ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
By ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
TRARALGON’S Confidence Lashes and Beauty has been announced as a finalist in the 2023 Australian Women’s Small Business Awards. Under the Brows and Lashes category, Madelyn Minter-Barnes’ business has been recognised for its achievements from a list of more than 2500 entrants. Having entered the awards earlier this year, Ms Minter-Barnes had no expectations, “I didn’t actually think it was going to happen,” she said. Entering the awards “was very structured and the questioning was really rigorous.” Ms Minter-Barnes explained her shock and excitement being named a finalist. “I woke up to an email that we were finalists in my junk mail. I was jumping around and sending screen shots to my family,” she said. Having only operated out of her Traralgon store for a year, celebrating their first birthday on July 4, the business has grown rapidly from the roots up Ms Minter-Barnes’ venture into business came from a place of internal motivation and a desire to be her own boss. “I started working from home for myself but I also had another part time job and I started to realise I had more financial freedom working for myself,” she said. It was not smooth sailing for Ms Minter-Barnes as she decided to follow her entrepreneurial ideas for financial freedom as the pandemic hit. “Eventually I went out on my own and the month I went full time, was the same month that we got shut in COVID lockdown in 2020,” she said. Despite the challenge of a global pandemic, raising a child and moving house, she managed to start a successful business. After lockdown, she was inundated, fully booked with no ability to take on new clients by herself, so she expanded. “I realised the lack of quality in the area was not changing any time soon and the only way to do that was to expand my business and train people with the same values I had that could offer the same services,” she said. Having an eye for detail, Ms Minter-Barnes prides her business on its quality of service. “They know that through the education that I offer, they’re getting a real high-quality service,” she said. “My clients aren’t a number to me, they are not just someone who is coming in and paying for a service and leaving – I’m heavily invested in all my clients – their lives, how they feel. “The entire name of confidence lashes is about instilling confidence in my clients, whether that be giving life advice and helping with a situation or helping them feel physically beautiful. “It’s not just a service, it’s a family environment where they can be supported through whatever they are going through in their life.” With beauty services, especially lashes, standards of work have a very low bar … which sets Confidence Lashes and beauty apart from its competitors. “It is a very saturated industry, I don’t feel as though we struggle with our cliental, what we struggle with is the every-changing industry.” she said. From her humble beginnings working by herself from home, Ms Minter-Barnes now employs five people at Confidence Lashes and Beauty, with plans to expand the business even further. “When you start to look at things instead of an issue but as an opportunity to grow, that is when you will take your business to the next level,” she said. “You have to have a passion for it but the second you find what your passion is, you won’t feel like you’re working at all. “I do 10-to-12-hour days here and I don’t notice it.” Not only does Ms Minter-Barnes provide high quality lashes, she also manages people, saying the skill to management is communication. “It’s a lot of communication and a lot of honest communication – the first few people I brought on to my team, I encouraged them to have weekly meetings and I encouraged them to voice whatever their needs were, so their needs could be met,” she said. “I’ve always encouraged a very open and relaxed environment where I will support them not only as a employee perspective but in their personal lives as well.” A hustler dedicated to the grind, Ms Minter-Barnes said perhaps she might be a little too dedicated. “Most people would say I don’t have a work-life balance, that’s for sure, it is something that I’m always working on trying to improve,” she said. “I definitely don’t see myself in the light others view me – I just know I set goals for myself and I’m achieving them.” Having not had the most warm childhood, Ms Minter-Barnes explained how proud she is of what she’s achieved considering the challenges in her life. “I came from a lower income household, I didn’t have wonderful parent relationships with my mother, I left home before I was 18 – I always had to work for what I had,” she said. “Everything I have achieved I know I achieved through blood, sweat and tears.” Ms Minter-Barnes said the award’s finalist position is further motivation to keep growing her business, with plans to expand into beauty education. “We are expanding by the end of September into an educational academy, so we’ll have a second site where I’ll offer accredited course,” she was excited to announce. With hopes to run training in unison or alongside TAFE Gippsland, the space will also be used to rent out for other businesses looking for meeting space. Confidence Lashes and Beauty was also named as a finalist for the Gippsland business awards, valuing the recognition the service is getting for its friendliness and quality.