Between Carole, 24, and Nevy, 25, is a shared passion for creativity and avant-garde designs that have been the driving force for their business.
Through Nevyhoodz Creations they make customised jewellery, picture frames, belts, bags and shoes for sale.
The couple have been running the business together since March 2008, but Nevy started way back as a child in primary school, when he sold his artwork and customised t-shirts to neighbourhood kids.
Nevy is a self-taught pencil artist with a flair for adorning stuff with creative add-ons that catch his eye. Carole designs and makes clothes, shoes and handbags, a skill she picked up at the foot of her mother’s sewing machine.
The couple met as students at the Catholic University of East Africa. Carole was a customer of Nevy’s who first fell for his salesman lines then for his love lines.
At the time, Carole was making and selling her wares to a handful of her schoolmates. Nevy saw an opportunity to grow both their businesses through partnership – she’d bring her clients, her design skills and products to his business, and he’d give her a wider market. Carole didn’t think twice about his offer and gladly joined forces with Nevy.
So how has this young couple – still learning about relationships and learning about business – with no legal backing to their joint ownership of the business, handled being in business together?
Whatever each makes from their side of the business is theirs for keeping. Their distinct business arms meet in their shared customer base: the couple has amassed over 50, 000 likes on their Facebook fan page. This is no mean feat for a young business, even by today’s social media standards.
When it comes to business expenses, Nevy and Carole have made a gentleman’s agreement: She handles only 20 per cent of those in the town outlet, while Nevy handles the remainder and all expenses for their Ongata Rongai workshop.
The business has also worked because the couple complements each other: Nevy is good at managing the staff and money matters; Carole is good at brainstorming creative ideas.
It’s a simple model that works for them but it also presents a challenge. Nevy breaks it down: “Our business has been growing through ploughing back profit. Should Carole not carry her weight on her side of the business to make more money than we are making right now, we will have to postpone our plans to expand.”
Running the business together means it also eats into the private time the couple sets aside for the relationship. Nevyhoodz is Nevy’s pet project, and it is on his young mind all day, every day.
Ask him to deliver your product at 3am, and he will contemplate getting out of bed to make the delivery. Such gritty determination is good for business but is terrible for the relationship because it means the relationship is his second priority.
“It’s a challenge we are still working around,” says Carole. For a business partnership with your spouse to work, Carole says that the partners need to appreciate and understand each other.
Nevyhoodz is driven by its creativity, but there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable to her as a business partner. She says, “There are items Nevy creates which I think are too avant-garde. And there are others I create he doesn’t think are tasteful enough”.
To resolve these differing opinions in taste, they have learnt to trust each other because each one has a proven track record of what sells and what doesn’t.
Nevy adds that the motivation and personal drive the couple has found in each other to run the business is what has made them excellent business partners.
