When most natural perfumers start perfume businesses, there is generally only one person involved doing every business activity. This means all responsibility and authority rests with one person. If a one-person business is the plan, then all is fine. If, however, a natural perfumer wants to take full advantage of the growing consumer interest in natural perfume or natural aromatherapy and significantly grow their business, they will have to make the decision to develop a team to professionally carry out all of the growing business functions. 

Here are some fundamentals every growing company needs to consider on team delegation:

1. Make careful choices for every person added to the team, including looking for indications of experience in team play. For example, ask if they have ever played on a sports team and  enjoyed it.  

2. Ensure each member of the team thoroughly understands the company’s Mission, Purpose/Vision, Value Proposition, and policies, and how important their job is in fulfilling these fundamentals. Develop a company manual containing these fundamentals and policies and give the entire team regular access to them, reviewing the manual with everyone periodically.  

3.  Assign each team member’s responsibilities with some appropriate authority. It is quite easy to delegate responsibility without authority - just tell one of your team to do something. It is not as easy, however, to properly delegate responsibility that includes authority. Delegating responsibility without authority can result in failure, team disengagement, and even resentment, and is also known as "dysfunctional delegation." Proper management practices necessitate clearly stating the lines and limits of each team member’s authority and responsibility.  

4. Review each team member’s job performance and knowledge of fundamentals periodically and continually re-focusing on your team regarding your purpose, mission, and value proposition. This keeps the entire team on the same page.  

5. Manage the team with balance between ignoring or hovering, and monitor team performance without undermining employees. Remember, team members may do things a bit differently than you would do yourself, but that is part of the give-and-take nature of team delegation of responsibility.

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​Over the years, many perfumers have told me why they got into natural perfumery in the first place. Many have shared their personal experiences with having allergic reactions from synthetic perfumes or colognes, leading them to create natural perfumes for themselves. Others have said they enjoy the creative process of producing perfumes from natural materials. 
Regardless of how perfumers find their pathway to natural perfumes, from a business and marketing perspective it is not enough to only rely on internal experiences and policies to ensure business success. 
Yes, all natural perfumers need motivation, missions, visions and other important internal business practices, but more importantly, they need to balance their internal needs with an external focus on identifying, selling, and keeping Customers For Life. 
So, how can natural perfumers create Customers For Life (CFL)?

Improvements at Points-of-Sale and Points-of Consumption with CFL Strategies
Whether online or brick-and-mortar, points-of-sale are the interfaces between the entire supply chain and customers. Improvements to this critical touch point increase the likelihood of a profitable sale. Points-of-consumption are an even more important touch point, since it is here that customers determine product satisfaction and make the decision to repurchase or not. 
Approaching natural perfume marketing from a Customers For Life perspective positively changes the dynamics of points-of-sales and points-of-consumption strategies completely. For example, when natural perfumers decide to attend sales-related events, they should use CFL strategic mathematics: Each $200 perfume sale at an event + 1-$200 follow-up sale per year for 20 years = 21 CFL perfume sales or $4,200.  This strategy promotes proper follow-up from sales, which is typically a weak point in natural perfume marketing.

Be a lifetime Student and Teacher.
Never stop learning and then teaching customers, potential customers, and the rest of the supply chain. Learn more about your suppliers, gather as much information as possible from them on the value of their business practices and the products they supply, and then teach that knowledge to your supply chain community including consumers. 
No better place to share this knowledge can be found than IPF’s 2025 Natural Perfumery Summit, where besides gaining valuable exposure for natural perfumers’ businesses at IPF’s collective booth, perfumers can pass on CFL strategies to suppliers, distributors, the media and all others withing the natural perfumery community. Everyone in the supply chain benefits from a Consumers For Life strategy.

Instill Consumer Confidence and Trust in Yourself, Your Company, and Your Products
Natural perfumers wishing to get customers continually coming back for more products for a lifetime need satisfied customers who trust and have confidence in the products they purchase. This means demonstrating that perfumers are the experts in the communities they serve, and writing articles about your experiences is one way to do that. You can even submit those articles to IPF’s Newsletter that will be read by thousands in the supply chain. Participating in the New Luxury Awards is another opportunity to be recognized by your peers as an industry leader.

Customers For Life requires a complete commitment from natural perfumers to establish and maintain long-term relationships with every customer they sell. Keep in mind that it will always be a lot less expensive to keep customers for life than to acquire new ones.

“Precious Things are Without Value to Those Who Cannot Prize Them.”
  The Rooster and the Jewel-Aesop’s Fables

After talking to Natural Perfumers or reading their website content over the years, its completely clear to me that Natural Perfumers are universally passionate about their perfumes. And why shouldn’t they be?
Fine Natural Perfumes, like fine wines or fresh flowers, are truly alive and precious - each in its own way!
Yet, many potential Natural Perfume consumers act like the rooster from the Aesop’s Fable above: Upon finding a jewel on the ground, the rooster declared that he would rather have a single grain of barley than the jewel. The lesson for Natural Perfumers? Consumers will always purchase what they consider valuable and meaningful to their lives.
The challenge for Natural Perfumers today is to use the same passion they applied in creating their Precious Undervalued Perfume (PUP) into developing a Perfume Value Package that will be appreciated and prized by consumers for a lifetime.

So, how do Natural Perfumers turn their “PUP” into a Prize?  Here are some suggestions:
​

• Let consumers see your beautiful perfumes as they really are. This means using clear glass bottles, rather than colored or non-transparent ones.

 

• Put your passion to work on developing perfume bottles that will be treasured by consumers.

 

• When considering the sizes of Natural Perfumes to sell, keep in mind the passion and effort you went through to create your treasures using precious (and increasingly expensive) natural raw materials. Think of your perfumes as nature’s jewels and focus more on smaller-sized bottles, such as 10ml, 30ml, and perhaps as much as 50ml but no more. Consumers greatly value unique, small treasures they can proudly display, and you will be deftly differentiating your perfumes at the same time.

 

• Price your precious perfumes from the value and meaning they represent to consumers. Most Natural Perfumes I have encountered are underpriced, sometimes greatly so. Most times the problem is because Natural Perfumers have a Precious Undervalued Perfume (PUP) and the only way they can sell a PUP to consumers (who aren’t aware of the total value of the perfume) is by pricing on the low side. This is why perfumers need to add significant value to their Perfume Value Package and then communicate and sell that added value to consumers at premium prices befitting a prized jewel.


• Help consumers enjoy and be satisfied with the consumption of your perfume. For instance, how should they display and store your perfume? Like wine and fresh flowers, perfumes prefer cooler places with no direct sunlight. Consumers will appreciate the value of helping them enjoy the use of your perfumes. It is at this critical point-of-consumption where consumers decide whether to return for more.