We were lucky to catch up with Nyla McGinnis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nyla , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

As a 17. year old business owner, I honestly wish I started my business sooner. I started my business at the age of 14 in the year of 2020. In 2019 about to enter high school, I was starting to feel pressure about what my life after high school should look like. I felt as if, everyone had their own ideas about what I should and should not be doing with my life, but in the end I didn’t know who’s advice to take or which direction to go, but I knew I wanted happiness in whatever it is that I do. I considered many career options: Hairdresser, teacher, creative director, but I found faults in EACH field. 1st I didn’t want to graduate high school to go back to school for over 2 years, 2nd I wanted flexibility to support my volunteer Bible based work, and 3rd I can barely keep up with my own hair let alone someone else’s. I realized that I found problems in each field because none of those career options did I find true enjoyment in. However, art and entrepreneurship has always been a large part of who I am, I have been sketching since I was 3 years old and it was something I never stopped doing up until now. My love of sketching moved into a love of digital art, I loved putting together impressive powerpoints for school, I loved being tasked with creating school brochures, I even started creating digital portraits for people AND selling them. I also started a jewelry business creating unique jewelry pieces that landed me over 400 sales.

I had the puzzle pieces to my future, I just needed help figuring out how to put art and entrepreneurship together. Then, my mother gave me the task of helping her make some design decisions for her brand. The creativity and excitement bubbled through my body when I helped her decide her brand colors and when I designed my first marketing social posts for her brand. However, what shocked me the most, is when random people took interest in what I was doing. They loved my designs I did for her and my own brand, and they also had questions on how I created some of my designs. That’s when it hit me that I wanted to be a freelance graphic designer. I loved creating logos and marketing material so much that I could see myself doing this forever. So in 2020 with lots of time on my hands because of the pandmeic I got myself certified in graphic design theory and started working towards my goal, as I really narrowed down my niche and gained my first 2 clients, it became even more clear that I actually wanted to be a brand and web designer. I loved working behind the scenes narrowing down a businesses foundation and then seeing it come to life and attract their ideal clients through a brand that I beautifully designed and executed. I. had FINALLY figured out what I wanted and what made me truly happy. However I let obstacles stand in my way.

Looking back I wish I wouldn’t have let fear and immaturity stop me from reaching my goals sooner. Being so young I was scared that clients and people i’m around would not take me seriously and that my friends would judge me, and it didn’t help that I felt pressure from my friends and their families into getting a “real” job for someone at my age like at a fast food restaurant. I also made the mistake of comparing myself to other entrepreneurs. I would remind myself constantly that I didn’t have what they have and that I was never going to get as far along as them. I would question why my business wasn’t taking off like theirs was? I also felt that I needed to just stick to my little etsy shop which is easier than trying to grow a brand and web business. All of this and more caused me to doubt and delay myself, and in the end waste time. I stopped working on my business until about early 2022 because of these feelings. If I would have realized sooner that what others thought of me wasn’t important, what I think of myself is important. I also had to realize that no one is above or below me we are all just on our own journeys in life and where they are at I can get that same thing if not something better at a time right for me in my business. With those realizations I could have been much farther along in my journey today, but it wasn’t the right time for me like it is now.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Nyla McGinnis I am a 17 year old freelance content, brand and web designer based out of the Pittsburgh area. I help burnt out female entrepreneurs FINALLY grow their businesses by saving them time and energy through strategic and luxury designs. A lot of business owners do not realize that having a solid brand strategy and brand identity is the foundation to a business you can see results from. When people first start their businesses they are so excited to pick the brand colors, design a logo, make a website, work with clients etc, that they miss the important part, BRAND STRATEGY! The foundation of your business. Then several months go by in their business and they have gained no clients, this is because their improperly designed brand, website, and social media page is not attracting their ideal clients because they didn’t properly design or base it off strategy. The foundation and how your business is perceived in all aspects is KEY to seeing business growth. But the problem is business owners do not have the TIME or SKILL to do this, which is understandable because design is not their field, they just want to finally see business growth. That is where I come in. I work with business owners going through their brand strategy so that I can work with them to PROPERLY design a brand, website, and social media page that not only they love but their dream clients love and feel attracted to as well. I provide 3 basic services that are key to seeing REAL business growth: brand design, web design, and social media design.

What really sets me apart is that I feel the pain of business owners struggling to grow their businesses. I know how it feels for both product based businesses and service based businesses. I know how it feels to not see growth with the business you felt so passionate about. I know how it feels to spend so much time burning yourself out researching over and over what you are doing wrong. To watch others flourish over you. So I can really relate to my clients and feel their pain because i’ve been there. But I also know how to easily get past that point because I have done it with both of my own businesses. My top value in my business is my clients mental health and getting them out of this burnt out feeling. SO the care and detail I take with my clients and transforming their businesses is really what sets me apart because my first priority is you as the business owner. I feel proud getting my clients out of that burnt out feeling, taking this load off of them making entrepreneurship fun again. Turning their businesses into brands and taking the burden of social media design off their hands. I feel the most proud of my clients and watching their real transformation in their mental health.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for me has been utilizing social media, having a well designed website, a solid portfolio, and putting myself out there to be noticed in whatever ways possible. You have to apply your brand’s strategy to every aspect of your business including your social media. SO when I finally learned my brands strategy and from that learned what my audience truly wanted, I was able to apply that to my social media and website and finally gain interest from those marketing avenues alone. Potential clients finally started viewing me as a professional and found my social media presence and website to be professional and I established myself as a leader so much so that that from those 2 things alone they wanted to learn more and started reaching out to me. Also from displaying projects i’ve worked on in my portfolio, was basically proof for my clients that I can transform their businesses as well because obviously I have proof i’ve done it for other people. Then finally when I was first starting out and still, I put myself out there, I market every where possible, I go in facebook groups, I email people who are looking for help, I do everything in my means right now to put myself out there and i’m constantly looking for new platforms to join to put myself out there even more.

How did you build your audience on social media?

So even though I do not have tons of Instagram followers, the views my page gets, and the potential clients I get from my Instagram page makes its all worth it. I strategically designed my page to catch my potential clients eye whether they follow me or not. So whether they hit that follow button or not, either way my page has done its job in getting my potential clients to see me and even book. I strategically designed it and cater my content topics to their needs so that they feel inclined to reach out to book with me. My advice to those just starting to build their social media presence is to focus on bettering your content and booking clients from your content DO NOT FOCUS ON THE AMOUNT OF LIKES OR FOLLOWERS YOU ARE GETTING. Some entrepreneurs on social media may have 10k followers but behind the scenes their content is really not doing its job in getting them clients and little do you know they have 0 clients behind the scenes. However, when you properly brand your social media so that its eye catching to your audience and professional and then when you focus on creating content around your ideal clients pain points, that’s when you will have a REAL presence. When you are showing up for the right people. Not just creating trendy content for likes and followers. So focus on bettering your content strategy and branding and tailoring it around your ideal clients THAT’S when you will see REAL growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://infodesignsbyny.wixsite.com/designs-by-ny
• Instagram: designs.by.ny
• Facebook: Designs.by.ny
• Other: https://www.fiverr.com/designs_by_ny?up_rollout=true

Image Credits
Photographs By Mish