Nora had been helping people with their resumes for years.
Friends at first, then friends of friends.
Someone would send her a resume, tell her what kind of job they were applying for and ask what she thought.
Nora would mark things up.
Move this higher.
Cut that.
This part is too vague.
You did what for the company?
Put that in.
Eventually somebody said what people tend to say when you keep doing something useful for free.
“You should charge for this.”
Nora had been thinking the same thing.
So she made a simple page and wrote:
Resume Review — $65
She looked at it.
“An offer.”
“Probably.”
Then a friend looked at the page.
“What do I get for $65?”
“A resume review.”
“I got that part. Do you rewrite it?”
“No. I mark it up and explain what I think should change.”
“Do we talk?”
“We could.”
“How long does it take?”
“Usually a couple of days.”
“Can I ask you questions afterward?”
Nora looked back at the page.
Resume Review — $65
Apparently there was a little more to this than naming the service and putting a price beside it.
The service wasn’t the deal
Nora opened the page again.
What would someone actually get for $65?
She wrote:
Send me your current resume and the job you’re applying for.
Within three business days, I’ll return the resume with my notes and suggested changes.
That was closer to what she actually did.
Then she thought about the conversations she usually had afterward.
People almost always had questions.
Why did you cut this?
Should I include that job?
What if I don’t have much experience?
So she added:
The review also includes a 20-minute call to go through my notes and your questions.
Nora opened her notes and wrote:
Service: Resume review
Underneath it:
Full Resume Review — $65
Written notes
Returned within three business days
20-minute follow-up call
She looked at the first line.
“Resume review is what I do.”
Then at the rest.
“This is what I’m asking someone to pay $65 for.”
She added one more label:
Offer: Full Resume Review — $65
Okay.
That made more sense.
Nora went back to the page and rewrote it:
Full Resume Review — $65
Send me your resume and the job you’re applying for. I’ll review it, return it with notes within three business days and spend 20 minutes going through the feedback with you.
Her friend read the new version.
“Okay,” she said. “Now I know what I’m buying.”
The same service could have more than one offer
A few days later Nora got an email.
Hi Nora. I have an interview Friday. I don’t need a full rewrite or anything. Could you just tell me if there are any obvious problems with my resume before I send it in?
Nora read it again.
“That’s not really the full review.”
She thought about what the woman was asking for.
No call.
No detailed discussion of every section.
Just look at the resume, find the biggest problems and send it back.
“I could do that in half the time.”
She went back to her page.
Her first offer was still there:
Full Resume Review — $65
Written notes + 20-minute call
Returned within three business days
Underneath it she added:
Quick Resume Check — $30
Written comments on the biggest problems
No call
Returned within two business days
Nora read the two boxes.
At the top of her notes she still had:
Service: Resume review
Underneath it she now had two offers.
Full Resume Review — $65
Quick Resume Check — $30
“Same thing I know how to do,” she thought. “Two different ways somebody can buy my help.”
She changed the heading above them to:
Choose the kind of help you need
Later she noticed her video-call software offered a monthly plan and an annual plan.
Same software.
Different deal.
“Okay. So this is kind of a thing.”
Nora almost promised too much
Nora started adding some introductory copy above her two choices.
She wrote:
Land the job you want with a better resume.
She read it again.
“Can I actually promise that?”
No.
“I can make the resume clearer. I can point out vague wording. I can find experience somebody buried halfway down the page. I can help make the resume fit the job better.”
“I can’t control who else applies. I can’t control the interview. I definitely can’t control whoever makes the hiring decision.”
Delete.
She tried again:
Make your resume clearer, stronger and a better match for the job you’re applying for.
Much better.
Then Nora noticed the “special” part
A few days later Nora was back in her video-call software.
This time a banner caught her attention:
Special Offer — Try the upgraded plan free for 14 days
Nora stopped.
She hadn’t been thinking about upgrading.
Free for 14 days?
“Hmm.”
Now she was.
Nora looked at the banner again.
“So that’s what the special part is doing.”
Then she looked at her own page.
“Could I do something like that?”
She searched around for ideas.
Discounts. Free trials. Bonuses. Bundles. Limited-time prices. Guarantees. Countdown timers.
Apparently an offer could get quite dressed up if you let it.
Nora decided to start quietly.
She put a banner above the Full Resume Review:
Launch Special — $50 this week
Everything underneath stayed the same.
Written notes.
Three-business-day return.
Twenty-minute call.
“Maybe fifteen dollars off gets a few people to book while I’m getting started.”
Then she looked at the missing $15.
“Hmm.”
In her notes she wrote:
Offer: Full Resume Review — $65
Underneath it:
Special offer: Full Resume Review — $50 this week
On Monday she could remove the special and go back to $65.
The Full Resume Review would still be there.
Free and useful?
Nora’s first paid Full Resume Review went well.
The 20-minute call did not.
At minute 26 they were still working their way through questions.
Her client kept bouncing around the resume.
“What about this line?”
“Oh, before I forget, should I include the summer job?”
“Wait. I wanted to ask about this section too.”
Nora glanced at the clock.
Their twenty-minute call was developing ambitions.
Afterward, she opened a document.
Before our call
Read through my notes once.
Keep the job description nearby.
Mark the parts of the resume you want to discuss.
Write down your three biggest questions.
Nora read back what she’d just written.
“If they do this before we talk, they’ll probably get more out of the call.”
She looked at the clock.
“And twenty minutes might have a fighting chance.”
Then another question occurred to her.
“What would I even charge for this?”
She had already made the checklist. Sending the next person a copy would take a few seconds.
Then she remembered the launch special.
“Wait.”
The lower price gave people another reason to book.
Her eyes went back to the checklist.
“What if I made this a free special bonus?”
Someone considering the Full Resume Review got something extra.
Nora got a client who might arrive at the call with the job description nearby and three questions instead of seventeen thoughts arriving in no particular order.
“Another reason to book. Better service.”
Nora smiled.
“Ha. Good all around.”
She could leave the Full Resume Review at $65.
And if she wanted to run another special later, she still could.
She went back to the page and turned the checklist into:
Special Bonus — Free Call-Prep Sheet
Use it before our call to organize the questions you most want to discuss.
Maybe her twenty-minute calls would stop trying to become audiobooks.
Nora looked at the page again
The page had started with:
Resume Review — $65
Now it had two choices.
Full Resume Review — $65
Send your current resume and the job description you’re applying for.
Within three business days, you’ll receive your resume with Nora’s notes and suggested changes.
Then you’ll have a 20-minute call to go through the feedback and ask questions.
Special Bonus — Free Call-Prep Sheet
Underneath it:
Quick Resume Check — $30
Written comments on the biggest problems.
No call.
Returned within two business days.
Nora sent the page back to the friend who had interrogated her the first time.
A minute later her phone buzzed.
Okay. I’d probably pick the quick one. I wouldn’t need the call.
A couple of days later another message came in.
I have an interview tomorrow afternoon. Is there any chance you could look at my resume tonight?
Nora looked at the clock.
The Full Resume Review normally took three business days. She could do this one tonight, but it would mean moving another review and giving up most of her evening.
“How much would make that worth it?”
She opened her notes.
Full Resume Review — $65
Quick Resume Check — $30
Then she added another line.
Emergency Resume Review — $200
Nora looked at the number.
“Two hundred dollars?”
For this one, the client could come over with a laptop. They would work through the resume together and finish it that night.
Nora sent the price.
A minute later her phone buzzed.
Yes. What time?
The next morning Nora opened her notes again.
Quick Resume Check — $30
Biggest problems only. Written comments. Returned within two business days.
Full Resume Review — $65
Detailed written notes. Returned within three business days. Twenty-minute follow-up call. Free Call-Prep Sheet.
Emergency Resume Review — $200
Meet that evening. Work through the resume together. Finished before the interview the next day.
Then she scrolled back to the first thing she had written.
Resume Review — $65
A long way from that.