Kazi Abidur Rahman at all times aimed to be an entrepreneur – and it has proved the excellent profession selection.
Just over 10 years since organising the perfume model Sunnamusk along with his brother Shafiq, he’s chargeable for a multi-million-pound organisation. Not dangerous for a enterprise that began as an East London pop-up market stall!
The enterprise idea started in 2009, on the again of the 2008 credit score crunch, utilizing simply £600 capital raised by Abidur and his brothers. The cash allowed him to put money into their first assortment of fragrances, working shifts promoting from automobile boots and market stalls.
“My second brother is an enormous fragrance fanatic. I used to be additionally and he had a set of fragrances, road, contemporary and woody fragrances that we knew we may promote.”
In 2010, they started buying and selling on Whitechapel Market, taking £200 of their first full day’s commerce. Just a few months later, they moved to Ilford Shopping Centre, earlier than taking up a everlasting retail store in Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford in 2011. It was a breakthrough for the firm, establishing Sunnamusk as a fascinating shopper model.
“Sunnamusk is center japanese impressed. The model picture has developed over time. When we began it was very Arabic. When we noticed the potential to achieve a wider market, we added a British Contemporary edge to maneuver it into the mainstream. It is clear trying, however nonetheless displays its roots,” feedback Abidur.
In 2013, a Sunnamusk flagship retailer opened in Aldgate, clearly figuring out the firm as the main Arabian perfume firm in London. The chain continued rising, utilizing pop-up shops to broaden its model picture, discover buyer behaviour, and see the way it might be tailored to a mainstream viewers. It shortly turned clear that Sunnamusk had large untapped potential.
For Abidur, the interval from 2008 to 2016, had been considered one of regular enterprise improvement during which he always honed his expertise. Over the years he labored in all points of operations, gross sales, advertising and marketing, PR, and HR in addition to being chargeable for the improvement of recent merchandise and overseeing the nationwide growth of the firm. In 2018, when his brother Shafiq determined to step down from his position as CEO to pursue goals in aviation, Abidur was the supreme option to take over. At 22 years previous, Åbidur was CEO of a multi-million-pound firm.
“I had at all times dreamed of being an entrepreneur. I gained an A* in enterprise at GCSE and at all times favored the concept of making issues. I’m attaining what I needed to do. It didn’t occur by luck, it was laborious work. I needed to show myself. I needed to study quite a bit, advertising and marketing finance, negotiation, and relationship constructing. As an individual, it taught me quite a bit. You need to be accountable, extra disciplined, and lead by instance,” Abidur says.
Entrepreneur Kazi Abidur Rahman
Covid meant a serious upheaval for the enterprise as Abidur signifies. “Before Covid, we had been centered on retail via our retailer community.
Then Covid hit. The first week my brother and I sat down to debate what we may do. If we couldn’t open the shops, then we stood to lose the model. We had received to discover a solution to preserve us going.”
“We created an oud-based sanitizer and had it accessible inside per week of lockdown beginning. We had been offered out even earlier than supply. We additionally improved our social media engagement in order that we may maintain the enterprise on-line. We received a brand new crew in to revamp our digital advertising and marketing technique to permit us to commerce and keep the enterprise.”
Abidur and his brother additionally observed an unmissable alternative as he signifies. “Retail house turned accessible throughout the pandemic.Landlords had been ready to work with us.We knew the shops we needed to get so we used the time to our benefit. At the begin of Covid we had 7 shops – now we now have 19.”
Sunnamusk has change into a fragrance home in its personal proper. No longer does it purchase perfumes from different corporations, it creates its personal as Abidur explains.
“When we began the enterprise, we introduced in fragrances. We have now developed relationships with prime perfume homes, and the individuals who work with manufacturers like Penhaligons. Our product improvement specialists in-house create an concept, after which we go to perfume homes to develop it. There is loads of back and forth dialogue till we get the perfume we would like.
When we started buying and selling, the in style fragrances had been primarily contemporary and zesty. Over time these have been changed and we’re now promoting perfumes with extra vanilla, and woody notes. The Oud tradition has change into modern, creating extra long-lasting scents. We use high quality elements equivalent to uncooked ambergris, oud, and musk. Our perfumes are 20% concentrated oils, long-lasting perfumes which might be distinctive.”
These are perfumes that mirror the heritage of the Sunnamusk model, impressed by the Middle East.50% of its clients are Muslim, 50% non-Muslim with its core buyer base being 20-35-year-olds though it does have a common attraction.
So what of the future?Abidur has a transparent plan.
“Sunnamusk will stay a family-owned enterprise. All 5 brothers are shareholders though solely two work in it. We plan to broaden the enterprise, opening in the Netherlands and Germany. It will probably be natural development through our money circulation. Our aim is to be a worldwide perfume model. By 2030, we want to be working with over £100m per yr.
The success of Sunnamusk has not gone unnoticed. Abidur has change into a task mannequin inside the neighborhood, steadily being invited to colleges as a motivational speaker, encouraging younger folks to get entangled in enterprise stressing,
“We stay in Tower Hamlets. We come from Bangladesh. If we are able to do it, so are you able to.”
“You need to climb the ladder, it doesn’t come mechanically. I’ve needed to do jobs that take me out of my consolation zone, to get me into the place I wish to be in. You need to see every thing as a chance. Don’t have a look at the negatives, as a substitute, have a look at the positives.
You are the captain of your ship.”
Angela Youngman
Angela Youngman is a contract journalist & member of the International Travel Writers Alliance. She specialises primarily in journey, tourism, meals, tradition, leisure, writing for nationwide & worldwide magazines and web sites. Angela has written quite a few books together with strolling guides, journey books and backyard books.
https://www.britishmuslim-magazine.com/2022/07/how-kazi-abidur-rahman-built-his-10m-empire-with-sunnamusk/
