Having Lord Sugar’s finger pointed in your direction usually spells the end for a budding apprentice. But for Susan Ma, it was the start of a lucrative relationship with the business guru.
After firing her in the final round of the reality series in 2011, the tycoon pumped £200,000 into Ma’s vegan skincare brand in return for a 50% stake. “At the end [of the show] he gave me his card and asked me to get in contact,” said Ma, now 28. She may be the only loser on the show to have secured Sugar’s backing.
For the host of The Apprentice, the bet on the beauty range has paid off handsomely. The company reported pre-tax profits of £1.5m on sales of £7.5m last year. Revenues are expected to climb to £12m this year. The company, based in Croydon, south London, has 60 staff.
Tropic’s organic creams and soaps are made in-house, as well as most of its make-up. Natural ingredients such as Kakadu plum extract and cupuacu butter are sourced from Australia and the Amazon rainforest. The products — from a £22 day cream to a £42 serum for a “more youthful-looking complexion” — are sold door to door by 5,000 “ambassadors”, in the same way as the famous Avon brand.
You sense a tinge of regret over how cheaply Ma sold half her business to Sugar. “At that stage I thought I was getting an incredible deal,” she laughed. “It was a huge stake to give away; I wish I’d asked for more money.”
Advertisement
She is aware, however, that his backing supercharged the business. Thanks to Sugar’s investment, Ma was able to rent a small office and move production from her kitchen table to a factory. She goes to his offices in Loughton, Essex, once a month. “We get on so well,” she said. “There’s never been a situation when we’ve really butted heads on a business decision. We are very different in the way that we think, but we discuss it and make it work.”
Ma set up Tropic in 2003, when she was just 15, with £100 borrowed from her mother. She followed a family recipe to concoct a body scrub, which she sold in jam jars at Greenwich market, southeast London. She blended sea salt, patchouli and eucalyptus oils and macadamia extract. “It was the only thing I knew how to make.”
At the end of her first day at the market, she had sold her entire stock for £980. “It was crazy. My pockets were bulging with cash.”
Ma was born in Shanghai and had a modest upbringing. “I remember it being freezing cold in the winter,” she said. “We didn’t have any heating.”
When she was six, her family moved to Australia, first to Sydney and then Cairns in Queensland. Her father ran a newsagent and sold toys and fridge magnets on the streets with her mother.
Advertisement
The move was testing for Ma. “All of a sudden I was surrounded by children who didn’t look like me any more,” she said. “I couldn’t speak their language and felt alienated.” She picked up English by memorising children’s books — and the bullying stopped. “I was able to speak back,” she said.
Her parents separated, and Ma moved to Purley, south London, with her mother Shu Mei Lu, now 57. “My mum couldn’t speak English,” said Ma. So the 12-year-old enrolled at Croydon High School, an independent girls’ school, and negotiated a lease for their first flat nearby.
To make ends meet, her mother had a stall in Greenwich market selling toys and handmade jewellery; her father paid the school fees. Ma spent her weekends and summers selling beauty remedies, saving up to take a degree in philosophy and economics at University College London.
She went to aromatherapy classes in the evening to learn how to develop products. “It was almost a licence to print money at the time,” Ma said. “My best weekend was £2,500.”
However, her entrepreneurial venture came to a halt in 2009 when she decided to concentrate on her studies. After graduating a year later, she joined Citigroup as a trainee on the foreign exchange trading floor. “I went in full force, thinking it was my dream,” said Ma. After a few weeks she realised it wasn’t. “I’d be at my desk for 6.30am and some days I wouldn’t get home until 2am. I started to feel miserable.”
Advertisement
She left Citi and used £10,000 of savings to restart Tropic. In 2011 she got her chance to appear on The Apprentice.
The entrepreneur would like to move into haircare, develop a men’s range and sell overseas, but only if it does not hurt her brand’s ethos. “If there’s a risk it will turn into a money-churning business, then that’s not for me.”
She is adamant that she will not sell her wares in shops. “I never want to be in a situation where the ambassadors feel that I’m competing with them.”
Her ambassadors pay £120 for training, a catalogue and a starter supply of goods. “They can earn up to 40% commission,” said Ma, who lives in Croydon with her fiancé.
Her advice for entrepreneurs is to start small: “Your idea doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all. You can do it on the side, but you have to take that leap.” She added: “Make sure it’s something you’re 100% passionate about.”