We recently connected with Samantha araujo Harding and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Samantha araujo, thanks for joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When I first started Sahar in 2012, it was just me but actually, my dad was my investor and mentor. So it was me and my dad. When I started to get some sales in, It was me, my dad and my mum. It was very important to have my family by my side and help me build Sahar by SH with confidence in the beginning. I got to a point where I needed to scale as sales were growing & Sahar by SH was starting to attract a lot of attention. In 2017 when I was planning to move to Bali and open a new production of Sahar by SH there, where I was already present in all the main luxury boutiques, I suffered a very severe car accident & received the news that I would not be allowed to go in the sun for 2 years neither to surf. This was a big shock and I had to replan.

I decided to move to London where I could have a new start away from the sun, I worked from the shop floor at Hermes to the marketing team at Burberry, which was my last gig for knowledge. I gathered all the knowledge and learned from the best. While I was within these contract jobs I was constantly building Sahar. Whenever I entered a big fashion name, I would observe everything, on how they recruited talents, as the moment I said yes to a big brand was the moment I started learning and absorbing everything I could from them. Sometimes in life you have to take a few steps back to go forward.

When I hired my first marketing manager, she had done an MBA course with me in Brazil. The hiring experience was nice and smooth. I used all the tactics I has learned within all the companies I had gone through. When I brought in my Production manager, the experience was also smooth, for me it’s important that my team believes in my values and the values of Sahar.

My process is simple, I have a one on one to understand what my new team member wants and to see if it’s aligned with what I need, when both are aligned there is no way things can go wrong. Luckily for me I have always been a very social person, so finding people for me was never a problem, but If you need to find someone fast and don’t have a lot of contacts, try Linkedin.

If I could go back and restart, I would do everything the same. You learn from your mistakes and it’s the process that counts because when you hit your goals, you already probably made new ones right before hitting them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve always had a passion for fashion since a young age, always drawing and designing new outfits, so when I was doing my fashion degree in 2012, I decided literally out of the blue to open my business. Sahar by Samantha Harding started off with another name, Sahar swimwear & then evolved to what it is today. I also mainly only did bikinis, because I’m a surfer and you always need a new bikini. It just made sense to start a bikini brand & back then not everyone had a bikini brand like today, where today everyone just buys a few pieces from a factory and starts a brand. With Sahar I have always gone though the whole process from designing to final product.

Not only is Sahar an exclusive but inclusive brand, it’s a brand that also gives back to the community. During COVID I was able to focus 100% on the social projects I had in line. Project MAR where we donate a % of sales to the surf school Gloria in Arpoador which has a beautiful project where they bring in kids from the favelas of Rio to teach them to surf. Most of the main elite talents in surfing are Brazilian, this gives them more opportunity to choose the criminal life. We also started a project movement in which we sponsor a Brazilian Jiu jitsu athlete on her quest to be world champion. Sahar by Samantha Harding has a connection with the community and a mission to give back. To read more on this beautiful mission : https://saharbysamanthaharding.com/blogs/sahar-tips/project-mar

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I suffered my accident in 2017, I had to dramatically change my lifestyle and my life, not only was I told to stop working. I just used all my energy and channeled it to improving Sahar by Samantha Harding and bringing it to the next level. Having to step back and start from zero in a new country with the total opposite lifestyle I loved was a big challenge, but when you stay positive, everything always works out for the best.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

When I started Sahar, I wanted to do things differently. I’ve always looked to give back, It’s one of my values as a person. So of course it would become an important value and mission in Sahar by Samantha Harding. I started to produce in Minas Gerais with a local small family based business. Nowadays I have my own production in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. It makes me proud to produce in the favelas because I know that each piece produced, I’m helping the community and giving opportunity to those who need it. I will always choose a small local family based company to work with because I know it will make a big difference in their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.saharbysamanthaharding.com
• Instagram: saharbysamanthaharding
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Saharbysamanthaharding/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-harding-83216a5a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/saharbysam
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saharbysamanthaharding