[vfulco]

I run a Shanghai based firm creating English resumes, doing interview coaching, and LinkedIn Profiles, amoung some other products, for both Chinese and foreigners. Our business is RMB and USD oriented. I typically charge for a general resume review. Send me your resume and I will give you a brief review for free (dwgdev only) so you can DIY it better. My email is vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn. Give me 72 hours as I have a full schedule the next few days.

[thinbeige]

Nice business, out of curiosity:

- How much do you usually take per review?

- How do you generate leads? Which platforms do you use?

- Do client recommend you to other clients?

[vfulco]

There is a really strange anomaly in mainland China whereas the economy is still in a state of transition. Young people see the "value" in consumer products of all kinds but not so much investing in services that will improve their lives except for foreign language lessons and maybe standardized test training. As an aside, about 90% of my clients are women. They seem to be much more understanding that resume creation is not their strong suit so why not hire a professional and have a document which can be used in any HR dept in the world in 3 days? Young men, on the other hand, seem to want to DIY theirs, even after I point out gross errors I am sure they do not know how to fix themselves.

I usually charge the equivalent of $30 for a review and discount the full service by the same amount if they hire me for a rewrite. About 95% of the English resumes I see in-country are awful.

My leads have been through domestic e-commerce sites, referrals and infrequently a number of the mentoring/coaching/advice Q&A sites I answer questions on. I also do academic advisory services (school picking for undergrad, graduate and PhD programs) and applications preparation. Social media, like Wechat and Weibo, have been a complete bust with a lot of wasted promotional RMB spent, no matter how high the claimed MAU numbers in the aggregate continue to climb. While I am not 100% knowledgeable about what drives the mind of the young Chinese consumer, when I pay for promoted posts and within 5 seconds, get 250 page views, I know the bots rule this part of the world. No business has come through these channels no matter how I tweak the sales pitch; I have tried dark, inspirational, humourous, surveys, contests, promotions (buy a resume, get 1 hour of interview coaching), etc.

I am very lucky since word of mouth is one of the biggest business drivers, due to the high prevalence of fraudulent and generally poser businesses, so I get one to a handful of referrals per client and have an attractive referral fee program. Thanks.

[vfulco]

I should mention while the review fee seems high, it filters for only those willing to pay for a high quality service. I have tried free review and lower priced review with either no conversions occurring or prospects wanting me to move the moon and stars with no additional follow-on business. There is no such thing as provide a free service leading to real biz generation here. There is get as much as possible for free.