Resume Writer/Coach Start Up & Growth Secrets

What would it mean to learn start up and growth secrets that let you build a prominent and successful resume writing and career coaching business without having to spend money on marketing or compromising your focus on family?

That’s where my most recent guest and former consulting client, Emily Kapit, shines!

Today she has a team, an innovative methodology, lucrative contracts, multiple certifications, and her first book, Sink or Swim: The Life-Changing Strategies for Career Resilience, due out in 2024.

In the interview Emily answers:

When did you start your business?
Tell us a little about your business.
What did you do before you started your business?
What made you decide to start your business?
At what point in your business did you find CDI?
What role has CDI played in the success you’ve achieved and what has been most valuable about it? What has your membership made possible? Did CDI provide a pivotal turning point for you?
What has having your own business made possible for you in your life?
What’s one thing you wished you had known when you first started your business, or, If you were starting your business today, what’s one thing you would have done differently?
For those who are considering a career in this field, or who are struggling in their businesses right now, what are a few key pieces of advice you’d share with them?
Is there anything else you’d like our audience to know in terms of encouragement, lessons learned, or final thoughts around being a successful career industry professional?

Plus:

Is there anything else you’d add about the ROI of working with me 1-1 in my Career Business Profit Rocket Consulting program?

About Emily:

Emily Kapit is a 3X-certified Master Resume Writer as well as an industry leading career strategist and career resilience expert. She is also the Founder of ReFresh Your Step, LLC, a career advisory firm with clients located nationally and internationally.

She and her team collaborate extensively with clients on The Kapitalize Process, an innovative methodology that addresses all facets of one’s career progression (internal & external) and resilience, including tactical career guidance, job search strategies, mock interviews, negotiation tactics, written professional assets, and more.

Emily’s insights and guidance have been published in Forbes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Medium, HuffPost, and MindBodyGreen, among others. Emily is currently working on her first book, Sink or Swim: The Life-Changing Strategies for Career Resilience, due out in 2024.

And when I asked about claims to fame, Emily shared that she single-handedly grew her business, expanded the team, landed several lucrative contracts/relationships with recruiters and other coaches, and became a known entity in the industry – without really spending money on marketing. She also achieved that while embracing parenthood which included a 2-month period when she ran the business from a hospital bed on full bedrest. So she’s also got a lot of tips for the parents out there!

Emily’s 6 Start Up & Growth Secrets (with my added commentary)

Links to CDI resources can be found in the additional resources section at the bottom of the page.

Your Client Service Agreement (CSA) is Key.

Emily says, “Do not be afraid to hold clients accountable when issues pop up and make sure your CSA is comprehensive.

You hope to rarely need this as back-up but as an industry best practice, be prepared well ahead of challenging issues popping up so you can stand your ground.”

I would add to cover your bases by outlining the following in your agreement: :

Communication
Completion of Assignments
Refund and Guarantee Policy
Edits, Proofing, Deadlines, Target Changes, and Acceptance
Missed Appointment Policy/Postponement
Clients with Limited Computer Skills Policy
Copyrights
Limitation of Liabilities
Application of Knowledge
Mailing Lists
Grant of Rights for Use of Fictionalized Resume and/or Transition Story

Check out links to sample contracts in the resource section below.

Be Okay to Walk Away.

Emily says, “Not all clients are your clients and the sooner you learn that, the faster you will attract the right ones for you, your approach, and your overall business growth.

If you see red flags, gently redirect and walk (run) away!”

Emily’s advice is worth heeding.

We’ve all had experiences with clients that made us wish we’d listened to our gut, established clear boundaries, or at least had a strategy to elegantly fire a client who wasn’t a fit.

Check out links to supporting resources on ideal clients and firing clients in the resource section below.

Don’t Fear AI.

Last year when ChatGPT became a ‘big deal’ there was a lot of worry amongst resume writers and career coaches that it was replacing us.

At CDI we launched a critical industry analysis survey and spent around 100 hours evaluating the findings and sharing them in our livestream show.

What we identified was that it wasn’t AI but rather marketing strategies that hadn’t changed with the times that was holding back a certain percentage of career industry entrepreneurs.

In fact, around 65% of businesses were growing or staying the same.

The only ones who seemed to be hit by AI were those who charged low low rates for their services.

Look, we’re already battling against perception that a resume is a DIY project so if you don’t have a compelling strategy for the investment and a rate that supports it, you’re making it easy for prospects to turn to AI.

We all know that AI is NOT great at writing resumes – it’s very much a garbage in, garbage out model.

If job seekers knew what to ask or write, it would be a different story.

But they specialize in doing their jobs and not marketing them!

So, I was glad when Emily said:

“Why am I not afraid of AI taking over our work?

AI cannot write as well as we can nor can it truly connect with a person navigating a career obstacle – this is a critical truth. We’re safe from the robots – for now!”

Those robots can actually boost your ROI in so many ways. I’ve shared tons of great AI prompts and tips in our free resources and our member’s only prompts, which you can find a link to in the resource section below.

Job Seeker Achievements are Everything.

Professional resume writers need to recognize that resume writing is a complex, challenging process.

For instance, if you tell me “new graduate resumes are so easy because they have nothing to share” I will visibly cringe.

If you’re writing job seeker resumes, then you need to be willing to commit the time and effort into:

Researching target positions and key words to show the match.
Uncovering what makes you unique from other candidates with similar experience.
Telling stories that include challenges, actions, results, and metrics.
Designing layouts that are visually enticing and invite the reader to want to spend time on the document.

Emily says:

“Achievements. Are. EVERYTHING.

Whether a client is staying in their own lane or they are moving into a different niche / industry, it is so very important that people recognize their pattern of excellence, be able to speak to it, and understand how the transferability will all play a key role not just in their documents setting them apart but also in preparing them for their job search, conversations / interviews, and negotiations.”

Job seekers often don’t know how to express these on their own or with just a questionnaire.

You will never produce this without digging.

Check out the member resume writing tutorials from award-winning resume writers (there’s one on our free stuff page too) in the resource section below.

It’s a Partnership with Job Seekers.

Job seekers don’t experience the true ROI of professional resume writing and career coaching services if they don’t feel like they’ve entered a partnership with you based on trust and expertise.

This is one part communication, one part branding, one part pricing, and one final part of client control.

As a fall back, you need a strategy to cover yourself when a job seeker wants to make a less than ideal change to their resume or other tools you’ve created, so that it doesn’t rebound on you.

Emily says:

“This is a partnership.

For best results, clients should know that we are the industry experts and they are the experts in themselves.

We MUST work together!

There is often a level of pushback on both sides in the editing process and that’s okay. Have the conversations, discuss pros/cons, and move forward.”

I’ve linked to resources on customer service and client control in the resource section below.

Know Your Worth.

If you work with job seekers then you know that your clients most often don’t know what they don’t know.

That applies to resume writing, job search, positioning themselves as an authority, networking, interviewing, and salary negotiation.

It doesn’t matter if they’re senior pros or executives; this is NOT what they do for a living.

But if you just sell what they ask for and not what they need, you’re creating risk.

Risk that they’ll think a resume is a magic bullet.
Risk that they’ll charge back.
Risk that they’ll leave a negative review.
Risk that they just won’t land as quickly as they could to fulfill your service benefits and become a raving fan.

So I love that Emily says:

“Know your worth. Clients may push back but your expertise is increasingly critical in today’s tough job market.

Not everyone will jump on-board to work with you but those who recognize your value as an industry expert will be ready (and excited!) to sign on and move forward.”

So remember — don’t sacrifice who you are, what you offer, and what it’s worth!

When you have a process you’ll close those package sales.

There are great free and member resources on attracting ideal clients, pricing, packaging, and consult strategy in the resource section below.

CDI and Emily

Emily has been a member of CDI since 2012. Her top CDI favorite things are:

1-1 Career Business Profit Rocket Individualized Consulting. I worked with Laura 1:1 several years ago and it helped me to overhaul my packaging / pricing in crucial ways; we still use some of those today and they are very popular with our clients! Bundle Packages for the win!
On-demand video tutorials: I also find that the on-demand video tutorials are a great resource for industry professionals. Kudos to Laura for making those available, as well as staying on top of industry trends / news with timely and evergreen options.

Replay & Next Livestream

Next week I hope you’ll join me again on Wed at 3:45 PM Eastern as we complete our mini-series of interviews with my former private clients of the Career Business Profit Rocket Program where they share start up and growth secrets from successfully self-employed resume writers and career coaches.

My final guest is Mary Elizabeth Bradford of CEO Resume Writer.

She is a multi-certified and multi-award-winning executive resume writer and past executive recruiter. She is the founder of ceoresumewriter.com, the premier online source for expertly designed executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles and executive biographies for C-suite and board level executives worldwide.

Mary Elizabeth was one of my very first private consulting and coaching clients and one who experienced almost immediate dramatic growth. I’ve literally known her since the beginning of CDI and over the years she has been a presenter for CDI conferences and webinars, and she has created CDI materials.

From what I know of her success and the role I got to play in it when we worked together 1-1, she’s being incredibly modest when she says her claim to fame is that she has built a values-led company that has stood the test of time – with a small team of expert writers and coaches who truly care. She says they are able to help their executive clients all over the world with marketing collateral – as well as with their outreach strategies.

So be sure to mark your calendars and tune in next Wed at 3:45 PM Eastern.

I hope you’ll join me!

For the month of June the show will shift to talking about resume writing strategy for the 24th annual TORI awards, and I’ll have 2-3 former winners with me each week!

We’ve streaming on CDI’s LinkedIn page, YouTube channel, and in our Facebook group every Wednesday at 3:45 PM Eastern. And, don’t forget to like, follow, and subscribe so you stay in the know!

Watch the Livestream Recording

Work with Me 1 to 1 to Grow & Position Your Business

Want results like Emily, Mary Elizabeth, and my other private consulting clients?

Check out my Career Business Profit Rocket 1-1 Consulting Program to learn more about working with me. There you’ll also see client testimonials around the exciting results I’ve helped your colleagues to attain.

I love finding ways for you to be more efficient, effective, profitable, and happy with your business!

WHATEVER your goal, I can help you to achieve it!

Note that I only work with four private clients at a time to ensure the greatest quality of service. I’m currently booking for spots opening in late May or June.