Professional Beauty Solutions (PBS) is Australia’s most respected and trusted distributor of professional beauty brands to beauty salons, spas and clinics across the country. Building their reputation over almost two decades, they source the world’s most impressive and innovative beauty brands, and deliver them to salon, spa and clinic partners.
We sat down with Matt Williams, CEO and owner of Professional Beauty Solutions to discuss what you can expect when you partner with PBS:
Tell us about your business
My parents originally met Pauline Youngblood back in 1995 and after falling in love with her brand, convinced her to award them the Australian distribution of Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics. Nine years on, after they had built a loyal salon following, they understood that to grow the business they were going to need some help. In 2006, my wife and business partner, Lisa and I took over operations, growing the business from a team you could count on one hand to over 40 exceptional team members at our head office in Kurnell, Sydney.
Today, we distribute 11 professional beauty, skin and body brands that are leaders in their categories, throughout more than 2,000 salons, spas and clinics across the country.What products do PBS distribute?
As soon as we started to expand our offering beyond makeup, we became fixated on providing our salons with everything they need from one convenient supplier. Today, our salons trust us with offering the best in mineral makeup, skincare, tanning, spa body, hair removal, inner beauty nutrition and LED technology to satisfy their business needs. Our collective of world-class brands are chosen based on their efficacy, innovation, performance and profitability for the salon and unlike a typical wholesaler that might carry multiple brands and offer minimal support, we only select the best of the best within each category, providing a full service.
Our brands will not only deliver the results their clients are looking for, but also provide them with the support and education they need to grow a profitable business.What is your overall mission at PBS?
The question that we are constantly asking is, “How do we help our salon, spa and clinic partners become more profitable?”. That is our key goal at PBS, and is what drives our decisions when acquiring new brands and coming up with strategies to support and nurture our salons.
With more than two decades of experience behind us, and having bought, built and sold several businesses over the past 20 years, we understand the challenges that small businesses face, and know we can lead you on what we like to call, a pathway to profitability. We have taken all the experience, knowledge and the lessons we have learnt – also known as, mistakes – and channeled it towards doing whatever we can to make our salon business owners’ life easier, from the marketing tools and ongoing education to the business support we offer.
This year, I will be expanding on our vision by launching a new coaching platform for our salons, including live workshops on how to build a profitable, predictable business in 2018.Speaking of education, it is a fundamental key for any business’s success. What does PBS do to ensure their clients stay at the forefront of an ever-evolving industry?
Our industry is evolving rapidly, and salon owners need to stay current if they want to remain the trusted authority on beauty in their client’s lives.
Each year Lisa and I travel to international trade shows and conferences to make sure that we are staying ahead of what is happening in the industry. We share this information with our salon partners throughout the year through our educational Facebook Live sessions with guest speakers, annual education events like Beauty Expo and our own Passion to Profits roadshows, and hopefully along the way we also inspire our salon partners to grow and evolve their business to the next level.
Training and education is without question one of our crucial points of difference at PBS. To help our salons grow, we have employed a qualified team of Business Development Managers in each state who conduct monthly classroom trainings for each brand, as well in-salon focus training.Do you offer any incentives or rewards to support the growth of your salons?
Absolutely! Our newly relaunched PBS Rewards Program makes it much easier to leverage your buying power by pooling your rewards points when you stock more than one brand with us. By combining rewards from up to eleven brands – including wax and sugar – even as a small single operator, you can reach a reward status that might otherwise have been reserved for bigger salons. The more PBS brands you stock, the more support you gain! I think this is a rewards system that truly levels the playing field and is unlike anything else in the industry.What makes PBS stand out as a distributor in terms of the level of service you offer?
I think the greatest differentiator for us is our focus on supporting salons in becoming better business owners, carrying them to the top of their game. Most brands and distributors focus entirely on educating salons on their product’s benefits and how they can sell more. This is only one aspect of running a successful, profitable and predictable business, and a small fragment of what we offer. We have now developed systems for each aspect of your business, from daily sales tracking sheets to business health checks and workshops that address the financial foundations of the business. Our exclusive ‘Marketing on a Platter’ – where we deliver FREE monthly marketing sets for each brand – is just one of the ways we provide a service that cannot otherwise be found in this industry.As for the future of Professional Beauty Solutions…
Our mission drives our vision for the future of PBS! We know that over the next decade there will be much more disruption in our industry and we can’t be complacent, and we can’t resist change, but we will remain guided by our mission to make PBS salons, spas and clinics the most profitable in the industry.
