41: Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile with Amanda Guarniere

Savvy Scribes! Today I have Amanda Guarniere with me talking all about finding your ideal customer profile and determining a profitable niche to serve well (oh, and how your resume should look in 2020!). 

How to Identify Ideal Customer Profile

In this episode, we deep dive into Amanda’s career in resume writing. She is a nurse practitioner but started on a non-linear path, went to undergrad, and studied liberal arts. She made a big pivot while studying during her junior year in Italy and decided that she wanted to be in the healthcare field. She went through a rigorous program and graduated in 2011 as a nurse practitioner.

She worked for six years in emergency medicine, but after her twins are born, it was another opportunity for her to evaluate the bigger picture. So, she wanted to figure out what life would look like as a professional and as a mom. That’s when she started to explore things she could do that still use her nursing degree while being at home more. So, that’s when she looks into writing and freelance writing.

Initially, she started in a broad medical niche and then eventually realized the business idea of helping other nurses with resumes. At first, she didn’t see it as a “gap,” but once she noticed this post from nurses about needing help with their resumes, she started researching and realize the opportunity to fill the “gap” and teach nurses how to do it.

The biggest piece of advice from Amanda for people who are starting or building their own business and looking to determine their ideal customer profile:

Figure out your audience and then design your business around what your audience wants, not on what you think they want.

Amanda Guarniere

Amanda is also an expert in Active vs. Passive job search. This is one of the messages she preaches on her platform, and it has to do with the digital age we are in. Passive job searching is opening up job boards online, clicking, and looking for any job in seconds. It seems quite unassertive and indisposed. So what she tries to encourage nursing professionals is to be more active in their job search, which starts with first figuring out where they want to work.

Amanda’s ideal customer profile is nurses, and new graduate nurse practitioners, and found the social platform that works for the group she’s targeting. I also find this a difficulty a lot of entrepreneurs have in the social platform their audience hangs out on. Remember, you don’t have to be in “all the places,” and Amanda reminds us of that. 

I love that Amanda has found her nonbedside nurse job. Writing resumes don’t sound like it would appeal to most people, which has helped Amanda really niche down into her specialty. She didn’t jump right into her nurse side job, but she did grow quickly.

Amanda is a busy mom of twins and a new baby, as well as a Yale graduate (you’ll hear me call her smarty-pants  ) with dual board certification in Adult NP and Women’s Health NP. Beyond THAT, she owns a profitable business called The Resume Rx where she offers Custom 1:1 services (résumé writing, job strategy mentorship) and digital products (résumé templates, online courses). 

You can connect with Amanda Guarniere on LinkedIn, Instagram (@theresumerx), and Facebook.

Now that you’ve listened to this episode, please let us know if you already have an ideal customer profile in mind!

Looking for advice to grow your business? Check out more of our episodes!

• Episode 43: Your Profitable Market with The Stay At Home Nurse, Deanna Gillingham, RN
• Episode 77: When, Why, and How to Effectively Pivot in Business with Shana Dewitt
• Episode 86: Tips for Growing Your Business with Mal McCallion