When I look back at why I started UnikBrushes, I don’t think it was because I had some big dream of becoming a CEO.
I was 13 years old.
I barely understood what running a company involved, and I definitely wasn’t thinking about business models, managing employees, or scaling an agency.
I simply enjoyed creating things.
By then, I’d already spent a lot of time experimenting with web design, development, logos, and graphics.
What started as curiosity slowly turned into something I genuinely wanted to get better at.
And eventually, I wanted to see whether I could turn those skills into something real.
That’s how UnikBrushes began in 2015.
Starting Without Knowing Much About Business
In the beginning, UnikBrushes was just me working on small projects.
There were no employees, no office, no proper processes, and no clear growth plan.
I was designing logos, creating banners, building simple websites, and taking on whatever projects helped me gain experience.
Most of the time, I was learning while doing the work.
And being young didn’t exactly make things easier.
I was dealing with clients who were much older than me, and convincing someone to trust a 13-year-old with their business wasn’t simple.
Some people questioned whether I could actually deliver what they needed.
Looking back, I understand their hesitation.
But I slowly realized that I didn’t need to convince everyone.
I needed to do good work for the people willing to give me an opportunity.
As I completed more projects, clients began trusting me, referring me to others, and returning with new requirements.
That was probably one of my earliest lessons in business.
You can spend a lot of time talking about what you’re capable of, but the work you deliver matters much more.
Realizing That a Website Wasn’t Enough
Initially, my focus was almost entirely on design and development.
I wanted to create websites that looked better, loaded properly, and gave people a good experience.
But the more businesses I worked with, the more I started noticing something.
A website could look great and still not help a business grow.
Sometimes the problem wasn’t the design.
It was that customers couldn’t find the website. Sometimes the messaging wasn’t clear. Sometimes visitors arrived but didn’t take action.
And sometimes the business simply didn’t have the right systems to support growth.
That pushed me to explore SEO, digital marketing, branding, content, paid advertising, user experience, and automation.
I began looking at websites as part of a larger business system rather than standalone projects.
And that changed how I approached client work.
Instead of asking only what a client wanted me to build, I started thinking about what they were actually trying to achieve.
That way of thinking eventually became a major part of UnikBrushes.
The Mistakes That Helped Me Improve
Of course, the journey wasn’t as straightforward as it might sound now.
There were projects that failed, clients I struggled to manage, and ideas that went absolutely nowhere.
I underpriced myself more times than I can remember.
I spent months experimenting with things that never became useful.
At one point, I even tried creating my own Paid-To-Click platform.
That failed completely.
But those experiences taught me a lot about making decisions, understanding people, and knowing when an idea was worth pursuing.
The COVID period was another important phase.
I used much of that time to strengthen my skills in WordPress, SEO, e-commerce, digital marketing, automation, and business strategy.
It was a period of intense learning, and it helped me move beyond thinking of myself only as a designer or developer.
I became more interested in solving business problems.
Building a Company Instead of Doing Everything Myself
In 2021, I officially registered UnikBrushes as a company and started building a more structured team.
That introduced an entirely different set of challenges.
I had spent years doing most things myself.
Now, I needed to think about hiring people, sharing responsibilities, communicating clearly, managing deadlines, and creating processes that other people could follow.
I also gained valuable experience working in a corporate environment, where I learned more about leadership, project management, teamwork, and structured execution.
Another experience that shaped my approach was co-founding LearnyHive, an educational platform for engineering students.
Working on a product taught me to think beyond individual deliverables and focus more on the people using what we were building.
It also made me realize how much I enjoyed the process of building businesses, not just completing projects.
Over time, I began understanding that my role at UnikBrushes needed to evolve.
I couldn’t be the person designing every page, fixing every issue, managing every client, and making every decision forever.
If I wanted the company to grow, I needed to build a team and systems that could operate without my constant involvement in every task.
And that’s what we’ve been working toward.
What UnikBrushes Means to Me Today
Today, UnikBrushes is much more than the small freelance operation I started in 2015.
It’s a digital agency with a team working across websites, SEO, digital marketing, branding, and technology.
My involvement has also changed.
Instead of personally handling every part of daily execution, I focus more on strategy, leadership, improving systems, and helping the team grow.
And that shift has given me room to explore something new.
I’m now building Decodability, a company focused on helping software businesses make their documentation more discoverable through search engines and AI systems.
Decodability addresses a different problem, and the story behind why I’m building it deserves its own space.
But I can confidently say that everything I’ve learned through UnikBrushes has influenced how I approach this next business.
The client conversations, technical challenges, SEO projects, product experiences, mistakes, and years of experimentation have all shaped the way I think.
Looking Back at Where It Started
When I was 13, I wanted to make things.
I wanted to learn, improve my skills, and see whether someone would find value in something I created.
I didn’t know that those small projects would eventually turn into a company, a team, and more than a decade of experience.
UnikBrushes taught me much more than design, development, or marketing.
It taught me how to work with people, handle responsibility, make difficult decisions, and build something that could grow beyond my own individual efforts.
And I think that’s what I’m most grateful for.
It’s the business that helped me grow from someone who enjoyed making websites into someone who genuinely enjoys building businesses.
And it’s still an important part of what I’m building today.
Rocky
