Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelo Austin. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Angelo Austin is the founder and owner of Preeminence, a passionate soul who has dedicated his entire life to the art of perfumery.
The journey to establishing Preeminence began way before the first product, which is Orgasm Perfume, was created.
It started during Angelo Austin’s early years when he was infatuated with scents due to his mothers and sisters. He was surrounded with aromatic fragrances his mom and sisters collected and it was only natural that as he grew up, he would gravitate towards scents and perfumes as well.
In his dating years, he would always purchase perfume for women he dated, manifesting his love for fragrances. He would always spend his spare time in big brand stores where he was attracted to the beautiful packaging but would get discouraged by the amount of work that goes into producing the products
He had ideas for fragrances but was hesitant in manufacturing perfume due to serious competition in the market by these big brand corporations, but he took the risk anyway.
After sitting on his ideas for 6 years, he finally began his perfumery journey. He wanted to have his perfumes manufactured but discovered that the process of manufacturing by a big factory was extremely expensive. And so, Angelo decided to make perfumes himself in small batches. During this time, he was also in school studying for a degree in science but would research with chemists to formulate his first product.
For a whole 6 to 7 months, Angelo experimented with different formulas to arrive at his first completed project, which was Orgasm Perfume. After creating his first fragrance, Angelo continued to make complete lines, and thus, Preeminence was born.
In 2019, Angelo wanted to improve his skills in the art of fragrance making and how to make them last for as long as possible. So, he went to Paris to do an apprenticeship course at the Musee du Parfum Fragonard. Today, Angelo continues to hone his craft and operate Preeminence with his team, producing batches of scents and fragrances.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There had been many struggles during the journey in entrepreneurship. But this was a good thing because I took each experience and learned from it to strengthening the business.
2017
By 2017 I had created a product line and a unique service to create a customized fragrance. The only issue I had was going out getting customers that would love this product or service. It was when I realized we needed a location. So, I decided to open one inside Laurel Park Mall. After being open for a year and coming up negative every month I began to see the difficulties of building a solid business. We had too eventually close. I took this as an opportunity to learn what needed to be done to make the business better. After analyzing what went wrong, I saw the reason for the failure was 1st we didn’t understand our customers from a demographic base and a communication base. It also helped me understand the products that needed to be added in that customers were looking for. So, at this time, I would spend the next several months on restructuring the business and the brand. I decided to turn the business mobile and add on dozens of products to offer our customers a variety.
2020 COVID
From 2018- 20200 we had completed over a few hundred events throughout Detroit Atlanta and Chicago and things were going great. In 2020 it came to a halt. Since we were at a standstill, and it was impossible to keep the business going due to everything closing. I would spend most of the year trying to figure out solution. during that time, I joined the National Entrepreneurs Association and learned which became I game changer for us. They took a look at what was going on with my business and suggested that I learned digital marketing to be able to reach new customers during this downtime. So, I took a course and gravitated to it fairly quickly.
2021 Growing Pains
Within weeks after implementing what I learned business began to skyrocket. I began processing thousands of orders worldwide within a month and as great as it was seeing business grow it also came with a steep learning curve. Ecommerce is a business in itself so we had to learn important dynamics During this time, it was pivotal to learn logistics from how to properly pack & ship orders, how to place products closer to our end consumers so that they would receive it in time. After several months we developed a great system for production and logistics. I would say this was the biggest struggle to date because it was more moving parts.
As you know, we’re big fans of Preeminence Inc. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
What we do and specialize in Preeminence was started with the mission to educate consumers on the fragrance industry while creating timeless perfumes for them. We offer two separate line of fragrance products, signature and custom scents. Although our most popular products are perfume, we also offer an array of home fragrances from candles and diffusers to scent your home.
What sets us apart
Unlike other fragrance companies we do not use chemicals to enhance the longevity of the fragrance instead we source raw natural materials that lend longevity to the fragrance. Our belief is that a great fragrance should not only smell good but should last throughout the day.
What we are most proud of
From a brand perspective I would say we are most proud of having customers in Italy consistently purchasing our products along with being featured on the cover of Fashion GXD Magazine for emerging brands.
Services
We also offer private label services for companies that would like their own line of fragrances
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Finding a mentor or surrounding yourself with like-minded individual’s is a crucial part of success. Joining organizations that support entrepreneurs is a great way to find mentors. One thing that has worked for me and my organization was joining the National Entrepreneurs Association not only was this a place to learn from other business owners it was a great place to learn skills that will be pivotal to business as a whole
Contact Info:
- Website: https://preeminentbrands.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/preeminence_inc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CustomFragrances
- Other: https://linktr.ee/preeminence
