Prefer to just listen? Catch our audio below!
Hello everybody! Welcome to Episode 8 of Feminine Wealth TV! Today I interview Kaye Scott and Lisa Sullivan Smith, founders of The Clinic, a highly successful business for the last 15 years here in Sydney.
We delve into their experiences and how they have gone about making a partnership work so successfully. As women who have been in business for a while now, they have certainly met with challenges, yet created a business model which is loved by their clients while preserving their partnership and home lives.
Prefer to read? See full transcription below!
Barbara Turley: Hi there. I’m Barbara Turley and you’re watching another episode of Feminine Wealth TV, the show that uncovers the diamond tips on creating truly conscious wealth from world shakers, change makers and wealth creators. As you can see I’m joined on the show today by not one but 2 guests. I’ve got Kaye Scott and Lisa Sullivan Smith from The Clinic here in Sydney.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Hi Barbara.
Barbara Turley: Welcome to the show.
Kaye Scott: Thank you Barbara.
Barbara Turley: Well first of all I want to say thank you for joining me on the show but also thank you for allowing us to film in this totally stylish and totally decadent skin rejuvenation oasis here in Sydney. I love this place, it’s fantastic.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Thank you.
Barbara Turley: Why don’t we just start with, tell us a bit about The Clinic, why it’s so special and what you guys do.
Kaye Scott: Myself and Lisa have had the clinic for almost 15 years. We think it’s special because not only is it an anti-aging center but also clinical center for skin. We’re very proud of our achievement and our business. It’s such as you said beautiful oasis. People walk into the doors, feel completely relaxed straight away. I think we provide an excellent standard of clinical service across the board for all our treatments that we provide.
Barbara Turley: I love the use of the word clinical because it gets away from this beauty therapy thing.
Kaye Scott: Yeah. We use the word clinical because we’re both nurses, we only employ nurses and doctors. As Lisa fondly mentions on our website, if you want beauty treatment go to a Betty’s Beauty Box-
Barbara Turley: I saw that.
Kaye Scott: We do proper medical treatments. What that means and clinical standards mean is that we also have to standby medical standards, medical procedures so it’s a very, very safe environment. Everything we do has clinical documentation and proof that works.
Barbara Turley: Which is bringing that to an industry I think the beauty industry can be a bit [inaudible 00:02:10].
Kaye Scott: Well I think the problem is now Barbara with say for example we use injectibles, so a beauty therapist can get a doctor to come to their premises, do the injection but there’s no emergency procedures in place, there’s no follow through. All those kind of safety and follow up customer service that we do provide is not available when you go to some beauty therapist.
Barbara Turley: Yeah and you don’t really know when you’re out here as a consumer looking for the service but I just love the fact that we’ve got clinical meet stylish as it is so beautiful in here. I did read on the website actually, Lisa that was your quote, I think it said, “If you want an aroma therapy facial go to Betty’s Beauty Box, if you want results you go to The Clinic.”
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Absolutely.
Barbara Turley: I love the fact that I’ve gotten to know you girls over the years and it’s that straight talk and kind of no crap attitude that I love. Do you think that has been a bit of a secret for your success in this business?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I think that Kaye and I are both honest, we’re both hardworking. Basically we saw that the market was lacking beauty with medical treatments and lush environments to work in. Kaye and I both come from a nursing background and we both have pharmaceutical background as well. Where we’re used to call on doctor surgeries that were all dirty, lacked beautiful furnishing and no water to drink, no nice teas. Kaye and I saw that we could perhaps provide an environment that women would feel comfortable in and also the services with high customer service which we pride ourselves on.
Barbara Turley: Yeah, absolutely. I want to take a step back. You both started out as you said as registered nurses, where does the passion for nursing originally come from?
Kaye Scott: Want to go first? [Crosstalk 00:04:00]. I grew up like you Barbara in [inaudible 00:04:07] and it was obviously a bit before your time. Back when I left school in the 80s-
Barbara Turley: Everybody became a nurse.
Kaye Scott: It was either nursing … You didn’t have options as a woman. It was nursing, teaching, civil service. You know in my year when I finished school probably I think 2 or 3 girls went to university. It’s not that I couldn’t have gone but just the expectation for women. My brother went. It just wasn’t there that you were going to do that basic, you know.
Barbara Turley: The interesting thing is that that was only in the 80s. We’re not talking about the 1920s here which is like fascinating.
Kaye Scott: I’m hospital trained which is gone now. When I had to go and live in [inaudible 00:04:45] so we had to live in dorms for 6 weeks. I think why I probably stayed in love with nursing is the friends I made.
Barbara Turley: I think a lot of nurses say that.
Kaye Scott: The ones I made. I think I carry through them you know when it comes to team work and you’re on business and mixing with different nursing teachers and meet different personality types. That’s why I did it. I was drawn to it and I loved it from the very beginning.
Barbara Turley: Lisa what about you? Where did your love affair with nursing start?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I guess it was actually my mother’s advice to me and both my family [inaudible 00:05:21] working class, uneducated people who didn’t go to university back in the 60s. My mother suggested that I did nursing and her famous quote was to marry the doctor down the road [crosstalk 00:05:35]. I wish I listened to her but I didn’t.
Barbara Turley: You became a businesswoman on your own.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I must say though that I’ve always had a passion for the medical field. When I was in [inaudible 00:05:47] and I worked in the children’s hospital in the physio department. The medical industry has always impressed me and that was basically my passion. When I decided you know I just was 18 years of age, what am I going to do? My mom said just do nursing and I did it and I’ve enjoyed it.
Barbara Turley: It’s very grounding, I think it’s a great grounding for a career to start out there. You did the nursing, is that where you both met when you were nursing?
Kaye Scott: No. I’m a little bit older than Lisa. [Crosstalk 00:06:18] when I finished I travelled and when I came here and married someone who’s Australian so that’s why stay here. I actually set the business up 12 months before I met Lisa with another lady. She got ill and Lisa-
Barbara Turley: Oh I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that bit.
Kaye Scott: Lisa was working, just started for a very short time but we instantly got on very well.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: We met at a conference.
Kaye Scott: Yeah we met at a conference initially.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I was working for a French cosmeceutical company with French products that was very hard to sell and Kaye was my first customer I think. We had a mutual bonding and then we just got talking and did coffee and what have you. A new equipment called intense pulsed light machine was coming out of the UK suggested you know would you like to come and work a couple of days as a nurse? I said I actually missed the patient interaction. Yes I’d love to. I’ve done enough with the sales, I miss the nursing so I guess I’d love to come and work and basically that was my journey. Two days was 3 days was 4 days and here we are now.
Kaye Scott: Partner.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes.
Kaye Scott: When my business partner left Lisa stepped in.
Barbara Turley: What I’m interested to talk about now just that you brought up the business partnership thing, you guys have had this for 15 years. Fifteen years of a great partnership and very successful business and a great friendship, you guys are actually friends outside of work.
Kaye Scott: Correct.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yeah.
Barbara Turley: I’m really fascinated so many women in particular they love going to business together. We get a great idea with your friend and you deicide we’re all [inaudible 00:07:46] about an idea and think let’s go into business together. So often it fails because the vision is not aligned and before you know it the business is gone and the relationship is gone. How have you girls maintained your friendship and the business partnership over the years?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I guess the key to us was we actually were friends when we started. We had a liking towards each other and I guess-
Kaye Scott: It’s like an arranged marriage.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yeah it’s like an arranged marriage [crosstalk 00:08:14]. Because we both have hard work ethics and we both have the drive, we both have the ambition and vision we need for success. We’ve just grown together and we’re almost like sisters. It might sound corny but every year we go away [inaudible 00:08:32]
Kaye Scott: Conference.
Barbara Turley: Conference, yeah.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: We do that to expand our education but at the same time we love to shop, we love to go to nice restaurants.
Barbara Turley: You’re lucky because you’ve created what I think a lot of women would love. I mean this is partnership that does become a friendship and works and the aligned vision you make that’s very important.
Kaye Scott: I think as Lisa said that the key here is we weren’t friends to start with. We’ve become best friends over the years. The other thing too is we keep our lives separately. Like Lisa is a different stage in her life, she has children smaller, mine are almost grown up. We don’t socialize together, we [inaudible 00:09:04] we spend a lot of time together.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: We exercise together.
Kaye Scott: We exercise together, go to the same hairdresser. There’s a lot of things that we do together but at the same time socially we do live separate lives. We’ve got our own lives and that’s kick. Because we speak probably every day.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yeah, twice a day, 3 times a day.
Kaye Scott: Yeah.
Barbara Turley: What would you say, what has been the hardest thing about being in business, being in a partnership together and business for you?
Kaye Scott: You know when we looked at the questions for today myself and Lisa look we have not had a fight in 15 years. Yeah we have not.
Barbara Turley: Is it the [inaudible 00:09:36]?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: That has been hard. It hasn’t been easy.
Kaye Scott: My first time was a nightmare.
Barbara Turley: There’s a lot of people who say, and a lot of business partnerships are like that, they’re nightmares.
Kaye Scott: Yeah they’re a nightmare. I think the fact that everything was in place this time around and even though the original business partnership was very short it was a disaster.
Barbara Turley: Wow so you’ve had the experience.
Kaye Scott: I had the experience and I think that everything this time you know proper partnership agreements, lawyers, everything right down to what happens if I die, if Lisa dies what happens. It’s all there and the rules and the ground rules are set from the beginning.
Barbara Turley: The rules of the game are set.
Kaye Scott: Everything from … Can you imagine in this industry who gets, you know do the family get free treatments, do they get … Everything, we noted everything down but no one thinks of those things and they’re the things that can cause so much grief.
Barbara Turley: Are you comfortable sharing at all some of the things that went wrong in the initial partnership? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’m just interested to see what [inaudible 00:10:34].
Kaye Scott: Basically we were very good friends and that was one of the issues. Two, we were at very different stages in our life and we had a different vision. I mean when I started business with this particular business partner and I still have the greatest respect for her still.
Barbara Turley: Are you still friends?
Kaye Scott: No.
Barbara Turley: Yeah that’s the sad part.
Kaye Scott: I think that it was some stage that you have to say well that’s it. It was [inaudible 00:10:58] a bit like a divorce, marriage proposal.
Barbara Turley: You got married quickly afterwards.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yeah.
Kaye Scott: I’m the rebound. I think that’s the problem though with businesses. I think [inaudible 00:11:10] and then the ground rules weren’t set and we started because we both had small children and we thought we could both work part time and this could be like a small industry. I could see the potential to grow it. She became unwell and didn’t want to grow it.
Barbara Turley: Your vision became misaligned?
Kaye Scott: Absolutely. Then Lisa was there I knew that she had the same vision as me. She had come from the same background. This was a person who was a nurse as well but I just think that the relationship was too close.
Barbara Turley: Lisa when you came and joined because often that could be, it’s different when you start out together but you came in to something that had already kind of been formed and the vision I guess was there. What was your vision? I mean did you come in and see that vision and say wow that is so aligned with what I’d love to do.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I think that I’m first of all very grateful that I was giving the opportunity to prove myself but then again I must have been a good employee to be given that opportunity. I guess we were lucky because at that stage we had this new fabulous piece of machinery and the business was pumping and we had already worked so hard but the end of the day we were exhausted but we could see the end result. I guess that was a taste of if you work hard your goals would be achieved. We were lucky in that respect.
Kaye Scott: I think we also had and I’ve said to Lisa from the very beginning you’re the boss now as well.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes.
Barbara Turley: Oh yeah there can be that feeling of oh I don’t really want to step up and say anything because I’m not really boss. [Crosstalk 00:12:38]
Lisa Sullivan Smith: We both bring separate things to the table.
Barbara Turley: That’s important.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes we both have great strengths together but also separately we align with each other.
Barbara Turley: What advice, I mean I’ve been trying to get this from a lot of my guests actually particularly on business partnerships and joint ventures and things like that. A couple of key tips that you would say to anyone out there thinking of a business partnership or a business owner who is thinking of a joint venture moving into that next realm.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I think you have to get really good advice you know the lawyers tag the contract and agreements setup, the accountant to understand basically the ins and outs of a business even though you think you know you don’t know. You need a good cash flow, you need to be backed by a good cash flow.
Barbara Turley: Usually so many businesses fail because of bad cash flow.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Absolutely. You have to understand certain things in business you know it’s easier never to discount but to add value to your business. You know set the ground rules on how we’re going to treat family and friends. Understand the importance of working together as a team and providing your staff with the environment that you want to work in.
Kaye Scott: Back to the point on cash flow, I think it’s really important too when you set a business up is to agree to a certain level of cash flow and what the results are going to be when to stop. I mean so many times we hear of people who their [inaudible 00:14:09] has gone off and they’ve lost everything, but I think you really have to have enough cash flow that you can see whatever your 12 month plan, your 2 year plan, your 5 year plan.
Barbara Turley: And what you’re going to do if it runs out.
Kaye Scott: Exactly and what the arrangement is.
Barbara Turley: If you have to dissolve the business what are you going to do.
Kaye Scott: If you have to dissolve the business what are you going to do and how much risk it is to each person. Because one person $50,000 may not be a risk to them but the person could be [inaudible 00:14:35]. I think that’s really why the ground rules are really important.
Barbara Turley: What I want to stress here for the viewers as well is something that you said Lisa, it’s the power of your team. There’s one thing I say is you can’t do this on your own, you need to have the proper lawyers, you need to have a proper accounting team, you need to pay for these things, they’re worth [crosstalk 00:14:54].
Kaye Scott: They’re expensive.
Barbara Turley: You have to factor it in. Before you start a business you need to factor this stuff in.
Kaye Scott: [Inaudible 00:14:59] anything. You have to [inaudible 00:15:01] for good advice. The other thing too which I’ll just say I think women in business [inaudible 00:15:05] very differently to men.
Barbara Turley: I’m interested to know your thoughts about that.
Kaye Scott: I think I will be standing talking to someone, a supplier buying $150,000 piece of equipment and if there’s any man in the room even though he’s got nothing to do with the decision, they will automatically talk too.
Barbara Turley: That’s infuriating.
Kaye Scott: It is infuriating but you have to get over it. Then women who are strong and once you have a mix of a very strong personality and we’ve got the reputation in business not [inaudible 00:15:35] not to our clients but as being very strong almost … What’s the word I would use? Like someone told me that I sent her a brutal email. No the email wasn’t brutal, the email was on the business side and you didn’t show up for an appointment or you cancelled at the last minute. It’s not acceptable. To me that is just a straight … If a man would have said that it wouldn’t-
Barbara Turley: There wouldn’t be a problem.
Kaye Scott: I think women are the worst enemies. It’s usually a woman that will do that.
Barbara Turley: There’s this whole thing at the moment actually I don’t know if you’ve seen this, it’s all over social media right now. Sheryl Sandberg who is the CEO of Facebook-
Kaye Scott: I love her but you can’t have it all.
Barbara Turley: Yeah she’s out there, I love her as well. She’s got this, what’s it’s called? You know the bossy campaign because girls are being described as bossy-
Kaye Scott: Bossy when they’re leaders.
Barbara Turley: Yeah. How do we solve this problem because it’s an unconscious bias then that we’re brought up with that as girls we’re afraid to say anything and we’re called men, we’re called like bulldogs.
Kaye Scott: That’s actually the reputation we have unfortunately but I don’t care.
Barbara Turley: Business is business.
Kaye Scott: Yeah and it’s exactly what she says you know we see [inaudible 00:16:42] in the playground, you know in charge. I often say that Lucy and our little girl is in charge and people say she’s bossy or could say she’s bossy but no she’s just a leader.
Barbara Turley: She’s stepping up.
Kaye Scott: She’s stepping up whereas if a boy does that it’s not a big deal.
Barbara Turley: There’s no big deal at all.
Kaye Scott: He’s captain of the football team or he’s this or he’s that.
Barbara Turley: It’s celebrated.
Kaye Scott: Yeah it’s celebrated yeah.
Barbara Turley: Actually I had a girl on the show a few weeks ago called Debbie Spellman. Debbie she deals in self-love and that’s her business, she’s a therapist. She sees problems all the time with women like quite qualified women and really women coming through who have very low self-esteem and self-worth issues that’s causing issues in their businesses then around how they make money because they’re afraid to ask. Discounting, you mentioned discounting, a lot of them were discounting because they’re afraid people won’t buy from them.
Kaye Scott: We look after very powerful women here and it’s amazing because a lot of people come here … Not a lot but it’s one of the reasons they come is to feel better about themselves. Often I say to them you can’t fix this unless you fix it here. These are really powerful CEOs of companies, lawyers, doctors, that really feel are very powerful, very intelligent women who feel they can’t ask, that they haven’t got the confidence.
Barbara Turley: Honestly it’s a problem. I mean I spent years in the corporate world so I know that I suffered … I’m a strong women but I was bullied, I was bullied in my job when I was in my 20s, very badly. I just can’t understand how I wasn’t able to say anything. I definitely got underpaid. I haven’t asked for it. It was things like that and I think our generation we’re the ones who are facing it massively because we’re entering in the realm of business and money and leadership in a big way. I’m hoping that our next generation-
Kaye Scott: Well I’ve got a 17 year old girl who I would hope, but you just don’t know but you’d hope that she watches myself who works and-
Barbara Turley: She’s watching television as well.
Kaye Scott: She’s also watching the Kardashians you know so there’s 2 different types here.
Barbara Turley: What I love about this discussion though is we’re having a discussion, you know you run a skin rejuvenation and laser clinic but yet we’re talking about the things that-
Lisa Sullivan Smith: We haven’t mentioned yet.
Barbara Turley: Yeah. It’s just not about what you do but even helping women. They’re coming in but there’s a whole host of problems there.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I feel like I’m a counselor. Every day I can answer any relationship problem.
Barbara Turley: You can see it all.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Even someone was expressing ways to celebrate her husband’s 50th birthday and she said she wanted to give 50 ways of why she loved her husband. I was like well why don’t you do a tree with leaves and then she said you know graphic arts, let’s just paint it. Every day we come up with new challenges and that’s all getting to know the client but there’s lots of low self-esteem in women.
Kaye Scott: The more successful they are the self-esteem is at the lowest.
Barbara Turley: That’s exactly what Debbie and I were speaking about. Just saying you think it’s the girls that are uneducated it’s women, all the spectrum of women are suffering from these problems.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Well fortunately or unfortunately they actually want to spend the money and they actually sometimes don’t even care how much the money costs. Because they think by fixing this fixes everything in life but sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.
Barbara Turley: I want to talk a little bit now about, I was really interested in business models. Because for me when I watch people starting businesses and getting the model around particularly in the beginning is what can collapse a lot of startups. Looking at what you girls have done, your business deals with the marketing, from customer service to the look and feel, everything to me anyway looks like a well-oiled machine. I’m interested to know like way back in the beginning, did you understand the importance of getting strategy right?
Kaye Scott: Do you want to answer? I think in the beginning when we opened it we had a very short term strategy so we didn’t think it through. One thing I would say because there’s so many clinics like this that are open, one thing I would say that has made us very successful is that we didn’t rush into anything. My strategy was or our strategy was one service we started off which was laser hair removal. Then we didn’t just have like we have now 20 services, so once we got that right, iron all the problems out that then went into the next service which was IPL and pelleve of skins. Then we took our time with that and then we got into injectibles.
Every 6 months or a year whenever we felt comfortable, once you had your own understanding of the services it was easy to add in. The biggest mistake we would make was strategically not … Was just to buy everything in one go.
Barbara Turley: Oh and try to be all things to all people.
Kaye Scott: All things probably which you can’t do. I would say from our strategy point of view in the beginning that’s [inaudible 00:21:40] and then really got everything perfect going to the next step.
Barbara Turley: It’s interesting you say that actually because another girl I had on the show [inaudible 00:21:47] a few weeks ago. She’s a marketing guru and she said the same thing. She said in order to become the go to expert in your industry you need to start out being the go-to in something really niche and very specific and then you branch out. Before you know it you’ll be the go to in the whole industry. That’s exactly what happened to you girls.
Kaye Scott: Again it’s a common denominator across the-
Lisa Sullivan Smith: It’s interesting though getting back to women in business and services that are provided. When Kaye and I in a male predominantly back then 15 years ago a male dominated field Kaye and I would be invited to conferences or dinners run by certain companies and no one would want to talk to us.
Barbara Turley: Really?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Because we were sort of [inaudible 00:22:29] they’re the nurses.
Barbara Turley: I was just going to say that you’re seen as nurses.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yeah we’re the nurses and plus female and plus we employed a doctor. Since then the doctor employed the nurses we’re moving the tables a bit. Moving forward 15 years everybody wants to talk to us because they want to discuss ideas.
Barbara Turley: Because you’re seen as leaders.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: They want to ask us all the time how do we do this, what do you think of this, what’s this and blah, blah, blah. It’s interesting.
Barbara Turley: They want to know the secret of your success.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Absolutely.
Barbara Turley: Because you have been massively successful.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes. We have to fight them off when we go for dinners.
Barbara Turley: How do you go from beginning to … How big is marketing in your business and PR and branding and stuff like that? She’s the bossy one.
Kaye Scott: Well I kind of look after the business and marketing side.
Barbara Turley: Well that’s interesting too.
Kaye Scott: Lisa does all the clinical, she does all the accounts and I do some clinical, well a lot but I look after more the business marketing. Obviously Lisa is involved with everything but [crosstalk 00:23:32].
Barbara Turley: The integration work.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes.
Kaye Scott: I think the biggest changes back when we started no one was really advertising so we were just print advertising. Then we rapidly, not rapidly but for 5 years it was all print, print. [Crosstalk 00:23:47] and we spent a lot of money but it worked. Then you think well it’s still not really working so then the next thing was obviously SEO and internet and websites.
Barbara Turley: Your website is fabulous. I like your website.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Thank you.
Kaye Scott: Thank you. We did that and next thing it was social media which is [crosstalk 00:24:06]. In the beginning we had our own PR agency and then [inaudible 00:24:14] print and we got such a strong relationship with print maybe we don’t really need it but we’ve just employed a PR agency, the audience agency to look after our social media because things are moving like it’s the YouTube are the next celebrities and the next experts and bloggers and [crosstalk 00:24:34].
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Plus we’re running our business and we haven’t got time to be doing all that because we are the business, working in the business.
Barbara Turley: You are the business. I mean and that is the challenge actually a lot of businesses face. Like when you’re so busy working in the business, how do find time to work on the business?
Kaye Scott: Well I try and allocate a certain amount of it time to do it and I think you may have to outsource. Everything is outsourced from an admin point of view. Everything from accountants to all that kind of financial side is all outsourced now so is the PR. Things like we have a small team but the team that we do have, like our practice manager also got a marketing degree so we try to cost scale. Our next challenge is social media.
Barbara Turley: Well I love the fact though that you’ve recognized-
Kaye Scott: We have to recognize it.
Barbara Turley: Well no I think the fact that you’ve recognized though that you need to do all these things to keep the business on track but also that you can’t do it all yourselves. You can’t because you’re so busy actually running this business that you need to outsource some of those things.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: At the end of the day we’ve got a family. That’s our other job, [crosstalk 00:25:42] unpaid work.
Kaye Scott: The other thing that’s frustrating about the new wave of social media is, and SEOs which is run by very young people. They’re quick and they’re challenging and searching for generation, female, male. Like our IT guy is 20 but he’s changed our business.
Barbara Turley: Has he?
Kaye Scott: Unbelievably. He’s very smart.
Barbara Turley: It’s worth taking on soon as you think oh he’s a bit young [inaudible 00:26:07].
Kaye Scott: Yeah but we have to get past that.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I find that very challenging, it’s really challenging. Because I’ll come in and they can chew gum and I think it’s disrespectful.
Barbara Turley: Oh it’s totally different though.
Kaye Scott: We just have to learn how to deal with it.
Barbara Turley: Did he create your app? Because I know you have the fresh look, fresh face app which I have on my phone.
Kaye Scott: That’s actually a company app that was developed by one of our suppliers but we’re going to do an app as well.
Barbara Turley: You’re going to do an app?
Kaye Scott: I don’t think an app’s the big all and end all but I do think-
Barbara Turley: I don’t think so I think it’s part of the puzzle.
Kaye Scott: Yeah it’s partial, yeah exactly.
Barbara Turley: It’s been a fun thing. That’s why I wouldn’t spend too much money on apps because a lot of people out there are spending a fortune getting apps.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: The other thing too within our industry it’s quiet confidential. We can’t field apps for other people to see so you have to be quite careful as to what we’re doing. Another thing would be through like social media where you can go to the famous hair salons and they can show they’ve got the it-girl or this celebrity and this person from Channel 9. No one wants to really-
Barbara Turley: [Inaudible 00:27:06]
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Well they do say for skin but they might be coming in for injectibles. It’s quite tricky in this particular thing.
Kaye Scott: We’ve got a strategy to do with that now but we can’t say what it is yet.
Barbara Turley: Watch this space.
Kaye Scott: Watch this space.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: To be continued.
Barbara Turley: I want to talk a bit about, because I think when I look at a business like this I mean I just think wow what a gold mine. The whole emotional trick is for people to buy are so easy because as women in particular like just to say we’re all trying to stay young. I want to talk a little bit, the tricky side of the business. How do … I don’t want to use the word lucrative but what’s the trickiest part of this business?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: It’s an expensive business to run. If I do a man, when he sits on my bed and looks he looks at Bondi Beach with the beautiful view and the lovely paintings and what have you, the first thing he says, “Gosh you must be [inaudible 00:27:55].” The product is expensive, the insurance for the doctors are expensive, the wages, the rent is expensive, workers’ compensation.
Barbara Turley: The local feel that you want to set.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: It’s a very expensive business to run. At the end of the day it’s-
Barbara Turley: Is there competition coming in? Is it rife?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Well yeah the competition is rife and there’s actually a place downstairs who does everything that we do but half price, more than half the price. But there’s no customer services, there’s no nurses, you’re not guaranteed to get the same person every treatment, there’s no medical follow up. Then often if I walk past I look at the girls they all look disheveled and there’s no pride in their work. That’s the difference between … A lot of our clients have been honest with us and said they have gone downstairs, they even tried the service because it’s cheap and everyone’s on budget and we understand that but they always come back.
Barbara Turley: You have to resist the temptation to go that route and to drop things because it’s not your value.
Kaye Scott: We will never.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: No.
Barbara Turley: I love that about this business. You stick to what your value preposition is to the market and the level of the market that you’re playing at.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Absolutely.
Kaye Scott: Like I always say we see ourselves as a premier brand, The Clinic. Louis Vuitton don’t drop their prices or discount their prices. I think we’re trying to compare apples to the apples.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: At the same time we’re not greedy. We understand that we’ve gone through the JFC, everyone losing their jobs. Our business didn’t suffer at all with the JFC, in fact it actually rose due to the JFC. Some women had to cut back on their [inaudible 00:29:34] so they couldn’t afford the treatments and then they would say I’ve only got $500 to spend, what can I have for $500. We can work something out, we’re not greedy women who say you’ve got to spend this, blah blah, blah.
Kaye Scott: We have a loyalty to our clients who have loyalty to us as well.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Some of our clients who have been coming since the doors have been opened and it’s extraordinary the loyalty they have for us.
Barbara Turley: I think the loyalty that you have built is probably one of the secrets of your success. As I’ve been calling all of my guests on the show, as savvy fem-entrepreneurs of the future-
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Oh I like that.
Barbara Turley: Is that good?
Kaye Scott: Love it.
Barbara Turley: What does the future hold for each of you? What’s your big vision for this business?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: I feel like I’ve still got few more years in me.
Barbara Turley: [Inaudible 00:30:20].
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Thank goodness I’m in the anti-aging business [inaudible 00:30:25]. I’ve got the enthusiasm but Kaye and I do have a few visions in the bank.
Barbara Turley: For growth?
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes for growth but it’s confidential. We’re always thinking. We don’t sit back and say we’ve done, we’ve made it, high five, it’s easy, we’re constantly thinking. We’re watching. We go overseas once a year, we learn from New York, Los Angeles, Paris, we’ve done it all. We’ve seen how they work. Then it’s interesting because often a company will bring out a guest from Los Angeles and then we go there we go oh that’s dirty or their cushion is not right.
Barbara Turley: That’s your opportunity.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: They’re walking around with big drinks in their hands and you just sort of think no, that’s why we’re successful. That’s because we don’t do that. We have a very high standard. I think with nursing you’re taught let’s say safety techniques, sterility, all these things that are embedded in our mind. I think that is one of the reasons why we’re successful.
Barbara Turley: I think that’s fantastic.
Kaye Scott: I think the reason we all keep going is [inaudible 00:31:33].
Lisa Sullivan Smith: It’s very social.
Barbara Turley: I know because when I see you girls, when I see in the shopping center or somewhere and you actually have such a laugh.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yeah we had a good time.
Kaye Scott: I would say [inaudible 00:31:43]. It’s a very cliché thing but we honestly even when I … I actually look forward to coming back because it’s completely different to my normal life as a mother of teenagers and you know all this. It’s a completely different life and my husband is like when are you going to stop working? I thought well to do what? To stay home with you?
Barbara Turley: Start playing golf.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: We have a really good work balance actually. We exercise and Kaye and I we say as long as we exercise we’re happy to do long hours. We find the time to complement our own personal life with our business.
Barbara Turley: You can support each other.
Kaye Scott: Yeah.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Yes. Our business, our job is social so everyday it’s meeting 10, 15 women with all different stories, celebrities, it’s girls who’ve come from [inaudible 00:32:38], girls who’ve come from [inaudible 00:32:39], you know international expats.
Barbara Turley: Yeah I saw that you had some international women.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: So many. It’s nice because you’ve got the relationship and often clients often says to me, gosh how did you remember that? Well I don’t know but I always remember, I find facts about everybody. It’s cool.
Barbara Turley: You know everyone’s dirty laundry I reckon.
Kaye Scott: Exactly. [inaudible 00:32:59].
Lisa Sullivan Smith: It’s all good. Everything is positive.
Barbara Turley: Girls that’s has been really fabulous. I mean just for 2 women, I love the partnership thing and that being in partnership that’s been so successful for so long it’s really gold.
Kaye Scott: It’s rare.
Barbara Turley: It is rare and it is really good to have you on the show.
Kaye Scott: Thank you.
Lisa Sullivan Smith: Thank you very much.
Barbara Turley: Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone for watching again for another week and remember that you’ll catch me later this week on my podcast on iTunes where I’m going to be giving you my key takers from today’s show. Also I’m going to be changing it up again next week. I’m actually going to be joined on the show by a man. I’m going to be joined by Thomas Castay and we’re going to be talking about how he created an award winning documentary out of thin air. See you then
Got something to add?