Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Nieto.
Hi Aaron, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m an immigrant born in Venezuela, and I arrived in Utah five years ago. Since I was young, I’ve been passionate about business, and when I came to the States, I knew this was the right place to build something successful on my own terms. Of course, I arrived without speaking the language fluently, with zero connections, and with no real understanding of how to develop a business idea. Taxes, sales, marketing, customer relationships, quality standards, there was so much to learn while simultaneously trying to build a new life and pay my bills. It wasn’t easy, but from day one, my goal was clear, even if my plan of action was a bit unconventional.
When it comes to learning business, you have two paths: pay thousands of dollars for business school, or pay thousands of dollars by doing business, failing, and starting over with everything you’ve learned and of course, I choose the second option. All my savings went to one thing: learning through failure.
It’s not simple. Along the way, people close to me questioned whether I was sure about what I was doing. They didn’t see me as focused enough. Three companies and over 20 business ideas in five years (all of which I talked about with the same enthusiasm) didn’t look healthy to them. It wasn’t easy watching friends who arrived under the same circumstances build stable lives with regular jobs and fewer worries. That affected me. Many times, I questioned who I was and what I really wanted. But I didn’t let it stop me from learning until my moment came.
Throughout this journey, I learned English, worked some really strange jobs that taught me how sales actually work and how to connect with people — which, by the way, is one of my best assets, and if it’s not yours, I recommend developing it now. I’ve connected with incredible people. But the most important lesson I learned is this: if you want to succeed at something, you have to leave your ego aside and accept that you’ll never have all the answers. You need to surround yourself with people who are much better than you.
And that’s how Nomada came about. Honestly, one of the ideas I saw the least potential in. I went from software ideas, education, large-scale sales, to an auto detailing business. It wasn’t really a choice; it was pure necessity. Due to immigration changes in the country, I lost my work permit and driver license for a time. I couldn’t get a regular job anymore, so I had to dedicate 100% of my attention and effort to this, because failure wasn’t an option. Second tip of the day: if you divide your attention, you’ll never get the results you want.
But it didn’t all happen overnight. Remember what I said about surrounding yourself with people better than you? That’s what I did. I finally decided to find a partner and honestly, is one of the most important decisions you can make when starting a business, even more important than the idea itself. That’s when Alexander became my co-founder. A guy who, like me, is a bit unconventional, but he had things I was missing, and one of them was patience haha.
Long, consistent hours of hard work. Constant learning and improvement. Finding and hiring people for our team who can do the business tasks better than we can. Accountants, marketers, salespeople, operations managers. And while we’re not quite where we want to be yet, Nomada is on its way to becoming the biggest and most recognized auto care and detailing business in the state of Utah.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It depends on how we define smooth, right? I’ve tried having conventional jobs, and honestly, that’s a nightmare for me. Has the road been easy? Not at all. But everything my partner and I have gone through has been necessary to get us where we are today, and to take us where we want to go. So if someone asks me if it’s been smooth, I’d say that everything that happens when you decide to start a business is inherently complicated haha. There’s no way around it.
Starting a business means constantly solving problems, whether it’s finding customers, managing cash flow, learning new skills, or simply figuring things out as you go. That’s just part of the journey, and I’ve learned to embrace it.
But thinking back, the most complicated part has been having to deal with all those scammer calls telling me my business isn’t registered in Google Voice Search lol. That’s been my real struggle.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Nomada LLC?
Nomada started as a simple idea to detail cars in the state of Utah, and when we began, we were just that, the 100th detailing company to open that year hahah. But over time, we realized something important: it doesn’t matter how simple your idea is. The real innovation comes from how you package it and present it to your customer.
We tried hundreds of ideas, we attempted to compete in markets where it was obvious we didn’t belong, until we found our real innovation: Car Detailing as an Employee Perk for companies. Yes, our main focus is offering detailing as a benefit for employees, interns, or clients of other businesses, with the goal of increasing their happiness and satisfaction. Of course, we still work with individual clients, but our true focus is there.
And technology has been our biggest ally in this. We’ve built our entire experience around it, both in person and digitally. Our website and booking system are designed so that when a customer interacts with Nomada, they feel like they’re dealing with a major national company, but with that personal touch of a local team. That combination is rare, and it’s been crucial to standing out in a crowded market.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Wow, there have been so many lessons, but if I had to pick one, it would be this: Put 100% of your attention and focus on one thing. I was always taught not to put all my eggs in one basket, and that’s what I did. I divided my efforts across many things at once, thinking they would all succeed. But at the end of the day, most of them stayed incomplete.
The same thing happens to us as entrepreneurs. We have hundreds of ideas a day, all of them incredible, and we believe all of them have high potential. But we don’t dedicate the necessary effort or time to develop any of them properly. Since I made the shift in my life to have one clear objective and focus on it until I achieved it, my life as an entrepreneur has changed for the better. And look, I hate multitasking, guys. Really, I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nomadadetailing.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nomada-llc
- Other: https://www.thumbtack.com/ut/bountiful/pressure-washing/nomada-car-detailing/service/536362635831074830
