SPOTLIGHT: WHEN SMELLING NICE IS THE GOAL

Meet Evelyn, a 300 level students of the Department of Archaeology as she speaks on her journey into the busy of fragrances

AFAS PRESS: May we meet you?

Evelyn: My name is Evelyn and I own a brand called Eva’s Aura.

AFAS PRESS: What is your department and your level?

Evelyn: I’m in Archaeology department, 300 level.

AFAS PRESS: Tell us what you are into and how it has been coming through?

Evelyn: I’m into Fragrances. Well, we have our good and bad days, but it’s been coming through well. We thank God.

AFAS PRESS: When did you start your business?

Evelyn: I started last year.

AFAS PRESS: That’s nice. What or who influenced your decision to start something and why Fragrance?

Evelyn: I would say the lockdown, and me not doing anything, and my mum wanting me to go learn something instead of staying at home, me not wanting to go learn anything as I didn’t want to leave my comfort zone that period. I decided to start my own business but I’m not sure of what business to go into. My sis and I thought about things I could start but didn’t come up with anything that required a small capital. So one day my sis traveled to buy her jewelry (she sells jewelries), so she came back with a nice perfume oil. It turned out that where she got her jewelry, they also sell perfumes. She told me she brought it so that I could see if it’s something I can sell, well it required a little capital and I also love perfumes and have people on my contact list whom I could sell them to. So I decided to start selling them.

I actually started with selling just perfume oils before I got into fragrances in general.

AFAS PRESS: A fascinating story! Has been an entrepreneur ever affected your studies?

Evelyn: Thanks. Not at all.

AFAS PRESS: How then do you manage school with business?

Evelyn: Well my business isn’t really a stressful one. I always find ways to make it easy for me, and I’ve been lucky with understanding customers. And during exams periods I take breaks from the business.

AFAS PRESS: You say it like your business is not so challenging, or is it? And if it is, how have your overcome the challenges so far?

Evelyn: It is o, lol. Well it’s a gradual process: one is getting customers to always patronize, convincing them to buy after the whole ‘are you sure’ questions, even though they always love it, and always come back. And you know right now almost everyone is selling something, and people are going into fragrances too unlike before.

AFAS PRESS: It’s true most people are now into one business or the other.

There are a lot of fragrances, how do you choose the ones to sell?

Evelyn: Well most times I buy what I can use(not like I use all the perfumes I sell) but I buy something I like, something I feel is good, and what I tell people would love too, I buy the body of the fragrance before I go to it’s smell, you know most people like the packaging of things(the looks/ appearance) before they check them to know if they like it or not, unless they know about it before. And I know how to buy good stuffs.

AFAS PRESS: Quite impressive.

What would you say excites you most about your brand?

Evelyn: What excites me the most is making people smell nice on a budget, and me being able to make people feel confident about how they smell.

AFAS PRESS: What are you business models (how you advertise your business)?

Evelyn: Well, I use my WhatsApp status, through BCs, Instagram and Facebook.

AFAS PRESS: A nice one.

As a student of this faculty, what would you say Arts is to you?

Evelyn: Okay, I would say Arts helps in developing one’s creative skills, Art is freedom.

AFAS PRESS: That is well.

Could you share with us your business pages?

Evelyn: Yeah sure. I’m on IG as evas_aura and eva_marie01 and on Facebook as

Eva Marie.

AFAS PRESS: Thank you so much for making time.