Meet Denn-warren Tafah of Tafah Oil in Grand Prairie

Denn-warren, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always been entrepreneurial minded, I’ve always sold and done entrepreneurial things to make money, from cutting grass to selling candy to selling CDs and SnapBacks all through middle school and high school. I mostly did it because I wanted to buy “cool” clothes and shoes that I didn’t feel like stressing my mom for. But also I truly believe if you don’t build your dream someone else will hire you to build theirs. Anyways  I began my business after I lost my job. I was working for a Chinese restaurant in Conway, Arkansas, where I did everything cleaned, cooked and delivered the food. My boss would take advantage of the fact that I was an immigrant and couldn’t file a complaint against him, so he would mistreat me and accuse me of stealing so I could give him my tips. When I got fired I received my last check which was supposed to be $200 but I only got $84, I took that $84 bought some containers from Amazon, coconuts, aloe Vera, rosemary, vanilla bean from Kroger, got an LLC, created a logo, and started my Hair and beard oil business. Since then, I have sold over 500 products and look to continue to grow. My overall vision is to become the African Shea moisture, a one-stop-shop for men and women’s natural grooming products.The natural aspect of my product comes from my mother and my grandmother. Growing up in Africa, we used a lot of natural products for medication, healing, etc. I remember being sick and going to multiple hospitals, churches and nothing would work until my grandmother told my mom about mixing aloe Vera with water and letting me drink it. Who knew something so simple would heal me from a sickness that threatened my life. So since then I’ve had an interest to natural products. All my products have aloe Vera in them. It has so many healing properties for the scalp and hair.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No it hasn’t been a smooth road, it’s very fun when things are going good but it’s also very depressing at times. I see my business like my child if I don’t nourish, take care or feed it, it will die. Also, starting a Business is like taking the road less traveled and the road less traveled is always harder.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I don’t consider myself successful yet but in other to be successful you need to work hard and hustle, nothing is given, you have to get out there and grind to change your life. If you want that ability to be able to fire your boss, you have to grind. Remember it takes 21 days to make something a habit and 10,000 hours to be considered a master.