We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zanah Nesheiwat a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Zanah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?
Opening my first salon in Jersey City was a complete failure. I went into it knowing absolutely nothing with zero help. Since I had nobody to guide me in the right direction, I did everything wrong. The city was actually doing the complete opposite of helping me. They were giving me the run around. I was paying rent at my Jersey City location for nine months and was still not legally open. I put curtains up and saw clients unlawfully before the city shut me down on January 3rd 2022. They told me I could not open there. I was locked into a 5 year lease which I miraculously got out of scotch free. I temporarily saw clients in my garage until I was busted again. Then I rented a station at a local spa until I found my new location in March 2022. I spent about 6 weeks renovating and then finally held my grand opening on June 1st 2022. By this time I had already been doing nails professionally for almost 10 years, but for the first time, I was operating illegal and legitimate business. When I opened my salon in Bayonne, I did it the right way the first time in less than a month because this time I knew what I was doing. I learned from my mistakes.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I truly have been doing nails my entire life. I have memories of sitting on the floor as a five year old girl painting my mothers toenails. I did people’s nails in elementary school and in high school. I have always loved doing nails. I never dreamed that I could make a career out of it. I actually went to nursing school and almost finished. I started doing nails as a form of second income in 2011. I created the Zaneyynails Instagram account in 2011 as well. When I realized that my side hustle was bringing in more cash now than my full time job, I quit my job with zero days notice and immediately opened up my schedule full-time. I am the happiest and most successful I’ve ever been.
My goal in the industry is really to create a safe space. I understand that people are different. I want people to accept me for who I am And I accept people for who they are.
What I am most proud of is that I literally started with nothing and I have made some pretty difficult things happen under some pretty awful circumstances with zero assistance. I was not fortunate enough to have had help from my parents or the government.
I am also very proud of the way I make clients feel when they sit in my chair.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I was a home-based Nail Tech I was reported for doing nails out of my house on more than one occasion. Doing nails was my only source of income and I knew I had to find a more permanent solution so that I didn’t have to have the anxiety of my livelihood dangling on a string every day. I found a cute spot in Jersey City that I could afford and I signed the lease. I found out after signing the lease that there was a new law in the state of New Jersey that required a proper ventilation system for any new salons. Pre-existing nail salons were already grandfathered in. The problem was that the building that I was in was too old, and that ventilation system was not possible due to the buildings structure. But I was already locked into a lease so I just put curtains up and started doing nails anyway. I have good relationships with My client so I wasn’t worried about anybody reporting me. However, the upstairs neighbor was reporting me to the city frequently and it got to the point where the city would be parked outside of my salon every single day, so I really had to move again. So what I did in the meantime was rent a station at a spa in Bayonne. I stayed there for About two months while I looked for a salon and made renovations to the new salon I found. Once everything was in order with the city of Bayonne, I was finally up and running legally for the first time ever in June 2022. It was the best feeling ever. I knew that I did everything the right way this time and I knew that for the very first time nobody could take this away from me. Honestly, I felt like I was a drug dealer on the run from the law LOL I just wanted to do nails and mind my business.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My social media audience started growing in February 2023 after my ex fiancé and I broke up. Once that relationship was over, I just felt so free. I stopped watering myself down for others and I started speaking my mind more. That’s what helped my audience grow. I think maybe I just say/do things people can relate to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ZaneyyNails.as.me/
- Instagram: Zaneyynails
