Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in handcrafts but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Aisha Martinek, Founder of The NoCo Box, located in Fort Collins, CO, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
The NoCo Box curates gift boxes offering small batch items sourced from northern Colorado artisans. Our customers are all people who appreciate craft goods and love to support small business artisans.
Tell us about yourself
I started The NoCo Box when the pandemic hit. I felt inspired to help bring the northern Colorado small business community online and to create an easy-to-use e-commerce platform that specialized in supporting the small businesses most affected by the pandemic. The NoCo Box has evolved to cater to more specialized needs like business gifting as well as special events customized gifting for bridal showers, birthdays, and holiday parties. The freedom to express my creativity through my gift designs and creations motivates me. Meeting small business owners who are just as passionate, ambitious, and curious about the world as I am is also incredibly motivating -- and knowing that I get to support their work is fulfilling for me.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I started my business while 37 weeks pregnant with my firstborn and then had a second child quickly after my first. I continued operating through the challenges of new parenthood, and I think that's a huge accomplishment when I look back. I fulfilled crazy huge orders while heavily pregnant and with two babies under two.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
There's so much trial and error, and if you have a perfectionist in you, then you really need to let that take a back seat which is a struggle for me. My expectations and standards are high, and I've had to get very comfortable with making mistakes. I've learned and will continue to learn so much through experience, but it is difficult to, at times, be comfortable with this idea of failing over and over.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Just do it. Nike said it best. Do it. Get started. That's most of the battle. Roll with the punches and get right back at it. There will be tough and easy days. Sometimes you will feel like you have no idea what you're doing, and other times you'll be in such a beautiful, productive flow that you impress yourself. Your first step is getting started.
- Then accepting failure as a part of the process.
- Then finally, learning and adapting from those mistakes. Where there is a will, there is a way. I believe in you!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.nocobox.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omg.its.aisha/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aisha-martinek-3bab0952/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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