Adewale Aladejana Shares his experience and success with Sapphire Scents.

Mr Adewale Aladejana is redefining the perfume business in Nigeria with his signature and custom made perfumes.He is the founder and CEO of Sapphire Scents, a company he started in August 2015.

He shares his story and plans with us as an entrepreneur in this exclusive interview.

 

 

Q – How did you end up as an entrepreneur and what does it mean to you?

Adewale – I’ve always been an entrepreneur, i remember back then in school i use to run a boutique in my room just a bag full of cloth and people come to buy so I’ve always had that knack in me. After school I worked a while before starting my own stuff. Entrepreneurship is just something God puts in me. I have always looked at how people do stuffs and i always think to myself that it can be better. It happened that it was my wife’s birthday and i had used all my salary to buy a gift for her and i had a 3 month old baby,  at that point i knew i had to do something.

Some of my friends had gotten a bottle of OUD from Middle East and i really liked the smell so an idea just came to me that i could be selling it and that’s how i started. I had learnt that if you ever want to do anything, put all your life in it.

Q- How long have you being doing this business?

Adewale – Sapphire Scent Started in April 2015 but we did not become official until August 24 2015. At the moment we have 110 distributors in 17 states including the UK and US. Our distributors are doing very well with sales and with all that had happened in the last one year. I’m so excited about the future and the sky is our starting point.

Q- Tell us about the journey so far, what has been the drive?

Adewale – Our perfumes are not the conventional type.They are oud, frankincense, and myrrh and they are rare. Its not what you walk into any store and buy. We scout the Middle East for this rare fragrances bring them to Nigeria and sell. Our distributors register with us, buys from us and sell to their own market.

I have had a lot people tell me these are Hausa perfumes, these are for Muslims,  we can get it cheaper in Dubai and stuffs like that but thank God i didn’t let all that stop me.

I was working when i started the business and just sitting at my desk in 3 months i was able to make like a million Naira. By the eighth  month i was able to quit my job of 4 years and paid back one month salary .

It spell out the importance of going for what you believe in and not let what people say , think or do distract you .Trust me if you have something you better go for it , you better hype it .One of the things that worked for me was i was always hyping this products, if you tell me you use Gucci , Versace or the likes i will tell you that you don’t even know what you are missing.

Q – Your business is FX related, how do you deal with the current FX issue in the country?

Adewale – I will tell you this, we are one of the few businesses that are still doing cargo or importing stuffs from the middle east consistently. we have been able to cope with the current FX issues because God helped us from day one with a structure and a model that is recession proof.

Also our numbers have really helped us as we now cater for large number of people .The numbers has given us quite a good margin.

Also we had to increase price for the distributors but that has not imparted on the end users but we hoping that this FX issue will stabilize and things will go back to normal.

Q- What are your plans for expansion?

Adewale – We are planning on having our own factory so that we can be making all our perfumes locally here in Nigeria. That is one of our goals and by God’s grace it is going to happen. We believe God that it will happen before this year ends.

Q – You have being quite successful in business in a short space of time, how have you being able to engage your customers?

Adewale – The most important platform to embrace is the social media. The social media is a game changer. Present your business in way that is attractive to people. Whoever has peoples eye have their attention. And if you can keep people’s attention you will eventually have their money.

I always post on social media, I always say that my money is in the hand of 147 million Nigerians. If they see me every day, it’s only a matter of time before another person decides to buy my perfume or register with us.

Q – What would you advise anyone starting out as an entrepreneur to do differently?

Adewale -If you are an entrepreneur and starting out on your own, You should embrace the social media and make your business attractive. Present it in a way that it is irresistible.

And always make sure that you under promise and over deliver. Let people be able to say that he said so and it was so.

Most importantly , have integrity .If you are in the service industry, don’t hype your business and then people patronize you and then see that it is tacky. You must be able to back up what you say with result.  That is what will keep you in business as an entrepreneur.