Mr. Kama Maharaj is the founder of Sacha Cosmetics, The leading brand of cosmetics especially designed for yellow based tones.  Mr. Kama Maharaj at work at Sacha Cosmetics Could you tell me a little about yourself and how you started out? I’m an economist, a graduate of York University and I came back to Trinidad to teach. Then I entered the beauty business because my mother was a beautician. Her name was Madame Maharaj and she was very popular. She encouraged me to go into cosmetics. Did you have a background in cosmetics? No, when you’re in the beauty business your only job is to make women look more beautiful. Did you have any particular reason for choosing the name Sacha? In Canada my friends used to call me Sacha. My first name is Satiya and they couldn’t pronounce it so they called me Sacha. I chose it because it is a name that is pronounced in every language. How big is your company? We have 140 employees in manufacturing and marketing in Trinidad alone. Worldwide we have 23 distributors in 23 different countries. We have started in Senegal and South Africa. What gave you the drive to expand? I had a vision to achieve something. This is why when you go into business you shouldn’t aim to compete with the local manufacturers alone. Today most of them are gone and we are here. Could you tell me how Sacha Cosmetics are different? Well for many years we would look at our girls who worked here and they would look two toned as if something was wrong with their foundation. Then we realized that their undertone was wrong. We realized that their makeup was designed for red undertones when in fact their undertone was yellow. We went back to the drawing board and it took us 15 years to come up with our formula. We had a lot of success at the Miss Universe pageant since 1997 when Margot Bourgeois was 2nd runner up and in 1998 when Wendy Fitzwilliam won. Does your company have a culture? We are like a big family. We appreciate that everybody here is an individual.
Do you have any mentors? Merlin Samlalsingh, Jack Ramoutarsingh, Dr. Ali Mohammed. I admire them and try to emulate them. I respect their excellence, innovation and global thinking. Do you have any children? Yes, two kids Do you intend to pass the business on to them? They have to make up their minds for themselves. I can’t judge that at this point. Can you tell me some of the obstacles that your company encountered? The biggest obstacle is that in Trinidad you’re local so some people have an ingrained bias against anything local. Do you have any advisors that helped your success? In the United States I made some very close friends with some key people. The number one nail polish maker in the world adopted me like a son. My brother is a doctor in Chemistry and he helped me along as well. Do you do your own personal research? I have a whole team of people doing research all the time. I have no greater fun in life than going into the lab and creating something. What are some of the keys to getting to this level? Innovation. Quality is the price to get into the market. Could you tell me about some of the marketing methods that you used? Well our philosophy is not to sell cosmetics but to make women beautiful. So we employ make up artists and product promoters. If someone comes into a store, our girls are there to help them. We also sell on the Internet. We are the first company in the entire region to build a website to sell products online. It has been very successful. When you do a search for cosmetics on Google you get three million results and Sacha is number two. We are the first people to create our own e-book. Are you going into image consultancy as well? Yes we have opened two centers, one at Gulf City. We want people to come in and learn to make themselves beautiful. We certify makeup artistes and we have the best makeup artistes in the Caribbean. What advice would you give to a young person who wants to succeed in business? You must have a vision of what you want to do. You must be prepared to work hard and use technology. If you have a brand the brand must survive. Work on building a brand. A brand must be a single concept in the minds of people. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rum shop or a roti shop or whatever it’s still a brand. When you think Sacha, you think yellow based foundations. Internationally, is there anyone that you hold in great esteem? I hold people like Bill Gates in great esteem. Who in your life do you admire the most? In 1959, she coloured her hair bright orange. She was a trailblazer. She taught me how to build a brand. In fact when she was dying of cancer and they told her that she needed chemotherapy, when she discovered that her hair would fall out, she said that she’ll rather die. I also admire my sister, Asha McLeod who is one of the top hairdressers for black hair in the world. She was named by Essence magazine as a living legend for black hair. Apart from business do you have any other passions? I’m a bit of an Internet junkie. Do you have a favorite website? Yes, it’s called www.webmasterworld.com . It’s where webmasters hang out. I’m no webmaster but I like to interact with them. I give them business advice and they really appreciate it. What is the contribution that you wish to make to our local society? I want to make us a knowledge based society starting with the children who are our future. They should be encouraged to grow with technology. They can make more money than their parents dreamed of all in US dollars and our location makes no difference. The ability to absorb information prepares them for life. When they’re in front of a computer our young people have no time for crime. If you could pin it down to one thing, what is the most important thing that you have learnt about business? If you find something that you’re passionate about, you never have to work a day in your life. What do you admire the most about yourself? My ability to think young, the older I get. Visit Sacha website @ http://www.sachacosmetics.com/ |
