Friday, October 12, 2012

Effective Deadline Management for Resume Writers


Deadlines are an inherent part of being a professional resume writer. Most people will have anywhere between one and half a dozen active deadlines in their client work at any given time. Deadlines can be a very useful tool for managing resume projects, but when used poorly, can be a huge source of stress.

Using deadlines well will allow you to work more efficiently with less stress. So what does good deadline management look like?

Learn to Say No
The most important skill you could develop with deadline management is the skill of saying "no." When a client contacts you with an urgent need for a resume, it's tempting to simply say "Yes" -- especially if you need the work, or you're tempted by a rush fee.

For example, let's say a client asks you on Wednesday: "Can I get my resume by Friday?" A good answer might be, "No, a well-written resume takes at least three business days. I can have it done Monday, or we can do a quick triage job to submit it by Friday, but there will be a 30% rush fee for that."

A bad answer would be to take on the task anyway, even though you'd be overloaded.

Learn to say no to tasks that you can't handle.

Schedule Your Work and Deadlines
What goes hand in hand with saying "no" is knowing your schedule. If you don't know exactly how much work you have to do each day, there's no way for you to know whether or not you can take on more work. In order to know whether to say yes or no to a task, you need to be able to accurately gauge your current workload.

Take all your open resumes and task deadlines and predict how much work you'll need to put into them. Then schedule this work out on a day-to-day basis. You now know how packed or open your schedule is.

The next client resume project you get, you'll be able to make an informed decision on whether you can make the deadline. (Or you can set a deadline that works with your existing workload.)

Make Sure Clients Meet Their Deadlines
I saw an example of this on a fellow career industry colleague's Facebook page.



Oftentimes your ability to fulfill on a deadline will depend on your clients meeting their deadlines.

If your deadline is to deliver a first resume draft, and the client hasn't returned their questionnaire (or responded to your questions), you're going to have to either work from the information you do have, or reschedule the client's deadline.

Make sure your client knows what is expected of THEM in terms of meeting deadlines so YOU can meet their deadline. This will help you make informed decisions about delivering current projects -- and whether or not to take on new projects and what deadlines you can agree to.

These deadline management techniques will help you avoid taking on more than you can handle. They'll also help prevent late client projects due to unrealistic deadlines. All around they'll help you reduce your stress level.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Buying a Domain Name for Your Career Services Business

While many resume writers have a website already, there are some folks thinking about starting a career services business who haven't even picked out a business name yet. If you're at that point, think about your website domain name at the same time you're naming your business.

A domain name is the name of your website. For instance, ebay.com is the domain name for eBay.  There are many places to buy domains on the web. You can purchase the domain for a single year or in terms of multiple years. Domain registration is relatively inexpensive, with prices at under $10 per year. I personally use -- and recommend -- 1and1.


The fist step of buying a domain is searching for a name. Here are some tips on naming your site:
  • Go with .com — domain names that end in .net, for instance, may be cheaper than domains that end in .com, but most people are going to remember .com. If you have a different ending, you could end up losing customers.
  • Spell things correctly — if you want to name your site "ProResumes" and it's already taken, don't misspell words on purpose (example: "Pro-Rez-amaze"). Misspellings are hard for your customers to remember, and if they type in the correct spelling of the domain, you may end up sending them to a competitor's site. (And, in this case, you may be infringing on the copyright of Rez-Amaze.com)
Once you find an available domain that you like, it's time to buy it. You can enter a public or private registration. Public registrations will be visible in the whois.com directory. The whois directory allows people to type in a website and view the owner's personal identity. If you do not want your personal information shown, choose private registration (this may cost extra with some domain registrars -- private registration is the same as public registration on 1and1).

After you have selected the term of your registration (such as 1, 2 or more years) and decided if you want public or private registration, you only need to enter your billing info and complete your purchase.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

New Get Clear, Get Found, Get Hired Coaches Announced

Congratulations to the newest "G3" coaches -- Certified Get Clear, Get Found, Get Hired Coaches from The Academies.
The next G3 class begins Tuesday, Oct. 16. You can save $250 on the upcoming program if you register by tomorrow -- Friday, Oct. 5 -- using coupon code FALLG3.

The program is held via teleseminar (90 minutes per week) and is taught by Deb Dib.
Classes are held every Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Eastern time) from Oct. 16 to Dec. 18.

The program teaches coaches, branding strategists, and resume writers how to:
  • expand your services to meet growing and changing client needs...and earn additional income
  • tighten your clients' messaging ... without compromising quality
  • deliver social media/mobile-friendly career-communications
  • jump-start and shorten the all-important branding process
  • get the attention of harried hiring managers (without resorting to gimmicks)
The cost is $2497 or four payments of $647.
(With discount, the cost is $2247.)

Register for the G3 training here.

Save $200 on "Serious Revenue" Program (Buy By Oct. 19)

Yesterday, I wrote about Career Directors International's Career Innovator Awards. Today, I learned that two of those award-winning innovators -- Susan Whitcomb and Pat Schuler -- are offering a $200 discount on their program if you purchase by Oct. 19.

The Career Innovator award are presented to individuals who have developed a resource, tool, program, or initiative that has added significant value to the careers industry -- either to jobseekers or career professionals.

Susan and Pat's program, "Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients...With Integrity and Heart" earned the 2012 Career Innovator award.

Here's the description of the program:


Susan Whitcomb here! . . . I’ve spent several decades in the career field as a practitioner like you, and have also trained and coached hundreds of career professionals over the last 10 years. During that time, my heart has been broken to see the many talented, passionate professionals who LOVE what they’re doing — in fact, feel called with a divine destiny to do what they do — but are STRUGGLING to make ends meet. And to be painfully honest, I’ve struggled with the same issue in the past!
Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients with Integrity and Heart – Binder and Audio Collection on thumb drive
I wanted to do something about this (and boost my own skills in the process!). I’d heard about several people in our industry who were also in that mode (doing great work but not making the income they wanted) and had worked with the amazing sales coach, Pat Schuler — doing so, they took their income beyond what they had dreamed, landing 4- and 5-figure clients on a regular basis.
The problem was, a lot of people can’t afford Pat Schuler’s $400-600 per hour rates. So I asked Pat to team up with me and create a product where people could get more than a dozen hours of her and my time at what it would cost for approx. one or two hours of her time, as opposed to $7,000 to $8,000! . . . a product that would have a lasting change on the way you do business and enable you to earn more for the priceless services that you offer.
So, if you . . .
  • Feel like you’re at a crossroads with your business
  • Are a recent startup
  • Or perhaps have been doing this for years, but worried that if you can’t find a way to earn more money, you may have to go to work for someone else . . . read on!
You know you make a difference in your clients’ lives, and if you could you’d do this work for free. You’re self aware, and you’ve done a lot of personal growth work.
Are you beginning to suspect that, like me, you have some old beliefs or old habits that are potentiallysabotaging your business success despite the expertise with which you deliver your services? What if the major obstacle in your way is just that there’s a skill set you haven’t yet mastered?
  • How many weeks or months of training have you had at actually growing your business?
  • How well is that training working for you?
  • How often are you getting push back on your fees or programs?
  • What percentage of prospective clients are saying, I need to think it over?
These are all challenges that you can master with the Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart program that helps you conquer self-sabotaging beliefs, that leads you step by step through a process that empowers you to ask for the business from a place of confidence and power without being arrogant or pushy . . . in fact, with integrity and heart.
In about a dozen lively, interactive interview sessions (I love interviewing thought leaders!) between myself and exclusive sales coach Pat Schuler, you can get the skills you need to grow your business and land those 4- and 5-figure clients that would make such a difference to your confidence, your career, and your checkbook. In fact, here’s what a recent beta tester, Robyn Feldberg, said about the program:
I’m really impressed with the Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart training and genuinely grateful to have been among the first to learn these innovative techniques — things I would have NEVER thought of on my own, and I consider myself a fairly decent salesperson to begin with. I grew up in a family of sales-people, but this program taught me techniques I’d never heard of before, and it gave me usable tools to implement in my business immediately that will inevitably help me reach my revenue goals more quickly. The program also made me much more aware of why it’s important for me to reach my revenue goals.
Robyn L. Feldberg, CCMC, NCRW, “The Abundant Success Career Coach”
Certified Career Management Coach & Nationally Certified Resume Writer
What’s included in Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart?
  • More than a dozen audio sessions on a thumb drive (in MP3 format so you can download to your iPod) covering everything you’ll need to know to land 4- and 5-figure career clients, from mindset, overcoming limiting beliefs, to setting revenue goals, qualifying clients, and asking for the business … with integrity and heart!
  • A beautiful binder with approxiately 200 pages of transcripts, for those who prefer to read along while also listening.
  • Outlines to bring the comprehensive material into focus.
  • Special Bonus: To ensure you implement the program and reach your revenue goals, we’re addingMomentum Monday – Six MONTHS of LIVE monthly calls with Pat and/or Susan on the 4th Monday of the month (we take a break for summer and December).
Pat and I have invested hours and hours of time over a six-month period to make this product powerful. We have finished beta testing and put final touches on production, so the product ships immediately!
If you’re committed to seeing some Serious Revenue in 2012, this will be the key tool to make that happen!
BONUS! PROFESSIONAL MARKETING SYSTEM is included when purchasing Serious Revenue WITH an Academies Certification Program
On top of the Serious Revenue program with Susan and Pat, which covers the selling side of the equation, you’ll also be able to participate in a proven marketing system with a professionally trained and licensed Get Clients NOW!“! facilitator–Kim Avery!
Kim, a graduate of Career Coach Academy and now completing the Job Search Academy program, is an experienced coach AND marketing maven, passionate about marketing and helping you build your practice. She provides foundational marketing education, training on how to build an effective marketing plan, and coaching through the process of implementation. I guarantee you will love her warm and caring style, insight and wisdom, and deep level of competence!
Get Clients NOW! teaches you over 100 tactics and tools for marketing professional services with step-by-step recipes for their use. This systematic, structured program shows you how to design a focused, cohesive marketing action plan that produces results. (Requires that you purchase a copy of the book, Get Clients NOW!)
Step-by-Step Approach
Using the Get Clients NOW! book as a text, you will learn a simple but highly effective step by step approach, straightforward tips, and specific techniques like these:
  • What really works to market a service business, and what doesn’t
  • How to diagnose what’s wrong with your marketing using the Universal Marketing Cycle
  • How to design a marketing program that is suited not only to your business, but your personality, strengths and favorite activities
  • How to break out of “analysis paralysis” and determine exactly what you need to do first — and every step of the way
  • How to overcome the fear, resistance, and procrastination that block effective action
  • How to create a customized, affordable, reusable, and realistic marketing plan
  • Ongoing support and encouragement to stick to your plan throughout the program
With both the selling tools you’ll learn in Serious Revenue and the marketing tools you’ll implement in Get Clients Now!, you will have the critical information AND the support you need to get on the right track.
Register here for Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart audio program (if not registering for CCMC or CLC or CJSS program):

Purchase Serious Revenue: 1 payment of $895 or 3 payments of $299



Use promotional code INNOVATOR when you buy -- and get the program for only $695 (instead of the usual $895). Code is valid through Oct. 19, 2012.
Payment plans are also available.
Learn more about -- or purchase -- the Serious Revenue program here.