Relationship, passion matter a lot in business –Hilary Gozie Obiagwu, CEO, Sansiro Perfumes

For Mr. Hilary Gozie Obiagwu, a businessman, being in business has been all rosy though with its challenges, especially going by the fact that he is passion-driven and maintains a healthy relationship with his customers who, accord­ing to him, derive maximum sat­isfaction from doing business with him. “My brother, it has been very juicy, if I must be sincere with you, depending on what one is looking for. I believe that wealth is satis­faction, not just about making the money. I am satisfied with what I do too because the people I deal with enjoy me,” he said.

Sunday Sun had a date with the business mogul and he re­vealed his success story to us. He also shared with Sunday Sun what the importation of cosmet­ics/perfumes entails, the challeng­es, and lots more. Excerpts:

Who are you?

My name is Hilary Gozie Obiag­wu. I am from Anambra State. I graduated from the University of Benin and I have been in business for years now. I worked for years before deciding to be on my own. I am into importation of cosmet­ics and other items.

Why did you choose to go into this particular business?

Actually, my father sold phar­maceutical products, although he is not a pharmacist, and at the same time he’s into cosmetics. So, if I have to tell you this, I would say I was born into the business. After I left the university, I tried to work for some time, and later thought of doing something for myself. I was a federal govern­ment contractor for about eight years but after that, I just found out that most times, you need to have something else you do that would sustain you as a contractor because after you must have paid all expenses you incur from get­ting a contract, you may not make profit at the end of the day. So, you can make money from this side and still make it at the other end. You cannot say you are a contractor and think it’s enough.

So how do you manage business and doing your contract?

What I did was that I looked for a product and when I got it, I now found out that instead of travel­ing from one place to the other, I could as well sit somewhere and make money. It doesn’t come so quick though. In contract busi­ness, you can be making between N5million and N10m but in this business, you can be making up to N20m to N30m. You find yourself doing what a contractor cannot do. You soon find yourself making a lot of money weekly, monthly. I saw that I started having big cash on me. I can never for once say that they owe me. That is such a big thing to me right now. We sell every day, and I found out that people are calling every day. When I found out that this is more lucrative, I had to drop the con­tract thing.

How has it been these years of being in busi­ness?

My brother, it has been very juicy, if I must be sincere with you, depending on what one is looking for. I believe that wealth is satis­faction, not just about making the money. I am satisfied with what I do too because the people I deal with enjoy me. When people call me, you will hardly believe it’s a business call, you will think that it’s about family matters. I try as much as possible to build a very cordial relationship with my cus­tomers.

Can you recall your starting capital?

Actually, I started with a little amount of money but it entailed a lot of traveling. When I got in contact with this, I went for visa and went to Turkey for the first, second and then the third time be­fore we rolled into an agreement with the manufacturers to do this business.

Is there anything that makes your business unique?

I have to tell you one fact; there is something we are doing that I am sure no other company in Ni­geria does. I call it Draft Business. I watched my parents do business as a young man and I was taught how to make people I am dealing with believe in me. If you are deal­ing with me, you can’t lose your money in business. Your money can never be stuck with me for up to three months. Initially, we lost money, but later we were able to cope. This is what we do: people pay us and we send them the products. We stock up to 21 product lines. When you buy, we give you one month and we call you later to know the challenges you may be facing with selling them and any one that’s not mov­ing, we make an arrangement to withdraw it from you. A product might not be moving in Makurdi but moving in Port-Harcourt. It’s not easy doing that but it’s quite pleasant to do that for the joy of the people you are dealing with.

What can you say has kept you in business?

Nigeria has no good structure for businesses to thrive. I say this because you buy a dollar today at N170 and tomorrow you buy at N220. That is not structured at all, you know.

Is that the major chal­lenge you face?

It’s the major challenge to ev­erybody, not only to me. One most annoying thing is that most Nigerians are not wise enough. A dollar is now at N227 and some are still selling at the same price as when dollar was N170.

So who is to blame for this?

The individuals.

Not even the govern­ment?

What has government got to do with this?

Despite this major challenge that you face, what has kept you in business?

One thing I believe in life is you having passion in what you do. A lot of people are into business just for the purpose of making money. When you do business because of money, you fold up once the mon­ey ceases to come in. But when you are in a business you like, no matter the challenges, you are there. There is nothing like you being happy with what you are doing. I now have an arrangement of opening a gas plant. I look for what I have passion for, not be­cause of money. At my level now, I want to stop importation because of the fluctuation in the price of the dollar.

Tell us about your products…

The products are perfumes with different fragrances. There are over 800 different fragrances. People are buying because they’re good. A good product sells itself. You don’t need to talk much when you have a good product. It is when you have a bad product that you talk so much because you want to convince people. For a good product, all you need is ‘test and see’. You will surely come back to ask for more.

So, how is the demand for Sansiro perfumes?

Actually, the demand is not wonderful but very appreciable because it has other products it competes with in the market. I be­lieve that most people like it and they are buying it.

Are you the only im­porter of the product in the country?

I was the franchise owner, but as of today, someone has taken it up to do it on my behalf because I have other things I do at present which I will not like to start men­tioning. As I said, I am making plans to have a gas plant of my own and the place is ready now. I just want to be out of importation.

Do you mind telling us your net worth?

(Laughs) That’s not possible.

How have you been able to enlarge your market?

You do that with your distribu­tors. When I started, I took it upon myself to move from one place to the other – Benin to Auchi, Auchi to Okene, Okene to Lokoja, Loko­ja to Abuja. I took the products everywhere and I almost toured the whole of Nigeria before peo­ple started calling us from every part of the country through our website.

Having toured almost every part of the coun­try doing business, what can you say about the Ni­gerian business climate?

My brother, I have to be sincere with you, the business climate is not friendly at all. I once had an interview in Czech Republic where I was interviewed among 28 white men who asked me about 500 questions. One major question I was asked was “What is the means of transportation/ distribution network in Nigeria?” It was so shameful for me to say that it’s just by road. One of them asked me how long it takes to transport your goods from Lagos to Port-Harcourt, and I said it de­pends on the nature of the truck. It might take the whole day, may­be due to traffic jam. In their own structure, they have water, rail and air transportation. If you try to move by air here, you can no longer sell your products because you would have spent all the prof­it on air fares.

What’s your winning strategy in business?

I have just told you why we are still in business. It is because of the draft business method we have introduced, because people are coming, knowing fully well that their money cannot be stuck with us.

What are your core val­ues?

I feel people should understand that life is nothing but a stage. If you find out that in life you can go one day, you will learn to take things easy. Your relationship matters a lot in business. People should also understand that noth­ing in life is forever. I also believe education is the best legacy one can give to his children.

To what extent can you consider yourself suc­cessful in business?

Nobody is successful in busi­ness. If you feel you are success­ful, then you should have been out of business, but if you are still making money, then you are not yet successful in business. In my dialect, they say “Wealth is fulfillment, not money”. If you have N10,000 and you feel ful­filled, then you are a rich man, but if you have N1billion and you don’t feel fulfilled, then you are not yet successful. Satisfaction is wealth.

Do you often have time for leisure?

Why not? I do. Sometimes I just like hanging out with my friends.

Do you have any ad­vice for businessmen like you?

I will like to say that people must know that whatever will be will be. I believe that the best one can do in business is to be in a business you have passion for.