Two Friends, Buky Akinmboni and Bolaji Fasanya

Sacrificed a Life of Comfort to Build Nigeria’s Leading Fragrance Company

Buky Akinmboni had no intention of becoming an entrepreneur. She had a good job with one of the largest advertising agencies in West Africa, and earned a decent salary. But life had other plans as she and her friend, Bolaji Fasanya decided to start a business in an industry that barely existed in the Nigerian marketplace.

After convincing themselves that the idea was worth a shot, they started their company in 2015 and named it Scentify. These ladies, now in their late 30s, chose the complete unconventional roads, never played by the book and did everything contrary to what business experts and schools of thought would advise. No business plan, no market research and they created a product before identifying a market. All they had was passion and the willpower to succeed. Of course, the odds were stacked against them. Buky went on to quit her day job to give the business all the attention it required. And today, the brand is gaining cross-border traction and has become one of the leaders in its category.

In this interview with Business Elites Africa, Buky elaborates on all the battles they had to fight and the price they paid to stay in business. She also admits they made lots of mistakes that other entrepreneurs can learn from.

You guys started your company in 2016, at a time when that type of business was almost non-existent in Nigeria. Of all businesses, why scented candles?

Let me give you a bit of our background. Bolaji and I have a background in advertising, communication and marketing. So we’ve tried to do business together in that field but nothing really took off. And then one day, Bolaji calls me and says, ‘Buky, what do you think about scented candles as a business?’ I was, like where is that coming from? All this while, we had only experimented with service-based businesses, and none worked out. I couldn’t wrap my head around a productionbased business. Apparently she had watched a documentary on how to make candles and saw it as easy and unique. She just thought it would be a novel idea in Nigeria because nobody was doing it. I personally loved candles and fragrances. But I didn’t really key into it at the time because I was still working a 9 – 5 job at Insight Communications. We had this conversation in 2014.

What was exciting about it to me was me getting to make candles for myself. I just thought it would be interesting to make candles that I can use. That’s how we started researching and practicing, and I got sucked into it. And by December 2015, we sold our first product. So basically Bolaji’s inspiration from something she watched and my passion got us started.

Some entrepreneurs would tell you to first find a hungry market and

then create a product that’d serve the need of that market, but you guys did it the other way round. How did you find the market for your products?

You’re very right. The logical thing to do is to find a need and then create a product or service to cater to that need. But that’s not our story and I’m not going to try to sound intelligent or that we discovered any market. There is a reason why business schools will tell you to find a need before creating a product or service. That’s because it makes it easier for you when you enter the space. Because we didn’t do that, it was very difficult. First of all, we entered the market when the category was nonexistent. There were consumers but they were very few. I realized when we started that burning candles was not a Nigerian thing. I have always loved burning candles, so I just assumed that there were many people like me who appreciated candles. A lot of people’s association with candles was from growing up and candles served as a source of light when there is no power supply. So trying to sell the product beyond my immediate circle proved really difficult. When I presented the product to some people I thought would value scented candles, they’d ask me ‘what I’m I supposed to do with it?’ Some would even attach spirituality to it, insinuating that it’s diabolical. That’s because some religious sects (primarily white garment churches in West Africa) use candles for prayers. That was a huge shock for me because I didn’t do my research. I just assumed that since I was a candle lover, there are many candle lovers.

I think that’s where passion also comes to play in a business because it was the passion that kept me going. It took a lot of re-education to let some Nigerians see scented candles in a different light. We let them know it’s not for light and not for conjuring of spirits or prayers. They are for your ambiance and to make your place smell nice. Some would argue that they have air fresheners for that. Another barrier was that some people thought scented candles were only for posh and rich people. We had to re-orientate them and let them see that it’s for everybody. And this was an uphill task.

As people with a marketing background, what marketing strategy did you guys deploy to sell your product?

When we started, a lot of our marketing was product-based. In marketing, there is what we call the 4 Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place and Promotion. So we focused a lot on our product. Why? Because the product was for a novel market in Nigeria. So we felt like just advertising may not sell the product because it’s not a category people were aware of. First of all, we had to make sure that we got the product right.

We first identified the consumers we could easily reach. People who already use scented candles and who usually shopped their products abroad. Then, we had to make sure that our product matches what they buy abroad in terms of quality and aesthetic appeal. We wanted our product to sit side-by-side with the ones they were buying internationally, so they’re not able to differentiate which one is local or foreign. That was the first thing we tried to get right.

We also played with the pricing. When we entered the market, one thing that was very clear to us was that we didn’t want our product to be perceived as beyond reach for an average Nigerian. So we deliberately didn’t overprice it, even though the cost of raw materials and packaging were very high, because we were not printing locally. So we put our prices at a point that an average person could still afford. Then, we moved to promotions, which was obviously done via social media. We didn’t have a budget for any fancy promotion. We just launched organically on social media. We were taking pictures and posting content ourselves. Paid advertising didn’t come until much later.

Considering you didn’t have a big budget to work with, why didn’t you consider printing your packaging materials locally?

We found ourselves in a market where there wasn’t a large ready audience. What’s the low-hanging fruit? People that use scented candles but shop abroad. What do we do to attract them? There was no way the quality of the packaging materials printed locally would appeal to this set of people. Our first batch of stickers was printed in Nigeria but the quality was poor compared to the foreign products. Local printing has improved tremendously now though. We were not going to stand a chance in this business if we were printing in Nigeria back then.

Would you advise anyone trying to go into your kind of business today to adopt the same marketing strategy as you guys?

Now the landscape has changed. One thing I should point out is that when we started, we thought we were the only ones in the business. It’s when you get into a business that you would see the players. We were just like 3 players at the time. So the market wasn’t cluttered. Any little activity you did, whether you ran an ad or just put an amazing product out there, you were bound to get noticed.

Fast forward to 2021, this market category is now quite cluttered in its own right. There are loads of people making candles and diffusers. So if you’re going to enter the market now, your marketing strategy will be completely

different. You have to sit back and really think about how you would stand out in the relatively crowded market. The competition has put us on our toes as well.

How are you guys managing to stay ahead of the curve now?

As they say in marketing, it’s the first-mover advantage. We were not the first but among the first. That has worked well for us because we‘ve had enough time to gather a lot of attention so people kind of know the brand, Scentify.

Another thing that has helped us is that when we started, we did a lot of exhibitions. We were at virtually every trade fair we knew about. So the name Scentify has kind of stuck in people’s minds. And as time went by, we obviously evolved. We’ve had to run promoted ads on social media.

We didn’t just lay back relying on past glory. We’ve also improved on our products. We’ve had two product modifications between 2015 and now and also expanded our product offerings very fast.

We started with scented candles but quickly added diffusers, room sprays and then, bath and body products. We have shower gels, hand washes, hand creams etc.

We created all these because not a lot of people were into candles, as earlier narrated. So we offered another way of scenting your house. And our product quality just kept selling us. When people use our products, the feedback we are getting is even better than the brands they were buying abroad.

Initially, you were running the business alongside your day job. You later quit your job to face the business full-time. What were the indicators that convinced you it was time to face the business squarely?

I absolutely loved my job at Insight Communications. I never dreamt I’d be an entrepreneur. In fact, when people were talking about business, I would always tell them that I’m a career girl and that I would retire as one. But when this business idea got planted in me, I just realized that there was this innate pull within me everyday that I could not explain.

I loved my advertising job. But I began to develop a strong liking for the business, so my attention was divided. Plus, I was earning a decent salary at my job, so I was reluctant to leave the salary for a business I wasn’t so sure about yet. As time went by, this pull to leave the job became so intense that I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I was more like a calling.

Most people quit their job to start a business when the business is already generating a decent revenue, or you didn’t have recurring bills to pay?

Of course, I had bills. I lived on my own and paid rent. The truth is, we did everything contrary to the way it was traditionally done. And I don’t know if that was a good or bad thing, but we operated that way. I actually left Insight Communications around June 2015 to go work for House of Tara when I knew it was going into the business world.

The reason I took that decision was because I didn’t have any entrepreneurial experience. I wanted to work with an entrepreneur who had become successful, to learn the ropes. And I actually planned to work there for a longer time but at some point I couldn’t continue because it felt like Scentify was my baby. And, I felt like I was abandoning it to take care of another person’s child. So I terminated my employment with House of Tara in December 2016. At this time, I hadn’t saved up to 6 months’ worth of my expenses budget like experts always advise. We just jumped in the deep end and learnt how to swim while in the water. Personally, I’m not going to advise anybody to quit their job and go after their passion. Please, don’t. For me, I feel if I had sat down and done all the calculations and permutations, I’d still be in the 9 – 5 job.

I don’t think I’d ever have made the move if I had been very logical and played by the books. But believe me, it was very difficult.

But it’s paying off now, right?

Yes. Although the business has not started making the kind of money I want it to make, the payoff is huge in other ways that are not monetary. Post my 9 – 5, I felt like I started living life when I started running a business. It felt like I wasn’t living in the real world when I was in paid employment, maybe because I worked in the advertising industry. It’s a very glitzy industry. It just felt like I was in Nanaland. I hadn’t seen or experienced life in all of its facets.

Yes, I knew how to work and do my job very well but, as an employee, I felt shielded from the different dimensions of life. Now, as an entrepreneur, I feel like I live a fuller and richer life through the last 5-6 years. I feel like my character has been tested and built. That’s the biggest payoff for me. It is a tougher life, but somehow, I enjoy this journey more. On a soul level, it has impacted and is impacting me more.

Distribution is key for a productbased business. Beyond social media, how are you guys circulating?

Distribution has become part of our strategy down the line. When

we started, you could only buy directly from us via social media, our website and our official phone line. We didn’t have a brick-andmortar store. We still don’t have one.

The offline method we adopted was based on consumer feedback and the need to be able to reach more people beyond our circle of influence. What we did was that we tried to get into as many retail stores as possible. The most successful retail partnerships we have is with a gifting store called Celebrations. They were only in Abuja when we started retailing with them but they now have a Lagos branch.

We would ship our product to them and that caters to the Abuja market. And it’s been overwhelmingly successful. Our sales just went off the roof since they started carrying Scentify products. Before then, we knew almost all of our customers because the sales were coming directly to us. But with Celebrations people we didn’t know were buying our products, all we knew was Celebrations was coming back for re-orders.

Before we got to the gifting store, we had tried other stores and nothing worked. But we now know why it has all worked with Celebrations.

Why did it work?

Celebrations is a gifting store. Candles and Diffusers are big gifting items. They are easy gifts that anybody would appreciate. Besides, their store ambiance is great. There is a mindset a shopper has when they are shopping for certain types of products. For example, we figured that a supermarket was not the typical place for consumers to shop for luxury and ambiance kinds of items. With a supermarket, they are thinking about cereals and other supplies. But our products fit perfectly with everything Celebrations stands for. So when we realized this, we pulled out of quite a number of the other stores, as our products were just sitting on their shelf. We are now in House of Tara too. We are in a store called Revamp, an interior decoration store.

Let’s talk about partnership. Finding a reliable business partner is an uphill task. Yet it is probably the best option to consider these days if one wants to go far. How did you and Bolaji forge your alliance, and how do you make it work?

Again, this is going to go contrary to what business schools or lawyers would advise. What has worked for our partnership is actually our friendship, whereas people say don’t bring friendship into business. And partnerships are not easy by any means because it’s two different people coming together. Both of you are chasing only one goal, but each of you has a different perspective and ideology. But what has always helped us circle back is friendship.

Whenever things get a bit rough with us as partners, at the end of the day, we were friends before we became partners. Whatever is going to threaten that friendship is what makes us find a resolution. That’s one. Number two is, for any partnership to work, the goals must be articulated. The Bible says ‘can two walk together unless they agree?’. That agreement is key and needs to be your vision for the business. You may not agree on many other things.

I even think it is healthy for you not to agree on everything else, because that’s where it becomes interesting, and you can get diverse opinions and views about things. But every party needs to align with the vision for the business. One person cannot have a small ambition and the other person a large piece. There will always be friction. For example, when the idea of scented candles came, I wasn’t seeing it as a business, all I cared about was my personal liking for scented candles, but Bolaji had seen the whole business side of it from day one.

The business didn’t really take off until I aligned with that vision. So, in any partnership, whether of individuals or business to business, the vision has to be clear and has to be aligned. We have to have the same values.

What are the lessons you’ve learnt in your entrepreneurial journey?

The number one lesson that I’ve learnt is to write a business plan. Don’t take it for granted. The importance of a business plan is not the final document, but the process of writing it. That’s because it forces you to critically think about every aspect of your business, even things that you ordinarily would not have thought about at the start. Do that due diligence. This might be a grueling process, but it’s very important for your business.

Secondly, don’t undermine customer feedback, especially when it’s negative and it feels like they rubbished your hard work. You need to detach that emotion and really pay attention to what they’re saying. One customer’s feedback can be your springboard to a product that will just explode. If you’re in tune with your business, you’ll know how to listen and you’ll know when nuggets of gold are being dropped, positive or negative.

Another thing I’ve learnt is that there will always be seasons of abundance and there will be seasons when you’ll struggle and it will look like everything you’ve done counts for nothing. They come in different ways. Once you acknowledge that, you’ll be able to manage the two seasons.