#MakingIT: Woman takes leap of faith to build fragrance empire

Small and Medium enterprise (SMME) sector is the last hope to create much-needed employment and eliminate the ever rising unemployment statistics.

Entrepreneurship has become a solution used to entice energetic people to start their own businesses in growing the SMME sector.

One would, therefore, question whether entrepreneurs are made or born.

For an aspiring fragrance industrialist, Nicely Kutta (46), entrepreneurship was ignited by a wakeup call that resulted from an ordeal of losing a husband.

“I got into business after the passing of my husband. He was the sole generator of income in the house.

“You see when tragedy strike there’s a change in a person’s life. Tragedy could be the death of a loved one or a divorce and that is where change comes. Some embrace the change and some take it harshly. Embracing change means using your circumstances as a stepping stone,” said Kutta.

Kutta is a former chartered accountant student and she put studying on hold to learn and research the business world to determine where she could invest her energy to set up her own business.

She said she hadn’t decided on the type of business she wanted to do at the time when suddenly her husband passed on.

“I had no alternative income and had no time to think. I attended a lot of business seminars and took a leap of faith to venture into business.

I met an acquaintance who told me of opportunities designed to empower women in cosmetics and fragrance manufacturing”.

Kutta said she was taken to an organisation that conducted perfume manufacturing training. She underwent the training and attained the knowledge.

“I was then able to source financing from people I know.

“I decided to put what I had into good use and started Nicely Perfumes.

“I bought the manufacturing ingredients. I completed the products and now my challenge was to find a niche market for my perfumes. Brand loyalty became a big challenge because people prefer popular perfume brands that they know and as a result it was very difficult to set a competitive pricing.

People associate the value of a product to a price. If a product is cheap they think it is inferior which is a major challenge we face as entrepreneurs in the cosmetic industry,” said Kutta.

She said she opted for an affordable entry level pricing as a strategy to place or attract people at the bottom of the Living Standards Measure (LSM).

“I chose to make my products accessible to everyone in the low LSM because many people in Tembisa cannot afford expensive perfumes but with my product, everyone can smell wonderful at an affordable price.

At the moment I use the help of perfume manufacturing service providers but in the near future, I plan to invest in bigger and innovative projects that will demand me to enlist services of chemical engineers and incur expensive laboratory costs to expand and establish my unique product line.

I want to grow the business and create employment”. Kutta said she also wants to share her skills and help women to develop their own locally produced fragrances.

“Women must come to a level of empowering themselves and believe in themselves. Don’t be a victim of your circumstances and don’t use age as an excuse. People have the tendency to think that it is late to start a business when they are in their forties and that thinking is caused by the inferior complex in us. I was 43 years old when I started Nicely Perfumes. My advice for entrepreneurs is allowing yourself to be different and don’t fear rejection,” explained Kutta.

She said unemployed people must fight the ego of thinking what people are going to say when they venture into a small business.

“You don’t need anyone’s approval to be a successful entrepreneur. Ask, even if it makes you look stupid. There is no stupid question if you want to succeed in business.

For now, I want to sell and supply perfumes to independent sales agents in the township to create a business opportunity and enable them to make extra income for themselves.”

Anyone who is interested in becoming their own boss by starting their small perfume business can call Nicely perfumes on 078 953 4827.