Employee to Entrepreneur
Do you want to leave your 9-5 job to build your successful freelance business?
The landscape of work is changing. Corporate employment is no longer as secure or stable as it once was, and there’s now more appetite than ever for designers to take their life and work into their own hands and launch their freelance career.
Through four years of running my own design business, I’ve developed a framework to support designers in making the transition from Employee to Entrepreneur.
I can imagine these experiences sound familiar:
✅ You’re unsure of how to market yourself
✅ You don’t fully understand how to put together a portfolio that can attract clients
✅ You struggle with pricing your services
✅ You’re unaware of the actual processes involved in running a design business
✅ You’ve spent months (or years) dreaming of starting your own design business
I have personally experienced all of these pain points and challenges on my path to building my successful design business. Through my framework, we’ll work together to map your path towards making an income doing what you love.
Who is this for:
My coaching packages are built to support designers who are ready to leave the 9 to 5 grind in favor of doing their own thing. It’s for designers who have all of the technical know-how to be successful and need a coach to help them with the business side of bringing their freelance career to life. This is for designers with a bias for action who are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the work.
What I can help with:
⚡ Tips on landing freelance clients
⚡ A framework to figure out what to charge your clients
⚡ Creating the transition strategy to take you from employee to entrepreneur
⚡ Developing the processes required to run your design business
⚡ Perfecting your portfolio and resumé
⚡ Feedback on any projects that you are working on
⚡ Mastering your online presence
What you get:
My coaching package enables you to put a plan in place to make the transition to self-employment and includes:
A three-month period during which we’ll have a call every 2 weeks (6 calls in total)
Direct access to me as your brand coach M-F during working hours via WhatsApp
Three follow up calls after our coaching period has ended to support you and keep you on track with building your design business
Hi! I’m Nick
I am an award winning creative director from Trinidad & Tobago. Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been building design-businesses, and my most recent venture is a branding & packaging design agency called Backyard Design which I founded in 2019. Through Backyard Design, I work with a lot of freelancers so I have a good idea as to what to look for when hiring designers for projects.
Before starting my own agency I myself was a freelancer, and before that I worked as a Senior Art Director at McCann Port-of-Spain. From the time I graduated in 2013 from SCAD, it took me 4 years to become self-employed and my goal is to help YOU on the path to self-employment using the proven steps & processes that I figured out along the way.
Check out some of my work below:
FAQ
How long will it take to get my business off the ground? From the time you decide to leave your job and become self-employed, the time it takes to get your business off the ground depends on how much work you are putting in and what level of marketing and networking you are doing. It took me a year of wanting to leave my job, coupled with doing freelance work in my off time, before I was able to take the plunge.
How much money can I expect to earn in the first year? There are no guarantees to this. My suggestion would be to have a plan to at least match your current salary every month before making the decision to leave your job.
This looks great, can I join at a later date? I only take on two coaching clients at a time, which allows me to provide more value to the people that I work with. I recommend applying as soon as possible, and we can speak about a start date once you put in your application.
You can also catch me here:
My weekly Twitter Space where every Wednesday I interview other creatives as well as answer questions related to design and creativity.
I speak to University & Secondary School classes regularly, fill out my contact form if you are interested in having me speak to your class.
You can also feel free to email me, or DM me on Instagram for any quick questions/feedback
I post a lot of really valuable content on YouTube as well, and am always open to video suggestions.