How To ... Start Your Own Resume Service


If you are a fairly good typist, good with people, and are able to follow instructions well, then a home based resume service might be a venture worth looking into. Interested? Then read on for some quick get started tips and information to see if this is a venture worth delving into.

First of all, you are probably thinking - how much money can I make doing this? Would it be enough?

Welll, there is a lot to consider when figuring out how much money you can make: what you will offer (ie: just resume typing, resume creation or the whole schebang with cover letters), how many copies you will give, how many (if any) re-writes you are willing to do, etc.

Many standard resume services will charge a set price for an interview (where you determine what should be on your customer's resume), fifty copies of the resume, plus five copies of a cover letter. (More for colored paper, extra cover letters, or updates).

But how much should you charge? Well, you can determine the amount quite easily, with just some forethought. If the actual resume writing process takes 2 hours and the interview half an hour, then you are charging the customer for 2.5 hours of work. If you have already decided that you want to make at least $15.00 and hour, then you should be charging $37.50.

However, you also need to think about the costs associated with the creation of the resume (trade journals, paper, copies, trips to the copy center if you do not have a copier, ink, etc.) These costs need to be added on to the client's cost so that you actually make money from the venture.

After looking around on the Internet for a while, it seems that many standard services charge in the range of $50.00 to $100.00 US for their basic services. However, use this as a guide, not a rule.

So, to answer the question - "How much money can I make?", I have tabulated an answer, depending on how many hours a week that you work. For instance, if you were to charge $50.00 for a resume & incidentals:

    5 hours/week (2 customers) = $100.00
    10 hours/week (4 customers) = $200.00
    20 hours/week (8 customers) = $400.00
    30 hours/week (12 customers) = $600.00
    40 hours/week (16 customers) = $800.00
But don't forget - you'll need equipment as well! To get started, you'll need the following: