Meet: Vanessa Jeswani
Founder of: Nomad Lane
Tell us about your business:
Nomad Lane designs elevated bags and accessories to keep professionals organized on the go.
What was the best piece of business advice you were given when you were starting out?
Make money faster than you spend it. We’re a completely self-funded business, so we have to be careful where every dollar goes. We try to be extremely lean and have cut out all unnecessary expenses, both in our business and personal life. As an entrepreneur, you have to be able to scale up and down when necessary.
Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting out?
If I could do one thing differently, I would have hired for the skills we didn’t have on our founding team (my husband and I) from the start. The one competency that neither of us have is a strong design background and that’s imperative when you have a product-based business. I wish we were able to bring on a talented designer earlier than when we did.
Name the biggest overall lesson you've learned in running a business?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned from running my own business is to gain a strong understanding of what you’re good at and just focus on that. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects/all the potential other things you could be doing. For us at Nomad Lane, we’re great at developing unique travel products and launching them via crowdfunding. Every time we’ve tried to veer off that path, it’s not worked out as well as we would have hoped. Now, we know what we’re good at and we just double down on it.
Does your culture influence your choices and decisions? If yes, how?
Yes, for sure. Given that my background is Sindhi, I come from a family of entrepreneurs and merchants. They always instilled in me the value of doing things the right way and maintaining a sense of integrity while running a business. We strive to treat everyone we work with and our customers with the utmost respect. We make sure we pay our vendors on time and we trust our partners/freelancers to get the job done without micro-managing.
In moments of self-doubt or adversity, how do you build your resolve?
I think of all my previous experiences where I have overcome a difficult situation. I think to myself that if I was able to overcome those tough challenges, whatever lies ahead of me is easy!
How do you balance your workload? What does self-care look like for you?
For me, self-care is not about taking a long bath or a face mask, it’s more about surrounding myself with good people. I believe the most important aspect of one’s mental health is setting boundaries and establishing my priorities. I focus on spending time with people that make me feel good and inspire me!
Discover more:
www.nomadlane.com
@nomadlane
