Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal care but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Parker Manis, co-owner of ES-84 Parfums, located in New York, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

ES-84 Parfums is a fragrance company that is psychological by design. Our products and packaging serve as physical interpretations of human experience, encouraging interaction, discussion, and self-awareness. We care about quality and how things feel to your eye and in your hand. We produce our fragrances with the best quality oils from Grasse, France. Our customers are people that respond to that sense of care and a fresh approach to scent, more than a targeted demographic based on income or trend.

ES-84 is a partnership led by Ricky Chapman and myself, Parker Manis. We've collaborated for over a decade on countless projects spanning fashion, beauty, photo, and industrial design.

Tell us about yourself

About seven years ago, while Ricky and I were both working on the store design innovation team at a major corporate retailer, we overheard a meeting in the background discussing their scent categories of 'Eau de Toilette, Eau de Cologne, and Eau de Parfum.' Given that we'd (Ricky and myself) developed our own language through friendship, fueled by inference, one of us drew the natural concluding statement of "Eau Shit." We laughed at the absurdity of it at first. We then immediately realized – there was an opportunity to capitalize on the ubiquity of the phrasing "Oh shit," an often involuntary reaction, used interchangeably with both good and bad. A catch-all phrase whose function is linked to the most human parrhesia in response to visual, audible, and physical experience.

We were feeling just jaded enough, after years inside corporate culture, to take that inspiration and follow our intuition to set the stage for the beginning of ES-84 Parfums, also known as Eau Shit. We did our homework to understand the fragrance industry's more mainstream commercial side. We then were drawn towards its niche side, researching to find noses we respected. We were looking for people who were of the same disposition as us, ready to leave the safe/predictable and pursue the unique results that come only from asking, "What if?", "Why not?" and "Is this pushing too far?". We work to take those answers, those outside the box ideas, and look for the connective threads that can render them still accessible to a mainstream audience to deliver something challenging and beautiful in a world too often safely inside the status quo.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

We submitted our first product, a travel-sized vial in custom plaster packaging, to the Perfume, Cosmetics & Design (PCD) Conference's Innovation Awards program, where we were judged by industry peers alongside brand offerings from luxury industry leaders like Richemont, L'Oréal, and Puig. It was a special moment when it was announced that we'd won the perfume category. It meant a lot for us, as such a small brand, to see our vision validated and recognized as competing with the top brands.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Starting ES-84 Parfums has been a lot of fun while also being masochistic at times. Almost everything we develop is proprietary; there are endless iterations of every aspect of the design and production process. Having mainstream vendors telling us repeatedly, "No one does it like that. You should just do this, or use this stock option." has been frustrating, but we've had to let that fall on deaf ears as we've pursued something larger and more human in its intention. We've been fortunate to find that there are believers out there, such as Aedes de Venustas, one of the world's most respected destinations for niche perfumery.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. One of the biggest things to remember is that even if you've done hours of research. You have years under your belt in your specific industry - you won't know everything you need to know as you begin your own personal venture. It's so easy to feel like you have it all locked down going into a new project. Then one day, find yourself feeling like you don't have a god damned clue how to pull it all together as you imagined. You'll make great decisions, and you'll make awful ones. You'll have relationships that seem like they couldn't be any more perfect, only to have to change context sheds new light on those interpersonal dynamics in a way you couldn't have imagined before. You'll have people wanting to cheer you on, and others won't give you the time of day. Production facilities will fuck up, which can mean not only lost time but lost capital as well.
  2. All that to say - Have a clear enough vision for what you want to do and lean hard into that as you build up an understanding of what it will take to make it happen. It will take time. Some directions are ideal, but your situation may require compromise (even if every part of you hates it) to keep moving forward.
  3. Adaptability is one of the most important traits you can possess. Leveraging that adaptability where necessary, and knowing when to push with hard-headedness where necessary, will keep adding fuel to the fire. It's also important to remember not to let yourself get insular, which can be far too easy, especially with passion projects. Surround yourself with the good council, and reach out for their insight along the way.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://es-84.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/es84parfums/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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