We recently connected with Nevine Younes and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nevine, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I am definitely happier as a business owner, given that I set my own hours and no longer need to commute. Even though 20+ years of my working life was spent complying to ‘bankers hours’ I always struggled with the structure and monotony of it. I need a great deal of quiet, space and freedom in order to function optimally, and spending so much time in traffic coupled with sitting down all day started to feel deeply confining. That being said, the lessons I learned in offices during that time did provide me with a lot of knowledge that I use in my work today. Plus, I met a lot of great people. I am grateful I realized that I needed to live a less conventional way of life when I did. No situation is without its challenges, but I prefer the set of challenges that come with being a business owner.

Nevine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into Graphic Design in college when I needed to figure out a sustainable way to be an artist. There was a Design Lab on campus and the coolest black-clad people (not unlike SNL’s Sprockets) would flock to a dimly lit room, sit at their Macs, play the most obscure music and just fiddle away on their mouses. So, obviously I was sold. With a subject like Design, I can satisfy my artistic needs but there is also a nit-picky side that soothes me. It’s not a job for a sloppy person. You must be organized and detail-oriented or you will make mistakes, which are expensive. I’m the kind of designer that loves to find order within chaos. I used to play World of Warcraft and would spend hours organizing my bank instead of hunting and gathering.

More than twenty years later, I find myself in a new position. At the tail-end of 2021, I decided to open up Radish Studio (radishstudio.com), a branding studio for entrepreneurs in the food industry. So far I’ve worked with some incredible people: I created a brand identity for a friend who bakes his own pecan tarts out of his apartment in Brooklyn, NY (Clingy Tarts); I created a website for a businessman who’s passion for wine led him to start his own award-winning winery based in Argentina (TopografiaWine.com); and, in a non-food twist of fate, I created a brand identity and website for a Mother-Daughter team who opened up a disability-friendly, truly unique Airbnb near Boston, MA, that is a hybrid vintage store and interactive art space (thehouseofid.com).

For the past few years I have extended Radish Studio’s reach by creating food-related art each year and exhibiting my work at Bread & Cie. My theme for this year is ‘Salt’ so I have been busy preparing paintings of salt-dominant food such as oysters, hot dogs and pretzels in time for my show in December.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Starting out as a business owner after working for other people most of my career was daunting and I am still walking through it slowly. How to start or manage a business is not something I learned in college, so I was lucky enough to find and then join The Futur Pro Group, led by Chris Do. I’m able to access businesses resources and chat with other small business owners around the world, and making those connections has been invaluable.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most important part of my business is not Design, but person-to-person connection. It’s a business that is created to serve the needs of others, and human connection is a huge part of that. Forging a pleasant working relationship and adjusting to the needs and personalities of each person is key to my business. My Design services are as bespoke as my client relationships. It also doesn’t hurt that I work my tail off!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.radishstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radish_thestudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nevineyounes/

Image Credits
Portrait by Aurora Grie, tart photo by Chiara Peretti