Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jody Gothard, President of CareerPro Resumes, located in Atlanta, GA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
My main motivator is to help each CareerPro Resume client either find their career path, get back onto their career path, or continue to excel in their career of choice. Each of us has at least one area of life in which we excel, and when I can help new clients identify and utilize their greatest strengths to their advantage, then they have the opportunity to stand out from a thousand other candidates who may not be as passionate about what they do as my clients.
Of course, in a highly competitive hiring market, selling someone on paper goes way beyond projecting a passion for the job. We have each new client fill out a 25-part Client Questionnaire to determine their Top Five Major Career Achievements. We then feature those dollar figures, percentages over quota, projects completed under budget and on deadline, team leadership, and any awards or promotions or quotes from good evaluations and client letters of commendation.
We present all of these quantifiable results and recognized achievements in a new bulleted Career Highlights & Achievements Section on the first page of our client's new resume, print it in an eye-catching fold-open Brochure Style format, and watch as client after client for the past 32 years achieves well over a 50% interview rate!
Tell us about yourself
I have been President of Career Pro Resumes since 1991, when I moved here from my hometown of New Orleans. While earning a Bachelor's Degree in Literature from the University of New Orleans, I wrote several short stories, one of which was published in the Elipsis literary magazine. After graduating from UNO in 1985, while working as Sports Editor of L'Observateur Newspaper, I earned two journalism awards from the Louisiana Press Association. I have written numerous feature and cover stories for publications such as New Orleans Magazine, the Times Picayune Newspaper, Atlanta's Style Magazine, and a New Jersey-based Murdoch Magazine titled Sports Travel. My other writing experience includes TV commercial writing.
I have also headed numerous community fundraising initiatives, appearing on morning talk shows and with the former Mayor of New Orleans at major fundraising events.
Along with helping my clients find and progress on their career paths while maximizing their potential, I have also taken numerous classes and workshops from world-renown Native-American trained trackers, including the author Tom Brown Jr.
As the former President of Mosaic Outdoor Club of Georgia, I have motivated hundreds of individuals to reclaim their connection to nature and spirituality. As the President of CareerPro Resumes, I have helped many of his 10,000+ clients double their interview rate, increase their salaries by tens of thousands of dollars, change career direction, and often land their job of choice. My office is in the Bank of America Building on Roswell Road, and I can be reached at (404) 252-8777 to answer questions or to schedule an appointment.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Before purchasing CareerPro Resumes in 1991, I had won numerous awards as a Newspaper Sports Editor and Short Story Writer. I had written cover stories for major magazines in New Orleans, New Jersey, and Atlanta and had written TV commercials for a New Orleans advertising agency. My clients, however, care less about my winning awards than they do about their new resumes' ability to win them an extremely high percentage of interviews and job offers!
Our clients have often landed the exact job they were aiming for, and thousands of our 20,000+ happy clients have reported to us that they are now making tens of thousands of dollars more in their current salaries. One health club manager jumped from $40,000 to $80,000, a 28-year-old software salesman jumped from $30,000 to $70,000 initially, and two years later, he was $150,000 with his new job. He took me out to lunch to let me know that!
One client grew his Facility Manager base salary from $25,000 to $98,000, and a client from Jamaica told us that we put $18,000 more in his pocket last year because "The brochure resume basically got me the job." We get the big results by using big numbers, big dollar figures, and big quotes from happy managers, and we put that in the new Career Highlights & Achievements Section to convince someone to double our clients' salaries.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The same as for clients trying to get their new resumes noticed. MARKETING! How do you get potential clients to see your website, your resume, your LinkedIn Page, etc.? Part of marketing is to move away from traditional marketing to social media marketing and Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Unfortunately, that and online advertising is very expensive. Fortunately for my clients, however, is that Executive Recruiters, aka Head Hunters, are free!
If anyone tries to charge you to market your resume to potential companies, do not use them, as they are not legitimate. Posting your resume to a LinkedIn page helps, and we can do that for you as well. Of course, nothing beats personal contacts and the hard work of emailing out resumes, but the payoffs could be a brand new job that blows away your previous job. Everything happens for a reason, so when one door closes, turn around and walk through the open door, and you will be right where you are supposed to be, where you are appreciated and highly compensated for your unique talents and high business ethics!
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Know your strengths, utilize them, and hire the best team you can find to compensate for your weaknesses. And as my father, Judge Sol Gothard, used to say, "Never take a business partner. It usually ends poorly." He also said that the only way to make real money is to duplicate your efforts. The last bit of advice from what I call the Judge Sol Gothard School of Business is, "Never put yourself in a compromising situation. If you find yourself in one, get out." Sometimes it pays to listen to our wise elders.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://careerproatlanta.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/careerproatlanta/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/careerpro-resumes/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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