Brains Behind The Beauty

Barrett says the decision to position herself as the face of the brand was deliberate, but the fact she is young and married with two young children is what makes her appealing to the media and customers. "I’m certainly not out there creating the brand for myself. But I think cosmetics people want to believe in the brand, and know more about it, and getting to know me leads to the credibility of the brand."

Motivation & Distribution

With 16 staff in the Australian operations, plus a handful in the New York and Hong Kong offices, managing staff, and staff expectations can be a challenge, Barrett admits. "But then again, I love my staff and they are the core of my business, so I like to put as much energy into the people who work for me as I do into the products on the shelf. But managing people and expectations can sometimes be difficult."

To keep staff happy she implements staff bonus schemes, depending on their role, and she has also employed the services of a facilitation company to help motivate staff and help each department achieve their goals. "It’s important to give people support." This is particularly important, she adds, for staff who have left large cosmetics houses to work at ModelCo, where there is a distinct change in culture and the way the business is run.

"We’ve gone from a family business to a small to medium business, to the point where I’ve had to change my management style." The greatest change, she notes, is that the atmosphere is more structured and less relaxed than when she started out. "People who have been with us from day one have seen a difference in the last six months, knowing that things can’t be the way they were before because of a natural progression." Far from being a problem, staff have embraced the changes.

"It’s not easy running a business, and I try to create a healthy work-life balance—while working with my husband and raising a newborn and 21-month-old—and it’s really hard running a business and having a family."

Although she concedes that combining work and family life is not always an ideal situation —he runs the logistics side of the business—it works for her and her husband. "There’s not a lot of people who could do what we do, but he’s running his department and I’m doing my thing. And to be honest, over a week I probably speak to him for about an hour, and it works. Although I don’t recommend it!" she jokes.

Relationship issues aside, the beauty business is tough, she says, and can tend to get ugly. Barrett says to succeed she needs to really understand the industry, and understand retail. "You need to understand that it’s not just about beauty, it’s not just about the products. It’s also about retail." And in the export side of the business, it’s important to be on top of all the regulatory issues and cultural shifts to make a success.

The overseas expansion came about by accident rather than design, but it didn’t take long until the brand was represented in 15 countries, in some 500 stores. And the brand has soared, with sales to Japan reaching $1 million in just eight weeks, and ModelCo became the first Australian cosmetics brand with a presence in Victoria’s Secret boutiques.

Despite the success, Barrett says it’s tough managing international markets, particularly with cultural differences, language barriers, and regulatory issues, so she has created a dedicated export team to look after international markets. "So we’ve basically built the business around the opportunities we’ve had."

In most markets she uses distributors, but the Australian, US and UK distribution is handled in-house. "Choose your distributors wisely," she says. "We took a lot of opportunities, and if I had my time again I would have scrutinised distributors before we took them on, because basically you’re going into a marriage with these people. So make sure you’re 100 percent certain they are going to deliver on your expectations, and make sure they understand the market."

She also relies on her distributors to educate her on the cultural trends and differences in each market, such as preferences for different colour palettes for Asian markets.

Both here and abroad, the accolades she has been awarded are many—from Entrepreneur of the Year to industry awards for her products—and have added credibility to the business and her products, and have inspired respect for the brand in such a crowded market. Although her products tend to be unique, they are begging for shelf space in a pretty dense market.

Barrett attributes an "incredible" marketing and PR team to being able to not only compete against the big boys in the competitive beauty industry, but to come out on top. "They continue to stay true to the brand and create cult, cool events and marketing around the brand." A big part of this comes by way of below-the-line advertising techniques to market the brand, leaving the multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to the competition.

"We also continue to innovate and be first to market with unique, quality, high-end innovations that the world hasn’t seen before."

This includes the latest foray into skincare. When Erase Those Fine Lines, an anti-wrinkle serum, hit the shelves, it paved the way for more in the ModelCo range of skincare. "Our foundation has won foundation of the year over Dior and Mac, which is a huge coup for us, so that’s my new baby.

"And we will always be the pioneer with airbrush technology, we were the first company in the world to put products in a can, tan in a can, and now everyone in the world’s got it. We’ll definitely continue to pioneer new categories—so stay tuned!"

Beauty Biz Tips

• Hire people skilled in areas that you’re not. Don’t try and hire people who are like you.

• Make sure the financial side of the business is robust.

• Make sure you have the right systems in place.

• As a growing business, don’t accept good, accept great.

• Have a strong business plan and long-term strategy in place from the start.