WORK WITH ME

ABOUT NIKOLAI

 

I’m a graphic designer turned serial entrepreneur, who works with 6-7 figure businesses to improve their digital marketing, sales funnels, and content creation strategies.

Since 2019 I have worked with over 100+ businesses to increase their reach, sales, and organic customer acquisition. Along the way, I learned a little bit about how to grow a business, scale it to millions of dollars in sales, and create engaging content that organically connects with an online audience. 

I help businesses systemize their workflow, marketing, and content creation processes. This all started with I founded Noble Prince Design Co. A full-service digital marketing and design agency that specializes in working with food, craft beverage, and lifestyle businesses. 

In that time I have collected a wealth of skills, resources, and lessons that I share all for free here. My goal is to write about skills, resources, and reviews that help entrepreneurs, creatives, and freelancers, create faster, work smarter, and design a better life.

3 DIFFERENT WAYS I CAN HELP YOU

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1


THE SOLOPRENEUR PLAYBOOK NEWSLETTER


Each Saturday you’ll get actionable tips to launch, grow, and monetize your internet business. While exploring different ways to holistically expand your mind, systems, and process. 

 

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2

 
DIGITAL COURSES


Gain financial freedom faster with self-paced courses that teach you to grow your audience, work with bigger clients, and expand your network all while learning how to work faster, smarter, and earn more.

 

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3


PLAYBOOK TO SUCCESS
 

Learn how to create faster, work smarter, and earn more in your online business. By systematizing your workflow, saving time creating content, and charging more for your services.

 

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My Journey From Designer To Entrepreneur.


 

Ever since I was a kid I knew I wanted to do something great with my life. At first, I thought I was going to be a paleontologist, uncovering dinosaur bones, and the ancient mysteries of life. Then I wanted to become a famous artist like Leonardo Da Vinci, painting masterpieces and inspiring others to find the beauty in art. I then reinvented myself into the real-life version of Don Draper from Madmen and wanted to run a creative agency, and have a double life. 

But ultimately what I became for 7 years on and off was a carpenter. During summer break throughout high school and college, I worked for my father’s carpentry business installing interior wood trim, doors, and windows in new construction homes. It wasn’t the future I had hoped for but it paid the bills. At the same time, I was in college earning my BFA in graphic design dreaming up plans to become a designer at a cool creative agency. In 2019 I graduated with my degree in one of the worst job markets in recent history.

From 2019 to early 2020 I applied to hundreds of jobs, went to 100+ interviews, and was told time and time again that I did not have enough experience, that I was too ambitious, and that I wanted too much money. I was frustrated, lost, and unsure of my future. I eventually found a job at a printing company in the middle of nowhere but was quickly laid off in March 2020 due to COVID.

I quickly transitioned into a position at a car dealership designing newspaper ads during the worst time period in recent history to be in the car industry. The dealership was toxic, I worked out of a supply closet, and I was screamed at daily for situations that arose that had nothing to do with me. During my lunch breaks I would go cry in my car, and wonder what my life had become, what happened to all the dreams I had, why was I so unhappy, and why was I a failure. 

I did everything I was told, I earned good grades, I went to college, I applied for all the jobs I wanted, I worked my ass off, and was stuck at a toxic job during a pandemic earning slightly more than minimum wage. I was $40,000 dollars in debt and I felt like I had no future. How was I supposed to go on living like this, hating my life.

After 6 months I quit the only real job I ever had. At the time I was making a few hundred dollars on the side doing freelance work, but not enough to sustain myself. Luckily I was still living with my parents and had some form of a safety net and $2,000 in my saving account. I started my own graphic design business and made a promise to myself that I would never have a boss again, that life was what I made it, and that there was no option but to move forward. 

From October 2020 to February 2021, I did not make a single penny. I worked 60+ hours a week building my website, fake design case studies, and reaching out to businesses to do their marketing, and design work. During those 5 months, I received hundreds of No’s, closed doors, and pissed off business owners. Until I made a breakthrough.

In March of 2021 I partnered with a few eCommerce companies and took on their marketing needs, running their social media accounts, designing their Shopify websites, and running their paid ads. I then partnered with a few design agencies and took on their overflow work, editing videos, creating animations, and working on projects for some of the world’s largest companies. 

In 5 short months, I went from being at my lowest and thinking about killing myself, to becoming a proud business owner working with dozens of clients. I was learning new skills, and paving a path forward when I saw so many small businesses going under, and all of my friends from college being laid off from their jobs.

For the rest of 2021 I worked my ass off and ended up breaking 6 figures in my first 12 months of business. I 3X’ed my income and proved to the world that I had more than what it takes to be a successful graphic designer. Furthermore, I learned that I was an entrepreneur at heart. Failure became my new best friend and I beat the odds while the world was ending. 

In 2022, I set my sights higher and decided I wanted to start multiple businesses. Very quickly I grew a graveyard of failed businesses in 6 months while continuing to run my design agency. In total I started 5 different businesses and each one failed horribly. I failed to find a problem that I could solve and instead followed my “passions” which ultimately led to bad business ideas.

The one saving grace of all this was I learned as much as I could about marketing, paid ads, eCommerce, email marketing, and business strategy that I was able to apply to the clients I was working with through my design agency to 5x their sales in 2022. 

In 2 years, I managed to start a successful design agency that I scaled to over 6 figures in revenue. Start and fail 5 different businesses, and grow my client’s business sales to over $5,000,000 in revenue in 2022. If you told me that I would accomplish all of this when I was in my car questioning what I was going to do with my life because I thought I was a failure, I would have thought you were lying.

Along the way, I learned new skills that aren’t taught in school, gained experience working with some of the biggest companies in the world, and help grow and scale many small family-operated businesses. Along the way, I had thousands of failures, many eye-opening opportunities, and dozens of happy clients who I helped changed their lives.

The single most important thing I did was quit my job, and take control of my life. Life is what you make it, and the support circle you have around you is critical to your success. My goal in creating this website is to create content that I wished I had when I was just starting out. Each article is written with care and thought to help creatives work faster, smarter, and earn more. All while enjoying what they do, and having the freedom to do that work from home or on the goal.

Nobody deserves to be unfulfilled in their career, longing for a better life, or stuck due to the cost of education. This is why this website and my youtube channel exist to provide resources, techniques, tips, and strategies for creatives, small business owners, and content creators to grow and scale their businesses. I was once lost, confused, and had no resources to help me succeed in business. I never want anyone to feel the way I did. 

Here’s to working faster, smarter, and earning more.

Nikolai

Learn How To Create Faster, Work Smarter, And Earn More In Your Online Business.


Join thousands of entrepreneurs, creatives, and freelancers who are learning how to design a better life holistically through the Solopreneur Playbook Newsletter.

Every week I post the best business, design, and writing hacks I have found. Along with great products, software, and services that will help you work smarter, and earn more.