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Crystalee Beck has built a million dollar copywriting business from her home in the Salt Lake City area while raising four children ages 1, 4, 7 and 9.
she is the founder and CEO of comma copywriteris a copywriting agency serving technology companies and real estate companies. she also Mama Ladder International, is a community for moms who want to start a business or raise a family. She shares what she’s learned about how to do it all in videos on her YouTube channel. Below she gives one example.
“I wouldn’t be a manager without my kids being my motivation,” says Beck. “I wanted to be there for them, so I said I would find a way to do both.”
Beck is part of an exciting trend, the rise of million dollar one person businesses. In 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 43,012 businesses with no employees other than their owners, which made $2.49 million in revenue from $1 million in 2018, up from 41,666 in 2018. Earnings and beyond. Thanks to free or low-cost resources like cloud-based artificial intelligence tools and robust freelance platforms for recruiting talent, it’s hard to tell how many of these businesses will emerge in the future.
She’s mastered lifestyle design to pull it off. Beck, who works 20 to 25 hours a week Monday through Thursday, relies on her 47 freelancers in 20 states. She plans to hire her first payroll employee this year.
Beck began developing the skills to run a successful business at his first job. After graduating from Brigham Young University in 2009, Baker took a job at SkyWest Airlines developing content for in-flight training materials for flight attendants and became a flight attendant himself.
Wanting to be paid to write, I got my master’s degree in communications from Weber State University. She then worked as a freelance writer at Deseret Digital Media for two years before working as a corporate communications specialist at a global agency, then at an outsourced direct sales organization, Market Star’s social she community she worked as a manager. I was.
After being laid off, she started Comma Copywriters in 2016. She was juggling being her primary breadwinner and being the mother of her one-year-old child with her husband in graduate school.
“I virtually skipped the door,” she recalls. “I was so excited to have the freedom to do what I wanted.”
She was serious about growing her business rapidly. “I got her business license in February 2016,” she recalls. “I wrote in her journal, ‘This is going to be a million dollar business.’ I had no idea how I was going to get there.”
One of her early projects was writing. joyce boya book that captures the life of serial entrepreneur Alan Hall, who was the president of the agency where she worked.
Through her network she got other clients. In the beginning, Beck simply responded to client requests. “I call her first few years sandbox years,” she says. “I was playing in the sandbox. I just do what people paid me to do.”
Soon Beck had more work than he could handle. Rather than trying to do everything himself, he hired a few freelancers.
Beck made $100,000 in 2017. The business continued to grow and by 2019 he rebranded under the name Comma Copywriters.
One of Comma Copywriters’ selling points to clients is that assignments are delivered on time or ‘at home’. Beck said the company delivered over 21,000 of his pieces last year, with 99.94% delivered on time.
She’s not concerned about what other agencies or freelance platform clients might consider using. She said, “I see them as options, not competition. We’re a supplement. Ultimately, it’s much more likely that clients will hire us than they would hire a full-time headcount writer in-house.” It will be more cost effective.”
As the company expanded, Beck organized the company into three groups of writers based on client types: B2C (business to consumer), B2B (business to business), and agency. A “team leader” manages each group. She also has a team her support manager and client success manager.
When recruiting writers, Beck finds it works best to look for people who align with the company’s core values of freedom, accountability, humility, curiosity, and compassion. Many women appreciate the opportunity to be part of an organization that provides stable work and professional development while still taking care of household responsibilities. “We feel like we really have the best of both worlds for writers looking for flexibility as a freelancer and the support of a team,” she says.
To keep the freelance team motivated and aligned, Beck offers bonuses for regular hours, hosts monthly professional development events, and brings them together for annual team retreats. Comma Copywriters gives a writer a $1,000 bonus after her three years with the company, letting her dedicate herself to ticking something off her to-do list. One woman invested in camping gear. Another went to Disneyland.
Comma Copywriters let writers decide how much work they want to take on. Teams communicate about projects through Basecamp, a project management software. Thanks to that, the company was able to keep things running smoothly no matter what happened. Last year, when the company broke his $1 million mark for the first time, four of his seven in management had new babies.
A key focus of the business is giving back, especially to women. One way is the Comma Cares program. For each client, Comma Copywriters sponsors girls’ education through her non-profit partner Kurandza.
Beck also started a sister business, The Mama Ladder International, one year after launching comma. On demand, we offer workshops and retreats to help women start and grow their businesses. “All these women have come to me asking how I can start a business with a little baby,” she says.
Mama Lader is HIGH FIVE GRANT FOR MOMprovides a $5,000 grant to mothers who want to grow their businesses but lack access to capital. This year, Lowe’s and Clean Simple Eats are sponsoring grants for the first time.
Beck knows from personal experience that raising a child and being a successful business are not mutually exclusive. “There’s nothing she can’t do to be a motivated mother,” she says.