Got asked for help. Discovered an amazing business opportunity.
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Creative Resume Service
The Back Story: In the last few weeks, I’ve had 3 of my friends come to me asking for help with their resumes, cover letters, and job applications.
Frankly, I didn’t think I’d be able to help much - I’ve only been formally “employed” a few times in my life.
Nonetheless, I agreed. A second set of eyes couldn’t hurt, right?
A couple things stood out -
- They all had the same generic cover letter and resume templates - which looked bland
- They all sucked at showing what makes them different than everyone else applying for the position
These are smart, hardworking people who’ve done and built interesting things.
Yet they all struggled to convey their value in a clear and interesting way.
In other words, they didn’t know how to market themselves.
Marketing is something I could help with.
So here was the plan - 1) we’re going to ditch the boring cover letter and resume, 2) we’re going to show employers why they should hire my friends rather than tell them.
To do this, I helped each one make what I call an “out of the box” resume like these👇
Essentially, you’re taking all of the information that you’d put on a sheet of paper (boring) and displaying it creatively on a package that’s sent to the employer.
My friends agreed. We spent the next few days converting their resumes to “out of the box” resumes and waited patiently for the results.
After 1 week, all 3 of my friends got an interview with the companies they sent these to.
Which got me thinking… someone should build a business around this.
The Idea
Create a product/service that transforms resumes and cover letters into creative packages or deliverables that get sent to potential employers.
The value proposition here is simple, break through the noise and land interviews.
I did some quick math to test the financials.
Let's start with pricing. How much would someone pay to land an interview at their dream company? To me, $50-$100/box seems like a no-brainer.
If you want to hit $100,000/year, you’d need to sell 2,000 boxes at $50 + shipping each per year (or 167 boxes/month).
Keep in mind most people apply for 2-3 jobs at a time - so this feels doable
Besides marketing, your main costs will be the boxes, printing, and shipping.
We created the boxes by hand, but after calling a few print shops, I’m confident that your total COGS would be <$15/box.
Why I like this Idea:
- It’s a fun, effective solution to a very real problem
- You could leverage word-of-mouth marketing - people will want to tell other people about this.
- You don’t need any crazy tech skills, just a bit of hustle.
For the critiques out there, I know this business isn’t perfect:
- A lot of moving pieces. Finding the contact info of hiring managers, working with printers, and just managing the logistics could be cumbersome.
- It’s a small-ish opportunity - I don’t think this could ever be a huge business but I’d be happy to be proven wrong!
- It doesn’t work at scale - part of why this works well now is because most people don’t apply to jobs this way. If this takes off, you’ll lose the uniqueness that gave you an edge.
- This won't work with every industry. The best industries for this are design, marketing, sales, tech (possibly), and general startups.
Let me know what you all think, is this a dumb idea or a creative way to make some cash?
P.S. Another idea is to just provide a digital template for the boxes/cards - that would probably be easier to manage.
