By Christy Anyanwu
O.J Awa-Ibraheem is the chief executive officer of Perfect Scents Designer Perfumes and Glamour Lounge Salon & Spa in Lagos. Her successful beauty and glamour enterprise began like a mustard seed, when she started selling perfumes from the boot of her car, which served as her mobile store. Today, her businesses are housed in a gigantic edifice at Aromire Street, Ikeja. In the run up to the launch of her luxury perfume brand, Niche, the delectable serial entrepreneur who has been in the beauty and glamour business for over 20 years, sat down with EXPLORE and talked about her passion for creativity and lamented that difficulty in sourcing foreign exchange has been a major bottleneck to her business.
A lot of fake and substandard products are being manufactured in the country. What are your views on this and what is the way out?
For me, there is also creativity, but l wonder why people would go into production of substandard products or copy other people’s creativity instead of doing something that could be called their own. l know it is difficult to copy. Most times established brands already have names so, there is no need to go through the stress of trying to establish such brands as your own, but the truth is that such an individual will only succeed in killing his own business at the end of the day. My advice is that they should produce something that is uniquely theirs.
There are some products l cannot buy, it is difficult for me to buy some brands because there is a lot of fake products in the market. l am not talking about perfumes; rather and l am talking about other products in general.
Interestingly, now in the market there a lot of young men that are making shoes, they are making it really well, and it is becoming their own brand. l do not know about the women but, l am talking about the men, they are producing sandals and for me that is something to be proud of.
Unfortunately, the manufacturing and sales of fake and substandard products has to do with the market. Many want such products and that is what is selling, people are forced to do that because they have to eat; l do not support it. A lot of the big brands have fought over it in the years past, but they are not winning the battle. We just try to make buyers understand that what we are selling is authentic one and then it is left for them to make their decisions either to buy original or substandard products.
Do you have any mentor?
My husband is my mentor; he is a chartered accountant and has been in business for many decades. So, l have learnt a lot from him. He has also been a source of encouragement to me. Besides, l read a lot and have garnered useful information that has helped me in running my business.
So, l will advise those in business or those who desire to venture into business to read business-related books. It is not as if they should take in all that they have read from such books. They should only extract useful information and apply it to their businesses, but the books that are not useful, they should drop them and move forward.
What advise do you have for women who want to venture into business?
I discovered that when you are young and you are starting a business and at the same time you have children to take care of, it is better you lower your expectations. It is difficult to be a mother taking care of children and to also run a business successfully. So, l do tell women that while they have a dream of owning a business, they should not expect much until their children get to certain age that will enable them focus fully on their businesses.
They can engage in something profitable that will also give them chance to look after their children until they have grown up. Such women can then venture into business of their choice and l am sure they will do better.
As an entrepreneur what is your advice to the Bola Tinubu administration?
If we will get to a stage where we will have our own brand names that will be nice, because we are not producing now and there is consumption for these products. When l started business, a dollar to naira was 150. l know each administration has its own challenges, but if this administration can get it right, it will boost businesses in Nigeria and entrepreneurs will make profit. Consumers also will spend less in purchasing goods and everybody will be comfortable in the country.
How has your journey into the business of beauty been?
I studied Political Science in the university and when l got married, my husband felt that 9am to 5pm job was not going to be easy even though l had my mother taking care of the children.
So, he wanted me to do something flexible enough that would give me the chance to keep my eyes on the children and still do what l wanted to do. But l needed experience. So, l started bringing products from the United Kingdom, which I sold from the boot of her car, because l did not have a shop. So, the best way to get experience is to suffer a little.
Initially, I brought into the country an Italian brand called Nouba. Unfortunately, it came in before the boom of make-up artists, whereby today if you want to go to a party, you will call a make-up artist.
At that time, l had a chance of meeting with a supplier in the United States and when l realized that the Italian brand was not moving as I wanted, l introduced perfumes but, not on the scale l am doing now. I established contacts in the US for the supply of perfumes; that was how the perfume business started about 15 years ago. Recently, I introduced an array of niche perfumes into the Nigerian market.
Tell us your beauty regimen?
You see, I have Spa but despite having a spa, my staff usually drag me to do my facials. Sometimes, I just do facials and steam my face. I eat once a day. I eat pounded yam once in two weeks. The reason I don’t wear make-up every day is because I have to pray five times a day. It is very difficult when you have to say your prayers, you wash your face. Some things just don’t go.
Tell us about life growing up?
I grew up in Surulere, Lagos. I had my primary and secondary school education in Surulere. My father is from Owo. My mum is from Kalabari, which is riverine area. I went to university and read Political Science. I sacrificed all the other degrees to have babies and now, that I have the time I started life as an entrepreneur.
What are the problems you face as an entrepreneur?
The major challenge is the difficulty in sourcing foreign exchange, which is killing a lot of businesses in the country. It makes importation of goods into the country difficult. Even if you are going into production of goods, you still need to buy raw materials such as fragrance and that requires foreign exchange. Apart from the issue of foreign exchange, there is issue of reputation, when you are trying to get the right suppliers and earn their trust. The fact is that the reputation of the country outside is difficult, and it is affecting business transactions at the international level.
Foreign countries from where you are importing products will not do any business with you unless it is on a cash basis, unlike before where you will get credit facilities; now they will know you and they will do business with you but, it has to be on cash, you will pay them, and you will get your goods.
But, l was lucky because l had made contacts before things got out of hand. I established relationships with suppliers years back, and now even if you are sending them a mail, they will think it is scam or something else. But established relationships with some suppliers years back and l had maintained the relationships, so l did not have problem in that respect.
What’s your advice for someone who wants to get a good perfume?
I could put 20 different perfumes and we’ll all have different opinions of the perfumes because we perceive differently. You could pick the flowery smell; another person picks the musk because that is what appeals to them. So, you could say this perfume is masculine, and another person would say the perfume is flowery. It is a personal choice. That’s why I advise that if you are going to buy perfume, make sure the shop has testers. If it doesn’t, don’t buy. Unless you have used that brand before, and you are confident in the brand.
If you are buying something new, buy something you can smell. Get the testers to smell it before buy. Don’t buy because someone tells you it’s a good quality unless they give you a very good guarantee on it. Then, if you don’t like it, you take it back.