Case Study: The Growth of Brazilian Beauty, Queensland

With a desire for greater independence in their working lives, and a passion to launch and run a successful franchise business as a couple, Francesca Webster and her partner Andrew Bryant quit their jobs in 2004 and opened their first Brazilian Beauty outlet in Queensland’s capital: the state synonymous with sunshine and swimsuits.

Equipped with little more beauty industry experience than a customer’s perspective, the couple immersed themselves in the business and drew on their existing skills to build the foundations of what has quickly become a highly successful and rapidly expanding franchise operation.

In just three years, the pair has expanded the business to include eight salons across Queensland, an Adelaide based store in the making and plans to expand into New South Wales on the agenda. 

To help manage their rapid growth and facilitate the recruitment of suitable franchisees, Brazilian Beauty has built a strong partnership with its Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banker. 

“Our growth has been rapid and we’ve had to ensure that we continued to run the business efficiently during the process”, said Francesca. 

“Our Local Business Banker, Steven Wells, has helped us manage any challenging periods by recommending short-term financing solutions which have enabled us to free-up extra cash to pursue last minute advertising opportunities and make sure all our bases were covered when BAS time came around.”

Francesca and Andrew have designed the Brazilian Beauty franchise to provide greater work-life balance for salon managers.  By drawing on her IT background, Francesca has developed the IT infrastructure to enable franchisees to monitor the business remotely – this flexibility has attracted franchisees such as mothers returning to work and those looking for flexible working hours. 

Brazilian Beauty recently took out the Beauty Services Award at the Queensland Small Business Champion Awards, sponsored by Commonwealth Bank Local Business Banking.

At Commonwealth Bank we know the importance of small businesses, and that’s why, as a sponsor of this year’s Small Business Champion Awards, we’d like you to consider entering.

About the Awards
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