Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathleen Krueger.
Hi Kathleen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
After working as a bookkeeper in the construction industry for over 20 years, I was wanting to find an opportunity that would allow me more flexibility in my schedule without decreasing my income. I discovered that opportunity in a field I had never considered before: writing.
I had joined a writing community online to share my poetry in 2009. It was there that I discovered that some writers were making money writing for online sources. By 2011, I had found enough writing clients to allow me to quit my part time bookkeeping job and write full-time. My workload fluctuated up and down but quickly offered more assignments than I could keep up with. To maintain my customers, I hired other writer friends to help me meet the demand. The demand only grew. By 2012, I realized that I had created a writing agency with over 6 other writers working as subcontractors to my company, Crafter of Words LLC. Our clients were mostly digital marketing agencies that needed website copy and blogs for their clients. I also began writing for several women’s magazines across the country. I really enjoyed interviewing subjects and sharing their stories.
Today, I am mostly retired from the business and only taking on occasional writing assignments. I have a business manager who handles communication between our clients and our writing team. I have published a couple of small books about my journey and my business model.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In the book, “Hey Freelancer, Go Clone Yourself,” my co-author, Michael Stover, and I share the ups and downs of operating a writing agency. One of the biggest issues we have dealt with is when a major client has a slow down or chooses to hire writers in-house instead of subcontracting their assignments to us. All of a sudden, you have a gap to fill in your revenue. This can be disastrous to an individual writer. It is one of the reasons we recommend the “Clone Yourself” business model. Since my writers are subcontractors and not my employees, they know that the work flow I provide will ebb and flow with my clients’ workload.
At the same time, there were times when my clients needed more writers for a limited amount of time. Then, I was the one who had to vet and hire more writing subcontractors. Not an easy task.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Crafter of Words writing team specializes in providing quick turnaround of high-quality, SEO content for digital marketing firms and website designers. We are small team of U.S. writers with 10+ years of writing experience. We are the exclusive providers of written content for most of our clients and have a trusted relationship developed over many years. We see the success of our clients as our greatest achievement. We succeed when they succeed.
We pride ourselves in understanding the nuances between writing website content and blogs for businesses, each requires a slightly different approach. Our research skills in a broad range of industries is also a key point. We can write with expertise for industries across the board, from construction trades to attorneys to dentists to plastic surgeons. Our competitive pricing is also important to our clients. Because we work with high-volume clients, we can offer rates that allow a significant markup on our services.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The main thing we learned during the Covid-19 period was that marketing is one of the best areas for weathering the ups and downs of the economy. When business is slow – companies spend money to keep their name in front of customers. When business is good – the competition is heavy and companies spend marketing money to keep their name at the top.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crafterofwords.com
