When you’re in the dark about how best to price your resume-writing services, I’m here to help.
For more than twenty years, I’ve been writing resumes, so I’ve had a lot of experience “playing around” with pricing. As an entry-level writer, I initially charged $40 for a resume. Now that I’m a seasoned writer, clients invest $800 – $1500 per resume.
THE PERFECT PRICING SOLUTION
The perfect pricing solution is to understand that there is none.
Every resume writer has had their own pricing journey.
Some resume writers start out offering low rates, as I did.
Others started their businesses with relevant skills (e.g., writing, marketing, counseling, or coaching) and, therefore, charged more initially.
If you survey 50 resume writers in business for just 5 years, you’ll find patterns (price averages) and outliers (extremely low and high).
So, what’s right for you?
HOW MANY RESUMES AND @ WHAT PRICE?
The best approach for determining your price point is by doing a bit of reverse engineering. 😉
Start by identifying your ideal annual revenue. Maybe you want to start a five-figure resume writing business, or maybe you’d prefer a six-figure revenue.
For this, let’s consider the following example:
Target Revenue $50,000
Est. Operating Expenses $8,000
Adjusted Revenue Target $58,000
Once you have an adjusted revenue target, you might think your next step is determining how many projects you’ll need to write.
Wrong.
KNOW WHAT YOU’RE WORTH
Before determining how many resumes you need to write to reach your revenue target, you must determine your worth and value.
To do this, answer questions like these:
How long have you been writing resumes?
Do you have relevant writing credentials?
What substantial value do you deliver to your clients/client projects?
Will you offer personable, high-touch customer interaction?
Are you an award-winning resume writer?
Did you have career experience that supports a client niche? [RELATED ARTICLE: Creating a niche presents scarcity to prospective clients, which helps support a more lucrative pricing model for you. Be sure to check out “Should You Niche? Defining Your Ideal Client.”]
As your experience, skill level, and credentials grow, your fees should as well.
You will need to decide what price point you’re most comfortable with.
I often hear, “I can’t imagine charging $1,000 for a piece of paper.”
Resume writers deliver so much more than that.
KNOW YOUR WORTH and THE BENEFITS THAT YOU PROVIDE.
And then, PRICE YOUR VALUE accordingly.
This is also a great time to talk briefly about your confidence.
Don’t make room for negative thoughts, such as “Maybe I’m not a good enough writer to charge X” or “I’ve been writing for only 3 years, so I’m happy with my pricing the way it is.”
This is an acceptable way to establish your business. However, that inner negative voice will help keep your business in the poorhouse.
Warren Buffet has a great quote: “The more you learn, the more you earn”?
This is why it is so important to take stock of your value. As you gain more writing experience and credentials, you grow as a professional, and therefore, your earning potential also does.
Have confidence in YOU, your writing skills, and your ability to help clients.
Remember, you can always raise your pricing. The best practice is to adjust pricing each time you or the business hits a new milestone, such as another year in business or new credentials.
WHEN YOU’RE NEW TO RESUME WRITING
Knowing what to charge for resume writing when new can be the most challenging stage IMHO.
At this point, you don’t know what colleagues are charging for their services.
When you’re new to resume writing, you’re likely focused on competing in the market based on price.
For example, new resume writers generally focus on trading time for money, so their resume-writing services are based on an ideal hourly rate.
This strategy has nothing wrong, although your average hourly rate will diminish when projects run long or clients request multiple rounds of changes to their resume drafts.
Surveys have shown that new resume writers focus on an hourly rate of $25 to $100. This approach to pricing works but sucks too.
Here’s why…
Let’s say you guess a client project will take 3 hours, and you charge the client $150, which equates to $50 per hour. You’re happy with that amount because it’s a higher per-hour rate than what you were making when employed with your last employer.
Here’s the problem with this approach.
Resume projects often take 5-8 hours to complete, although this number can be much higher when working with top-tier professionals. The $150 you were so proud of is now $18.75 an hour when spending 8 hours with the client.
Plus, don’t overlook that there’s more to consider than just writing time. There are phone and email conversations (pre- and post-sale), project onboarding, intake questions, resume draft review, and final closeout with the client.
AS A SEASONED RESUME WRITER
As you and your business grow, there are many reasons why you should raise your prices.
With wisdom comes the understanding that pricing based on an hourly rate isn’t as great as pricing around your ever-growing “value rate.”
First, clients will expect your rates to go up over time. That makes sense because each year you pay more for advertising, taxes, and so on.
Second, your writing skills should improve each year, which is one reason for raising your rates each year.
Third, clients will sometimes pay more for all-inclusive VIP services. This means offering high-ticket products and services to the right clients.
So, where do you begin?
As recommended above, start by raising your rates a small amount—$50 or $100. With such a minor change, you’ll be able to experience what (if any) pushback you get from prospects. Wendy Enelow, a long-time resume industry expert, once said that if people aren’t complaining about your pricing, you’re not charging enough.
You may close fewer clients. Yet, that’s okay because the higher rates allow you to spend more time with those you work with. And, don’t overlook the opportunity of upselling clients, too.
You may close more clients. Do you appreciate something more when you’ve paid more for it? A higher price point creates a higher perceived value.
Where should your pricing be?
Based on surveys and conversations with colleagues, resume writers have significant price variants. As I mentioned above, there are averages and outliers.
Yet, here’s a makeshift guide with pricing averages to help develop your pricing strategy:
- Entry-Level Resumes: $300-$500
- Professional/Management Resumes: $500-$800
- Executive Resumes: $800-$1400
You should also consider pricing for additional skills that benefit your resume-writing clients. For example, specialized industry skills, professional experience as a recruiter/HRM, and former writing experience present added value as you price your resume writing services.
A WORD OF CAUTION
There’s often talk in our industry about raising resume writing rates.
However, few in our industry discuss the idea that “just because you could doesn’t mean you should.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not NOW saying you shouldn’t up your rates. I am saying that other factors come into play in determining your success at higher rates.
For example, where are your clients originating from?
If your clients are coming from a search engine, and they used keywords like “affordable resume help” or “low-cost resume writer” to find you, you’ll have a tough time closing those folks at almost any reasonable price point.
Something else to consider is your skill set. You MUST grow as a resume writer to get established and continue to profit in this industry. You MUST keep up-to-date on today’s job-search technologies and strategies, or the resumes you write will fail to attract attention from hiring managers and recruiters.
You MUST raise your value to continue raising your rates successfully.
8 STEPS TO SCALING YOUR RATES
- Start with gaining experience. If you’re new, write resumes for fictitious clients if you have to. Use the job descriptions on sites like Indeed to help you.
- Examine award-winning resumes and look at the resumes published on select resume writer’s websites. The NRWA has a list of writers with PDF copies of their award-winning resumes here: https://www.thenrwa.com/ROAR
- Continue your education by acquiring resume writing certifications. Getting certified boosts your skill level and confidence.
- Find a niche. As the saying goes, “Niches make you rich.” As you become more specialized, your value meter rises, and therefore, your rates do, too.
- Have confidence in your skill level. Most resume writers don’t ask for higher fees because they lack confidence in their work. Get help from a business coach with this.
- Get written client testimonials from happy customers and add them to your website. Client testimonials can help build your “street cred” with new prospects.
- Take a leap of faith by raising your prices by only $50. You’re doing this for no reason whatsoever other than the fact that you need a raise. Despite the price bump, you’ll likely close just as many clients. Once you realize this, raise your prices modestly again. Wait and see what happens. I bet you’ll still close the same number of clients. 😉
- Take an aggressive sales training class. You might be surprised by this recommendation; however, I’ve found that selling is complex for many people.
Also, check out this resource, “Selling Tips & Scripts” (for RBIZ members only), which can help you attract more resume-writing clients.
OFFER ALA CARTE & PACKAGE PRICING
Since each can be beneficial, I encourage you to have both.
By offering bundled services, you create a built-in upselling system. For example, a prospect sold on a resume could only be enticed to select a package that includes other services, such as a cover letter and LinkedIn profile writing.
By giving prospects more options, you can potentially increase each new sale by $200- $400+.
Here’s a basic overview of what writing packages might include:
PACKAGE #1
Resume $X
PACKAGE #2
Resume & Cover Letter $X
PACKAGE #3
Resume, Cover Letter & LinkedIn Profile $X
Give this a try. You’ll be surprised at how many people opt for the larger service option (Package #3.)
There are cons to packaging, too.
For example, packages can bundle items the prospect might not want; e.g., today’s job seekers don’t always want to buy a cover letter.
By offering ala carte services, you enable clients to customize what they want to purchase. Service options could include:
- Optimized & Professionally Written Resume
- Customized Cover Letter
Other less-known services could include:
- In-Depth Resume Review
- Resume Coaching
- Resume Revamp Services
- Executive Bios
- Networking Cards
- Job-Search Programs (Self-Paced)
- Career Coaching
The above list may seem overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the industry. So, add one new service to your business every few months. To optimize your annual revenue, become as much of an all-under-one-roof service provider as possible.
