While growing up I used to say a prayer when I heard an ambulance, praying that the person in the ambulance was okay. When it was time for me to select a career path in college, I gravitated to nursing with a passion for emergency medicine. Finally, I was able to do more than just say a prayer for patients in ambulances, I was able to help them directly.
I quickly climbed the nursing ladder because I wanted to do more. It was not enough for me to take orders from physicians and work as a registered nurse. I went back to school to get my masters in nursing while working full time in the emergency room. My love for education and my habit of always looking for ways to be the best version of myself pushed me to obtain higher degrees and I quickly learned to balance the stress of work, life, and school.
Working in health care is a very rewarding but draining career. Working in a critical care setting, such as the emergency room, health care workers have to be more alert and attentive to details compared to working in a non-critical setting. The slightest mistake, or not observing a critical change in a patient’s status, can lead to permanent injuries or death. I always say working in the emergency room is organized chaos and I loved every minute of it. At work, I am able to bring a sense of calmness, peace, comfort, love, and attention to my patients at a critical time in their lives. People do not come to the emergency room because they want to, they come because whatever situation they are going through (mentally or physically) needs urgent attention.
How Being a Nurse During COVID Led Me to Business
Working as a Nurse Practitioner helped me to develop skills I use in my business, KariAndGo. At work, I always need to communicate quickly, directly, and clearly to attending physicians, specialists, and patients. I need to communicate to patients in a way that they understand and also that gets me the information I need. Practicing this in a health care setting has helped me perfect the communication skills that I have needed in running my international business.
Pre-COVID Travel and the Birth of KariAndGo
Before COVID, I traveled to another country at least every 4 months. While visiting my home country of Ghana in 2019, I designed a tote bag I could use for travel and work. I found that while traveling I needed a beach bag I could fold and place in my suitcase or use if my suitcase was overweight at the airport.
As a nurse, I also needed a large tote bag with a zipper to carry all of my essential work items. Every time I traveled with my friends they made sure to remind me to bring my “african bag”.
While using my tote bag at work, a lot of the nurses, doctors, and health care workers complimented me on the size, textiles, and functionality of the bag. Many of them asked where they could purchase it. I contacted the gentleman (whom I still work with today) to make 10 more bags that I wanted to sell to my coworkers and friends. They all loved it and I increased the number of bags I ordered a few months later.
Once the bags were ready to be shipped, the entire world shut down due to the COVID pandemic, but I was still confident that my tote bags would sell once everything got “back to normal”.
During my time quarantining at home with covid, I asked myself “what do I want to do with these tote bags”? At the time, I was sending a google form request to interested buyers to select the print they wanted. I then followed up with an email confirming their order. This was a long and tedious process. I needed a way to make purchasing more efficient.
I used the last week of quarantine time to set myself up for success. I did as much research on e-commerce platforms as I could and I signed up with Shopify. I took pictures of the products with my cell phone and placed them on the shopify platform. This was the beginning of www.kariandgo.com.
Before I officially launched my business, I had decided on the name KariAndGo. It is a play on words (Carry and Go). Carry was replaced with the first part of my last name which is Karikari and there is a slag in pigeon english (broken down english) “carry and go” which means get up and go. With my brand focusing primarily on travel accessories this was the perfect name.
The Moment I Knew I Would Succeed
I realized I could make KariAndGo a successful business when I started getting constant compliments from my coworkers, but everything changed when I was in Jamaica in January 2021. My sister encouraged me to bring my bags so that we could use them to take nice pictures at the beach for instagram and advertising.
I took 5 tote bags to Jamaica and a lovely lady we met at Dolphin Cove complimented me on my bags. She was very interested and wanted to purchase some. I told her I had them in my hotel room and that I would get the bags to her by the end of the day. We quickly exchanged information.
I was so nervous. I told my sister, “a stranger wants to buy my bags??!!!” and my sister responded, “of course she does!! Your bags are beautiful, everybody will want to buy them”. The lady bought all 5 of the bags I had with me. Not only that, when she got back home, she ordered 13 more to give away as gifts to her friend group!!! Talk about a confidence booster.
I cried before delivering the bags to her because I was so thankful and grateful. My tote bags at this time didn’t have a log or anything. This was the catalyst that motivated me while I was in quarantine to make KariAndGo an official business. That stranger never knew how much her purchase meant to me. She was my first customer that was a stranger and it instilled so much confidence in me without her ever knowing it.
How I Scaled Up My Business During COVID
During my quarantine period I contacted a local artisan (the same person that made the original KariAndGo) to make more bags. At this time, tourism to Ghana was nonexistent due to the borders being closed. It was hard, especially for artisans that depend on tourism to make a living.
I was so confident that KariAndGo tote bags would sell once borders reopened that I asked the artisan to make several more bags so that we were one step ahead of the game once things got back to normal. During this difficult time in the world, at a time when a lot of people were without jobs, this allowed me to provide a job for 1 person. This in itself was very rewarding and refreshing. I focused all of my time, energy, and resources into KariAndGo. It helped to distract me from all of the chaos that was going on in the hospital and, at the same time, be a provider for another person in my home country of Ghana.
How My Nursing Experience Impacted My Business
One of the major nursing skills that has helped me in my business is organization and prioritization. In emergency medicine, you are being pulled in multiple directions at the same time, but one thing I learned to do is stay organized and prioritize so that I get things done well without getting overwhelmed.
I apply these two skills to my business daily. If I am not organized, I get overwhelmed with all of my business responsibilities. I always have a checklist on my phone and continue to ask myself “what is the most important thing I must do today?” These are the same questions I asked myself while working full time, going to school, and working in the ER as a nurse practitioner. “Which one of the patients is the sickest and what is the most important thing I must do right now.” Learning the skill of organizing and prioritizing has helped me immensely.
One of the other nursing skills I am excellent at is delegating. Unfortunately, this is a skill that I am lacking in my business. As a small business owner, I wear many hats from content creator, to CEO, to manager, to photo editor to customer service. You name it, I am it. Not being able to delegate some of my “to do” items gets overwhelming. It is very challenging finding people to work with here in America while also expanding my staff in Ghana. I would love to increase my KariAndGo staff so that I can efficiently delegate tasks and use my free time to complete tasks only I can do. This is one of the growing pains of starting my small business.
What I’ve Found Challenging
One of the challenges I continue to face is balance. How can I stay efficient and productive at work while running my business? One of the first things I did in helping to find that balance is I quit one of my jobs. In the early stages of KariAndGo, I had a full time job and a part time job. This in itself became very overwhelming and I had to resign. Doing this helped me to feel more balanced. I always had 2 jobs since working as a nurse in 2009. I am used to constantly being “busy”. Not to say that is a good thing all the time.
Now, I am learning to prioritize my mental health by having self care days which can include not going on social media or doing anything business related. Those days are meant to rest and reset.
I am also learning to have “business hours” for KariAndGo the same way when I get home from my nurse practitioner job I don’t think about my responsibilities for that job, I need to implement opening and closing time for KariAndGo. One of the ways I have done that is not to do anything business related when I wake up and I am in bed.
My Closing Thoughts
My business has impacted my life in such a positive way. It was my safe place and outlet during COVID times while working in the emergency room. It was a profitable hobby now turned business. I see the impact it has had on my artisans and also the impact it has had on me personally, emotionally, and mentally.
My business is growing. KariAndGo can be found in several museums nationwide from New York to California (The Brooklyn Museum, De Young Museum, Denver Art Museum, Saint Louis Zoo, Elizabeth Gardner Museum, and Cincinnati Museum of Arts just to name a few). We have participated in 2 trade shows in New York City and an international festival called AfroFuture in Ghana.
The next line of products for KariAndGo will be focused on using recycled/upcycled materials in Ghana to create fun functional accessories. I also want to partner with artisans in Ghana to design and produce patterns that will be exclusive to KariAndGo. The rest of our story is to take KariAndGo worldwide while spreading my beautiful African culture through fashion.
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