We caught up with the brilliant and insightful NIVEN MORGAN a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
NIVEN, appreciate you joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
As a new company, one of my most exciting stories would be when Britney Spears had her team reach out to me to do custom candles for her wedding to Kevin. I cannot begin to share the excitement I felt. My big break! Her darling assistant reached out to me and we discussed the details and it was quite simple. We would do the initials of Britney and Kevin on each candle. We were given a date for delivery and I began the process of getting the candles made. Some time went by and we were on track to deliver. Then we get the call that the date had changed and I had about five days to complete the order and deliver. I rushed the printing of the glass and had it done within a matter of days. The glass shows up and the initials are upside down. In a flash I see my big break collapsing around me. I was crushed, embarrassed and scared to death to tell Britney’s team what had happened. The valuable point I learned here was that I had built an amazing relationship with my vendor by being kind, appreciative and supportive of her business during the time we had worked together. Because of this she jumped through hoops to correct the problem. All was saved and no one ever knew of the mistake. I have always stressed to my team to treat people professionally and with kindness no matter how bad a situation is. It does come back to you. And we need all the help we can get to keep this business running.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I do my best to create fragrances that people will enjoy. From bath and body products to candles, I want people to feel calm and to take time for themselves. Everyone needs to have time to relax and reset. I am most proud of my team and that we are still here to tell our story. Anyone that knows me will know that I am pretty much always stressed out! Being a business owner is extremely tough. There are no shortcuts and you cannot rush time. In this industry it can take months and months to create a product or fragrance and that can be very frustrating as we always want it now. Patience is hard for me but I have had to learn it is so important to get it right.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When my company was just a few years old and I was still working at my other job I had a huge custom order come in from a large retailer. We were to make a custom holiday stocking filled with our product. The order was complete and we were just about ready to ship when we got the call they were filing bankruptcy. I was devastated and financially not in a great to place to be stuck with all of this merchandise. I had no idea what to do. Luckily, I had developed close relationships with my stores and I began calling each store and telling them what happened. Before the week was up I had sold every unit of product. A much needed blessing for my company.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I believe the most effective strategy for growing my clientele was that I hit the road and visited many of my stores in the younger years and did many trunk shows and personal appearances. This is still vital to our business today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nivenmorgan.com
- Instagram: nivenmorgan