How Aussie mum’s unexpected side hustle made her $75,000 in three months – now she’s pulling in $250,000 a year: ‘Tradies need me’

An Aussie mum-of-three has revealed how an unlikely side hustle she started in her early 20s grew into a booming $250,000-a-year business.

Amy Favro, 31, from the Central Coast, makes her living rewriting resumes and cover letters for Australians desperate to land a new job, score a promotion or escape a career they no longer love.

After being made redundant from her administration job in 2020, she decided to turn the small resume-writing side hustle she’d been building into her full-time gig.

The timing couldn’t have been better as the pandemic hit and thousands of Australians suddenly found themselves searching for work. Demand for Amy’s services exploded.

Within just three months, she had made an impressive $75,000.

She began advertising her services on Airtasker, initially charging just $50 for a resume.

‘I was seeing if it was possible to do it, if I could build a client base and I guess what exactly I had to do,’ Amy told Daily Mail.

At the time, she admitted she was young and had little idea how to run a business, even turning to online guides to learn about basics such as setting up an ABN.

But as her client base and reputation grew, Amy gradually increased her prices, with resumes now costing up to $250 depending on a person’s experience and requirements.

A resume for a school leaver hoping to land an apprenticeship might take Amy two or three hours, while a more complex application for someone working in government can become an entire day’s work.

Today, the business brings in an impressive $250,000 a year, and Amy said there are three distinct groups increasingly turning to her for help.

‘A lot of teachers [are] wanting to leave teaching,’ she said.

Many come to Amy unsure how the skills they have spent years developing in the classroom could translate into an entirely different industry.

Healthcare workers, particularly nurses, are also regularly seeking her services, although Amy said they are more likely to be looking to move into different roles, upskill or climb the career ladder rather than leave the industry altogether.

Tradies are another major group, ranging from young Australians trying to score their first apprenticeship to experienced workers who are ready to get off the tools.

However, while demand for her expertise remains strong, the industry has undergone an enormous shake-up since she first started, largely thanks to artificial intelligence.

In fact, Amy believes relying too heavily on generative AI has now become one of the biggest mistakes jobseekers make.

‘Everyone’s doing it, and they all sound exactly the same.

‘The standout now is actually writing it yourself, or having someone write it for you, but having that human element to it.’

When ChatGPT first exploded in popularity and suddenly gave anyone the ability to generate a resume or cover letter for free in seconds, she noticed a significant drop in business.

‘My work did dip down significantly when that got really popular,’ she admitted.

But she believes the tide is already beginning to turn as people become more wary of generic AI-generated content.

‘There’s a big shift with people hating AI now,’ she said, explaining that consumers are increasingly noticing when everything from written content to marketing material begin to look and sound the same.

She doesn’t believe jobseekers need to abandon the technology completely, however, saying it can be ‘fantastic’ for generating ideas.

Instead, Amy recommended making a resume as easy as possible for a recruiter or hiring manager to skim and immediately understand why you’re suitable for the position.

‘Don’t over-fluff it. Don’t add unnecessary sections,’ she said.

She suggested clearly highlighting position titles, metrics and key achievements rather than overwhelming recruiters with information they don’t need.

Cover letters should also add something new to an application instead of simply repeating the resume.

‘Speak to the why behind the application, personalise it and show your worth in a different way,’ she added.

Despite earning an impressive income from the business, Amy still completes most of the work herself.

When demand becomes too much, she hires subcontractors through Airtasker or locally rather than maintaining a large permanent team.

The unconventional career has also given the mum-of-three something increasingly valuable: the ability to work from home and fit her job around her family.

‘It’s amazing,’ she said.

She considers herself particularly fortunate to have that flexibility as more Australian workplaces begin winding back some of the work-from-home arrangements that became commonplace during the pandemic.

But after already watching AI disrupt her industry once, Amy is realistic about the possibility that her lucrative business may not look the same forever.

If resume writing disappeared tomorrow, she said she wouldn’t be afraid to pivot again.

Amy has previously considered moving into career coaching and has already expanded her skills beyond resumes and cover letters into copywriting, website development, branding, SEO and social media.

One particularly large project saw her build out a client’s website and branding as well as create an entire year’s worth of social media posts.

She also helps with administration and finance behind the scenes at her husband’s company and said she would likely pour her energy into growing his business if her own suddenly disappeared.

It’s a willingness to reinvent herself that Amy also encourages in the clients who come to her feeling trapped in careers they no longer enjoy.

For anyone desperate to make a change but unsure what to do next, she recommended starting by identifying which parts of their current career bring them joy.

For a teacher wanting to leave the classroom, for example, that could mean working out whether they still love education itself, working with children or another aspect of the role.

From there, they can begin looking at careers that incorporate those interests before identifying their transferable skills and working out where they may need to upskill.