From $5 Gigs to a Thriving Creative Studio

How one self taught designer built a scalable agency from a small town in Bosnia

September 1, 2025

skydesigner

Back in 2013, when I was just 18, I discovered design contest websites and decided to teach myself Adobe Illustrator. After months of hard work and many setbacks, I finally won my first contest and earned $200. That moment was unforgettable, it proved that my passion for creative work had a real purpose.

About a year later, I realized I didn’t want to keep competing for work. I wanted to build client relationships. So I began exploring various freelance marketplaces, at that point I found out about Fiverr and posted my first gig offering logo vectorization. Orders started coming in quickly, and that’s when everything began to change.

That early momentum pushed me to go all in on Fiverr, rather than putting my energy on other platforms too. It proved to be the right move!

At first, I offered 24 hour delivery to stand out, which meant working around the clock, losing track of time. I was soon making around $2,000 a month.

In 2016, I brought my sister and a close friend onboard, expanding our services to include logo and business card design. Orders skyrocketed, I even received 45 orders in one day! By 2017, our team had grown, and we hit over 5,000 orders that year. It was wild!

But it became clear that this pace wasn’t sustainable. I used to believe no one could design like me, but I learned that trusting others and building a team was key to long term success. Instead of taking on more work, I focused on creating systems. We adopted Rock.so as our project management tool and set a simple rule: whoever was available picked the project with the closest deadline. We used a shared Dropbox account for file organization and Simplenote to store templated client responses, which saved me hours each day. Many of those tools and workflows are still in place today, just a bit more refined.

Don’t be afraid to scale, if managing projects, sales, or payments starts pulling you away from the creative work you enjoy, it’s time to expand and bring in professionals who can help.

Our team is entirely in-house, and we’re all based in Laktasi, a small city in Bosnia with limited access to IT education. Over the last 10 years, I’ve slowly built the team and to support the next generation, we launched a local training program for designers, developers, and freelancers. More than 50 young talents have completed it, and several are now part of our core team.

Staying current with design trends and tools has also been vital. It’s much easier today, thanks to online resources like articles, webinars, and tutorials. Trends shift fast, take web animations, for example. A few years ago, they were rare; now they’re essential. We make sure to keep learning and adapting.

To be honest, I don’t really see myself as a typical leader. I still consider myself a designer first, that's where I’m most comfortable and where I feel I contribute the most. Over time, I’ve realized that good leadership doesn’t always mean being the one in charge of everything. I’ve built a team with people who are strong in areas I’m not, like finance and management, so I can stay focused on the creative work I love. I try to keep things friendly and down to earth with my team. We work better when there’s trust and open communication, not just business formality. So for me, leadership today is more about supporting the team than directing it.

Staying grounded comes from maintaining a healthy work life balance and regularly reflecting on our mission, which is to empower creatives through smart systems, meaningful mentorship, and a commitment to quality, proving that with the right support, talent from anywhere can thrive on a global stage.

Seeing the real impact we have on our clients keeps me motivated and aligned.

To anyone looking to scale: start with systems. Build processes that maintain quality and efficiency, and surround yourself with a team that shares your values. Don’t rush. Focus on sustainable growth, not just fast results. Quality always wins.

Today, we’re a team of 16, with over $3.4 million in Fiverr orders, 40,000+ completed orders, and clients in more than 170 countries. What started as a simple $5 gig has grown into something far beyond what I ever imagined, and the journey is just getting started!

Skydesigner is a team of experts in branding, UI/UX, mobile design, and web development. Check out Borjan’s Fiverr Pro profile here.

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From $5 Gigs to a Thriving Creative Studio

How one self taught designer built a scalable agency from a small town in Bosnia

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