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BillyApp: Tell us how iRock Résumés came about.

Nickquolette Barrett: I work for a large corporation, and a few years back we went through a major reorganization. I was in a management role, so I was charged with developing my direct reports to move on to new opportunities within the company. In this case, I had to get ten people prepped to take advantage of the new openings in a short time span. This included helping them write their internal résumés, conducting interview prep, as well as career coaching to ensure the new opportunities were right for them.

I ended up getting my whole team promoted within six months with salary increases from $5000 to $14,000! The two employees with the largest increases told me that I should do this as a business as people would pay me to do what I did for them. Honestly, I never thought about this as a business. But when I posted about my successes with my team to Facebook, people started asking me for help with their career.

BA: That’s amazing! So all of a sudden, you had a new business?

NB: Well at first, it was just for fun as I charged nearly nothing for my services. I didn’t know what to charge! But as the business grew with my clients’ needs, I began branching out to offer interview prep, career coaching, and LinkedIn branding. It suddenly became a true business and it’s been taking off ever since. Besides my clients, I’ve been presenting at conferences. My most recent one, I talked about maximizing LinkedIn profiles and how to market yourself online. I’ve also been coaching businesses on their LinkedIn marketing and branding strategies.

BA: We can tell you’re very enthusiastic about what you do!

I see myself as just the vehicle to package your skills and talent.

NB: I love hearing “oh wow, I can’t believe this is me!” when I work with a client to get their résumé and LinkedIn profile completed. I love building their confidence using my talets. See, it’s not just about landing a job, but building up their self-confidence in their own skills, talents, and abilities. As employees, we become hum-drum. We just do a job, we punch the clock, and go home. But I coach clients on how to show their value quantitatively and qualitatively. That’s how you get ahead in your career. So I see myself as just the vehicle to package your skills and talent.

BA: What’s one tip you can give to our readers right now about their job search?

NB: Be able to articulate what you do as a 990-secondpitch. Not your title or position. Don’t say “I’m manager of such and such and such.” That won’t impress me or anyone else. What do you do? What value can you bring to whoever you are speaking to? If you can be concise in your pitch with that information, they will ask you more questions. That will sell you to them and get you your next job.

BA: That’s fantastic advice! So now tell us how you came to use Billy.

I also love the dashboard so I can see where I am financially and where I want to be.

NB: I found out about Billy through your AppSumo deal. I was looking for something much easier than what I’ve been using. Something more streamlined. And Billy fit my needs. I love that there was a webinar when I first started. I learned that I could just pay someone to convert all my data from my old system to Billy! What a luxury. Stuff like that isn’t in my comfort zone, so being able to hand that off was great.

I use Billy’s snapshot option a lot. I also love the dashboard so I can see where I am financially and where I want to be. As a new business owner, I can see where my expenses are going or if I’m spending on random, useless stuff. It’s good to see what things I don’t need to spend on. I spend about 1 to 1.5 hours a week reviewing my financials, usually on Sundays. It’s really quick and really easy.

Thanks Nickquolette! For résumé help and job search coaching, be sure to visit her site: iRock Résumés!

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BillyApp: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Steven and Jen. So what’s your business all about?

Steven Godlewski: I’d been doing marketing work since ’99. Back then, we had a nutritional supplement business that was doing really well until the economy tanked in 2007-2008. So I took the skills I developed and started working at Caterpillar doing digital marketing. This was way back when SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Marketing) wasn’t even a thing yet. SPAM was still something that came in a can. “Keyword stuffing” on websites was still cool to do. So I’ve been doing online marketing since the very beginning.

During this time, I was always doing a little freelancing; helping other companies improve their digital presence. I was also traveling a lot training dealers all over the country on SEO and marketing. Our two kids are in junior high and high school now and I wanted to travel less. So about half a year ago, Jen and I started Hire SEO Manager to do digital marketing for different clients full-time.

BA: Who are your typical clients and how do you help them?

SG: Small to medium-sized businesses, mostly B2B. We work with all sorts: traders, vendors; one client works in animal rescue. Everyone wants more customers in the door. I could bore you with SEO and SEM tips, but at the end of the day, we know that businesses just want more customers. We help increase traffic to their website, run Google AdWords campaigns, and consult on what to do on social media.

BA: Come on, bore us. What’s one tip you can share with our readers to help their SEO?

SG: The best thing you can do right now is make sure your Page Titles are descriptive. On your homepage, on your articles. If you can get that right, if your homepage’s title isn’t just “home,” you’re doing better than 90% of the people out there.

BA: What brought you to Billy?

SG: That’s where Jen comes in.

It’s the easiest program we’ve used and the support is wonderful.

Jen Godlewski: We tried out a few different programs and when we came across Billy on AppSumo, we loved it from day one. It’s the easiest program we’ve used and the support is wonderful. I love how you can put stuff in there just once and it’s there. You don’t have to constantly re-enter data. And you can customize the information as you need to. If you want to offer a discount, you can go into Billy and do a percentage off or a specific dollar amount.

And being able to email invoices directly to the customer makes life so much easier. There’s no need to print out forms or even send an attachment, since Billy does that for you.

I don’t like chasing people down to pay their invoices. It was one of my big procrastination factors. So that’s where Billy comes in.

SG: It can’t take a whole day to do invoices. It can’t take a whole day to do billing. I’m a freelancer. I love my work, doing SEO and SEM. I hate the money part. I don’t like chasing people down to pay their invoices. It was one of my big procrastination factors. So that’s where Billy comes in. The invoice is already done. I give it a quick look to make sure it matches what it should be for the month, and it’s ready. Other programs, we had to edit PDFs. Billy keeps it streamlined and simple.

JG: Billy integrates with our books and keeps track of all our expenses. Being able to do this sort of Profit & Loss is the best; it helps me keep a close pulse on what’s coming in and going out, so we know exactly where our focus should be based on the financial bottom line. I’ll look at Billy and know “oh, we need to get more customers,” or “oh we need to trim back on that expense.” I’m not a QuickBooks expert so this is really easy to use and helps keep a quick pulse on the livelihood of the business.

Thanks so much Steven and Jen! For their SEO expertise, be sure to check out Hire SEO Manager!

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BillyApp: Thanks for chatting with us, Ed! Tell us a little about what you do for work.

Ed Friese: I was a regular 9-to-5 employee working in supply chain for healthcare for years. When I was laid off, I was hired by a consulting company and have been freelancing for about two years now. I assist with streamlining efforts of hospital supply chains.

BA: And what does that entail?

EF: It’s basically getting the best product for the best price to the right place at the right time. The healthcare industry is under the gun to reduce costs as much as possible so every little bit counts. When you’re buying tens of thousands of bandages a month, an extra cent saved per bandage adds up quick. So I help streamline the process, reduce costs, get quicker payments from their vendors, and a few other things.

BA: Two years into freelancing, how do you like it?

What I really like about freelance work is the diversity.

EF: Well I do miss the benefits of a 9-to-5, the health insurance for example. And there’s an uncertainty in freelance work, of course. So in that way, I think there is less stress in a regular job. I knew what I was doing when I get into the office each day. But what I really do like about freelance work is the diversity. It’s not the same every day. You deal with different things all the time. And you’re not trying to always get a promotion so you can do something different. I like that I’m my own man and I don’t have all that corporate stuff to deal with. I can try whatever I want.

BA: A lot of our readers can relate! What brought you to using BillyApp?

EF: I started with Excel spreadsheets to do my finances. With a one-man shop, it’s not too hard to stick with that, but I was looking for something for the long-term. I thought to myself “how do I want to be perceived in the business world?” If I just hand-write or type an invoice, does that portray me as the business that I want to be? Is this going to make the most sense for me two or three years from now?

How do I want to be perceived in the business world?

Billy was a great option and it was the right price.

BA: What do you like most about BillyApp?

EF: The learning curve with Billy is really short. It’s easy to use and the FAQs that you guys have will guide me in the right direction. As you know, accounting should be cut and dry, but there are just so many ways to slice and dice it. Billy allows for that flexibility.

One other thing Billy has that was an advantage for me is having something web-based. I’ve had work where I had to travel a lot, and I don’t have to be tied to just a certain laptop or tablet or phone. I can access Billy from any device, so it really adds to the flexibility unlike things like Quicken.

And when I was traveling a lot more, my clients would reimburse me for all my expenses: food, lodging, travel. So uploading receipts to Billy made things a lot easier. I could quickly provide my expenses to my clients on a weekly or monthly basis, and it was all really simple. That ability to upload receipts came in pretty handy.

Thanks Ed! If you’d like to be featured on Billy’s blog next, get in touch with us!

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