Entrepreneur Interview: Alana Henry Sharing Resume and LinkedIn Branding Tips

This entrepreneur interview is with Alana Henry from The Writique and she has some great tips for job seekers and entrepreneurs.

Impassioned by her desire to improve equity in access to career development resources, Alana opened her business with the goal of helping disenfranchised job seekers obtain help to stand out in a competitive market. Equipped with the experience of working with 1000+ professionals, Alana now leads a team of writers who transform bland resumes and LinkedIn profiles into powerful branding materials that help her clients secure interviews and competitive job offers.

You can connect with Alana at

• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanahenry​
• Email [email protected]
• Instagram @thewritique
• Twitter @thewritique

Show Notes:

• 00:16​ Impassioned
• 00:40​ Transform bland resumes and LinkedIn profiles into branding materials
• 01:00​ A resume is marketing yourself, your resume shouldn’t be a “career obituary”
• 01:30​ How her business started as a side hustle
• 01:45​ Working as an English teacher, she decided to stay home with her first child
• 02:00​ Chose to try some writing and editing services to keep her brain active and make some extra money
• 02:30​ How requests turned into a niche
• 03:05​ How she was able to grow
• 03:30​ Alana’s initial marketing challenges – lack of capital
• 04:40​ What she did instead of buying advertising
• 04:15​ Bootstrapping your business
• 05:00​ One of the things she didn’t know – how much of the budget should you allocate to marketing?
• 05:45​ Turning point for her business growth – the point when you transform from a side hustle to a real business
• 06:30​ The importance of automated processes by using a CRM
• 06:40​ One of the things I look for in a CRM
• 07:00​ Why a website is SO critical for any size business, and the bad advice I hear about whether you need one
• 08:00​ The impact of the pandemic on her business – people needing help to get back into the workforce
• 09:20​ An interesting thing I’ve found from the entrepreneur interviews I’ve done since Covid hit
• 10:45​ Biggest marketing issue as they grow – how to have a focused marketing effort outside of paid advertising when you can’t network in person
• 11:50​ Two tips – what Alana wishes someone had told her about being an entrepreneur
• 13:15​ Great insight – _________ is _________
• 13:45​ I get two kinds of clients
• 14:15​ The most important question I ask my clients about their website
• 14:45​ The problems my prospective clients have run into outsourcing their website
• 15:30​ The value of your time shouldn’t be spent here
• 16:45​ Alana’s Tip #1 – the importance of networking
• 18:40​ Knowing your goal
• 20:15​ Giving yourself grace
• 20:34​ The average job search is ________ months long
• 21:15​ The long-term benefits of networking
• 22:15​ If all you can do right now is one thing …
• 22:50​ How long it takes for your business to be profitable
• 23:30​ The snowball effect – why people become an entrepreneur
• 24:10​ SEO – there’s a lot of information, conflicting information – what’s critical?
• 24:55​ One of the worst things you can do for SEO
• 25:20​ All that SEO work now getting you penalized?
• 25:40​ Google penalty and your website doesn’t show in search at all
• 26:30​ Problems at least two clients came to me with when their website didn’t appear in search results
• 28:30​ One of the best things you can do for SEO
• 30:00​ Some of Google’s newest SEO focuses
• 32:30​ How to connect with Alana