By Ebele Orakpo
Mrs Stella Rita Asogwa is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Larita’s Beauty Spa and Salon. In a recent chat with Vanguard in her Abuja office, the Economics graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,  said despite the myriad of challenges that one faces in the course of doing business in Nigeria, with enough passion, one will overcome. Excerpts:

Upon graduation from the University, the mother of three said she actually started as a mobile businesswoman, selling Mary Kay products, going from house to house, bank to bank. Interested in developing herself further, she went to the Beauty Academy in London for training.

*Larita’s Salon & Spa

She said: “I came back to Nigeria and started practising from home. I was like a mobile therapist.” After practising from home for a while, she opened up her own salon and Spa in 2008 and in 2010, she won two awards at the FCT Awards for Business Excellence as the Best Beauty Salon and Emerging Female CEO of the year.

On what motivated her to go into business, Mrs Asogwa said: “I think I picked up the business thing from my mother who has been a virtuous woman. I learnt a lot from her. She is a teacher and also a businesswoman.

She used to run her own salon then in Lagos and she is into bakery too. She is a very industrious person so I had to learn to be industrious like her. Even while I was in school, I did well, graduating with a second class upper but I just felt I wanted to run my own business.

I would not say I did not apply to one or two places for job placement but I just knew I wanted to be on my own.”

In this era of diversification and one not putting all his eggs in one basket, Mrs. Asogwa decided to go into hospitality business by opening a restaurant. “I also have another business I am doing, it is a franchise actually, and it is a Chinese restaurant, Marcopolo Chinese Restaurant. I’m the Managing Director and so far, it has been okay,” she said.

On the challenges faced in the salon and Spa business, Mrs. Asogwa noted that keeping the stylists for a long period of time has been a great challenge. “Every business has its challenges and in the salon and Spa business, we have the challenge of stylists not always stable.

Once they see anybody that can add just N1, 000 to their salary, they are ready to move. But you find out that most of them are always requesting for loan and with the loan, they are forced to stay, so you deduct it from their salary every month.

That’s one issue. Another major challenge we face is that you do all the adverts on television and radio and fliers, get these customers and then the staff end up getting the customers’ contact numbers and when they are leaving, they begin to tell the customers: ‘I’m moving to so and so place,’ and some customers want to move with their stylist.

You find that you keep advertising, getting new people, trying to retain the staff you have. But other than that, once your services are good, the ambience of the place is okay, some customers still remain.

What you do is to keep working on services; the quality of service the staff is giving to the clients is very important. I keep talking to them, training and retraining them. It is not quite easy getting them to behave orderly before customers. It is a continuous process,” she said.

She also mentioned lack of electricity as a great challenge because “you cannot run your business in Nigeria without having your own electricity generator.

Rent is also another challenge. It is very high in Abuja, about N100, 000 per month in some areas,” she stated.

Mrs. Asogwa said she spent about N500, 000 to start the business. “I started from home. After my training, I just bought the basic things I needed and started from home. It was cheaper for me; because I was not paying extra rent.

So, I will say my start-up capital was probably N500, 000. From there, I was able to gather some money from my Mary Kay business and the therapy I had been doing at home; with the support of my husband, I was able to rent a place for my business.”

On service charges, she said although the salon and Spa, popularly referred to as a ‘one- stop beauty palace,’ is generally seen as upper class, but then, once in a while, students come in because “charges range from as low as N1,000 for a trim or wash and set, and N3,000 – N4,000  for fixing of hair.

For the Spa, we charge between N4, 000 for a basic facial and about N20, 000 for a full body.” Continuing, she said: “We render all sorts of services like waxing, facials, massage, nails, men’s grooming and kids’ grooming so we try to make it a one-stop beauty palace.”

The Larita’s Spa boss who has nine people in her employ said in the next five years, she would want to see the company on a higher level.

“Sometimes you want to give up because of challenges, but because you are passionate about your business, you stay on. Before going into a business you must know what you are going to do, that is what will carry you when these challenges come.

So bearing in mind that I am passionate about this business, in the next five years, I will love to open another branch, a bigger place, a full Spa, if possible, a medi Spa, apart from the salon,” she said.