- flexibility is required when considering tactics in a job search. (While I wouldn't recommend mailing a single shoe to a job interviewer with the cheesy "I wanted to get a foot in the door" line, the fact is, the tactic has worked for at least one job seeker. As Justin Bieber says, "Never say never.")

I agree that "If the reasons to hire don't come through in an interview, you've already missed the boat." But I'd also say that if the job seeker walks out of an interview without expressing sincere interest in the job, that's a missed opportunity. Companies want to hire people who want to work for them. (If they don't ask for the next step in the interview process, that's a missed opportunity too.)

Tomorrow: "Endless Bullets."