Guest post by Laura DeCarlo, President &
Executive Director, Career Directors International
-I am pleased to post one of many
valuable strategies coming from Laura at CDI. I joined CDI a few years back to
augment my skills in internet recruiting and career coaching. What I found was
an organization of the most talented, professional, and caring group of people
I’ve ever come across in industry affiliations. Everyone is ready and willing
to share their expertise. Laura prepared the following article to help career
service providers prepare for the New Year and demonstrate CDI offerings. Take
a look and see if these tips can help in your planning. More information about
CDI at the end of the article.
Article
During the next few weeks, you might find yourself with a little bit of time on
your hands, waiting for the next client or dollars to start rolling in. Here
are a few ways to get your business in shape for the New Year:
- Learn about Outplacement Opportunities by finding out which
companies are downsizing: (a) Sign up for free AIRS outplacement newsletter for advance notice of
companies planning to downsize. (b) Courtesy of Sharyn Hancock
of Workforce Alliance, Inc.: "You can find companies that are going
to be laying off by looking at Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act (WARN) notifications for each state. Each State has their
own list, for example, I am in Florida, so here is the list from my State. You can see that the notification was posted,
but the actual lay off will occur in the
future."
- Set up the client e-newsletter you have been meaning to create to
get in touch and stay on the radar with your clients. A few favorite
resources for low-cost e-newsletters include www.aweber.com, www.1shoppingcart.com, and www.constantcontact.com. CDI members only area also
has a free MS Word newsletter content template.
- Create simple messages now for your upcoming newsletters (consider
one tip each) and schedule them 1-4 a month now.
- On Twitter? Sign up for www.socialoomph.com (formerly www.tweetlater.com) and schedule a series of daily
educational Tweets in advance to carry your message and grow your
following.
- Motivate job seekers to sign up for your e-newsletter by creating a
free tip sheet, report, or short e-book they will receive by signing up.
Add a sign up box to your website (tools like www.constantcontact.com offer such a widget).
- Offer clients a 10% discount for resume or coaching updates in
January in your e-newsletter - this is a great way to get traffic flowing
in January.
- Earn a new credential to enhance your skill set, services, earning
power, and value to clients - (www.careerdirectors.com/cert.htm).
- Write a news release to announce a new credential, award, or to
simply educate job seekers. Use free submission tools like www.przoom.com and check out www.ezinearticles.com for articles.
- Research your local newspaper's business and life section writers
and introduce yourself with a press kits (keep it simple with an
introductory letter on the topics you can quote on, biography, and, if you
have them, samples of your articles or quotations).
- Create a page for the press on your website to make your site
media-friendly (check out CDI's Press Room at www.careerdirectors.com/press.htm).
- Spice up your outgoing voice message with a call to action that
makes prospects more eager to leave a message.
- Sign up for Job Fairs and other opportunities for 2010 (www.careerdirectors.com/fairs.htm).
- Write some new articles for your website and for some of CDI's
partners (http://careerdirectors.com/partner2.htm).
- Post your articles on Business Week's Business Exchange on resume writing (hosted by CDI).
- Start assigning key words to the properties of your resume so you
can easily search through them for key words and templates to help
streamline future projects. Also, take time now to sift through your
resumes and find 'best examples' for categories you most often write so
you can refer back to them as needed.
- Create your best learning opportunity for CDI's 2010 Summit by making a session suggestion.
- Get ready to win an award - CDI's Toast of the Resume Industry and Career Innovator Awards both open in January.
- Enhance your Web identify, get your ebook for sale online, and
bring visitors and prospects back to your website with the free strategies
in CDI's Web Power! Web Profit! Playbook.
- Contact local professional associations to get on the schedule for
presentations to their groups in 2010. Your local Chamber of Commerce can
usually direct you.
- Make sure you have the best rates available through your credit
card provider. Most services allow a rate review and adjustment as much as
four times a year.
- Raise your prices! It doesn't have to be a lot - do what feels
comfortable, but do it!
- Review your contracts and make sure they are up to date. Check out
some of the contracts in CDI's Member's only section and go to Business < Business
Forms.
- Get important business functions on your calendar now for the New
Year! You can write a book (I did) in just 30 minutes a day if you will
just plan for it. Need motivation? Read I Could Do Anything if I Only
Knew What it Was by Barbara Sher.
- Organize for your accountant or tax software so you are not
scrambling in April.
- Make it rain ($$$) by following up with all the prospects who had
to 'think about it' when you consulted. Reaching out months later can
frequently be when the time is right and they realize they really need
you.
- Shift from selling the service that is asked for to selling
solutions with packages. You will find the article I wrote on how to do
this in the CDI Member's only section under Business < Marketing
& Sales < Articles < A Three-Step Process to a 97%+ Close Rate
and a 6-Figure Income.
- Build your business network and your skills by getting involved as
a CDI Mentor or Committee Volunteer.
- Start saving now to attend the 2010 CDI Summit in October. Check out what attendees are
saying this will do for you on the testimonial page.
- Buy a headset (if you don't already have one) to make client
consultations and coaching a breeze. Thanks to member Mary Elizabeth
Bradford's suggestion, I LOVE The Boom (www.theboom.com). I can stand in high intensity wind
or have a vacuum cleaner running one foot from me and my client cannot
hear it - no sound disturbance at all! Amazing!
- Move existing clients who are still job searching back into your
services with a free tip teleclass where you provide advice and then
recommend your group or individual coaching programs. Favorite free
teleclass tool - www.freeconferencecall.com and favorite free webinar
tool - www.vyew.com.
- Evaluate gaps in your services and create partnerships with CDI
colleagues for affiliate relationships and service agreements. You can
search for members at CDI's Find a Career Pro link.
- Spend an afternoon in the CDI Member's Only section; if you have not figured it out
from the suggestions above, there are hundreds upon hundreds of resources
available, including over 30 hours of free audio on demand teleclasses.
- Submit a proposal to speak on an area of expertise at an upcoming
career conference (such as CDI's 2010 Summit).
- Turbo-charge your existing or new business with CDI's Entrepreneurial Wisdom program - 15 sessions, 22
hours, 13 team presenters, and 194 pages of goodies!
- Gain different perspectives on your most pressing challenges with
the CDI Elists (CDI Resume, CDI Career, and CDI Chat).
- Create a career support group or fan page on www.Facebook.com or a client social network for your
business on www.ning.com.
- Link with like service websites to enhance your web (Google) ranking.
- See who is talking about your business by setting up Google Alerts
(www.google.com/alerts).
- Enhance your LinkedIn presence - link with clients and colleagues,
join the CDI Group, and start sharing news.
- Make yourself searchable by job seekers on the CDI website - login and personalize your profile with a bio and
searchable categories (under My Profile in left-hand page navigation).
- Find services, programs, and products to enhance your career
services with CDI's Service Providers.
- Share your expertise with your colleagues - write an article for
CDI's newsletter. You can contact us for more information at info@careerdirectors.com.
- Keep carpal tunnel at a distance - adjust your chair height and get
a natural keyboard and rollerball mouse. Dragon Naturally Speaking
Software is also excellent if you do extensive typing. I have Dragon
Standard, the lowest-cost version, and find that once I click the cursor I
can dictate in any program and even format by voice. Plus, it will open
Word and surf the Internet, hands-free. Get the software new on Amazon or
Ebay at a low price.
- Make sure your business card is a selling tool; if it's not, create
a new one with one of the full-color, low-cost templates at www.vistaprint.com. Need a designer? You can get an
entire branding package done at an extremely low cost through www.guru.com.
- Contact your phone service provider to ensure you still have the
best price and package for your needs.
- Set up a retirement savings/investment plan such as a SEP or
SIMPLE.
- Shelter your business by converting a sole proprietorship into a
Limited Liability Company (LLC). You can usually do this very simply and
inexpensively through your own state. Google 'State of _____
incorporation'.
- Visualize your pitch going perfectly - the mind cannot
differentiate from real and imagined - spend 15 minutes twice a day seeing
yourself, detail-by-detail, gaining the reviewer's trust and closing the
sale at your deserved rate. Need advice? Check out the book The
One-Minute Sales Person by Spencer Johnson.
- Read the best how-to coaching book - Co-Active Coaching by
Laura Whitworth.
- Catch up on Trends You and Your Clients need to know by reviewing
CDI's Career Expert Trends.
- Share your expertise - put your PowerPoint on www.slideshare.net. Then, you can also add it via www.linkedin.com and www.facebook.com as well as put it on your website.
- Write down the goals you want to achieve in 2010 and don't stop,
step-by-step, until you reach them!
About Laura
Laura DeCarlo offers 16 years of expertise in resume writing, career
coaching and career management as Executive Director of A Competitive Edge
Career Service, LLC and President of Career Directors International, an
innovative association of career professionals.
She
holds nine industry certifications from Certified Expert Resume Writer to
Master Career Director along with a dual BA in Creative / Technical Writing and
extensive HR, Training and Counseling graduate studies.
She is
resume writing expert for 54 professional associations such as PMI, AMA, AJST,
ASAE, ASME and ASCE. She is the author of the highly acclaimed Interviewing:
The Gold Standard program and co-author of Job Search Bloopers; she has also
been published in 15+ resume / cover letter compendiums. She has won seven
prestigious resume writing and job placement awards, and has pioneered numerous
industry education, outreach and recognition programs such as the Certified
Employment Interview Consultant and Certified Web Portfolio Practitioner
programs.
Other
accomplishments include nationwide transition programs for organizations such
as the US Treasury, national conference speaking engagements, former 2-year
employment guest columnist for The Florida Today newspaper and Director of
Placement for Herzing College. She has been quoted in publications such as
Forbes (IMPRESS), Working Mother and the Wall Street Journal, and appeared on
NBC 7/39 News in San Diego and Wall Street Journal Radio.
Web site: www.acompetitiveedge.com
Email: laura@careerdirectors.com
About CDI
CDI was originally founded in 2000 as the
Professional Resume Writing and Research Association (PRWRA) to provide a venue
for global career professionals to access educational, networking and personal
/ professional development opportunities in the careers industry.
Since
its inception, the association has continued to grow from a resume association
to that of an innovative and comprehensive, multi-discipline career association
that has embraced all types of career professionals from around the world.
In
2005 the decision was made by the association's leadership to adopt the new
name of Career Directors International
(CDI) in order to provide an accurate portrayal of the depth and breadth
of the association's membership and benefits. As of January 2006, the
association has been known as CDI.
Driving
the success behind CDI is the
vision, energy and efforts of current President, Laura DeCarlo, the Advisory Board
of Sr. Directors, Committee Directors, and numerous committee and focus group
volunteers. The Advisory Board of Sr. Directors and Committee Directors guide CDI members and programs by providing
complementary expertise in career services, employment, business, and
marketing/PR. Founding leadership of the original PRWRA was under President,
Laurie Roy, and CEO, Todd Holthaus.




