9 Questions For...Nick Disabato

"9 Questions For…" is an interview series in which we ask soloists and founders and leaders working in the Shopify and adjacent industries to share their experiences of doing "their thing, their way". The questions might be the same but the insights certainly aren't! If you fit the bill and would like to share your learnings please get in touch.

In this edition of 9 Questions For…, we hear from consultant, designer and writer Nick Disabato (AKA Nickd) of Draft. Nick joined us for the New York City 2024 edition of Craft+Work and kindly took up the offer to contribute to this series.

Q: Are you a founder, co-founder, solo entrepreneur, consultant or something else?

I'm an independent consultant, but I call myself a designer and writer.

Q: What type of business do you run?

I run Draft, a small design consultancy. We plan, execute, and act on profitable design research for Shopify stores & other independent businesses.

Q: Why did you start your business?

I'm basically unemployable. Everything that makes me a terrific independent business owner makes me a horrible employee. I hate living someone else's narrative and would prefer to go through the long slog of defining one for myself.

Q: What's the biggest challenge you are facing in your business?

There aren't enough leads in Shopify for the kind of work we do, so we're slowly transitioning the business back over to software & independent design practitioners.

Q: What's going well in your business?

Despite my answer to the previous question, we've been booked solid for two years. 2023 was our best year ever. I deliberately take on LESS work in order to protect my field & move with intention through life.

Q: What skill do you excel at, and which one do you want to get better at?

I'm a truly excellent writer, but I'm not so great at making introductory email sequences, so I'm spending a lot of this fall working on one. I suspect it will suck for a little while and get slowly better over time, as all skills do!

Q: What will be different about your business this time next year?

I'm hoping to focus considerably more on educating individual design practitioners, as well as doing more one-off projects with software businesses.

Q: What's the one thing you wish you'd known before starting your entrepreneurial adventure?

That the first year is hardest, but that it's always worth it. Also, that a global pandemic would destabilise the economy and society in 2020. Knowing that ahead of time would have been quite useful!

Q: Where do you live, and what do you love about your city?

I live in Chicago, and I love the city most during the summer, as well as its food. These things are closely related.