A perk of co-owning your own company? Giving oneself a ridiculously awesome job title. Nicole Antoinette is “Princess of Particulars” at Shatterboxx, Inc., a job she says is “more or less equivalent to business operations manager, only with 10 percent more tiaras.” Nicole handles the web design company’s client relations and daily business operations, while co-owner Jamie Varon is the creative force behind the company’s portfolio of websites. When she’s not following projects from beginning to end, Nicole is tweeting for @shatterboxx and acting as the “curator of awesome shit” for the BoxxBlog, a behind the scenes peek at things she and Jamie love. (If you can’t tell already, these women bring loads of fun, sassy personality to their work. Just check out their business tagline: “Warning: May Cause Designgasm.”)
Nicole didn’t start out in web design, though. A food studies major, she spent the five years before joining Shatterboxx as director of a children’s summer day camp in Southern California. Nicole says it might seem like a jumbled path, but thinks it’s proof that if you focus on developing strong transferable skills, you can successfully apply them in a variety of industries.
And, as if running a business doesn’t keep her busy enough, Nicole also organizes "Bloggers in Sin City," an annual bloggers “unconference” in Las Vegas that acts as a networking meet up for personal bloggers and social media enthusiasts. She’s an avid blogger herself, maintaining a personal blog “Nicole is Better” (now defunct) and “Get This in Your Mouth,” a site that’s half downloadable recipes, half food blog. Read on for Nicole’s refreshing take on entrepreneurship.