A BRIGHT SPARK
When former nurse Alison Egan launched her side business four years ago, it was simply that: a side business. Now the 24-year-old is turning her mobile teeth-whitening enterprise into an empire.
A mobile teeth-whitening enterprise turns to franchising.
“W e literally started with nothing, I had no money to invest, I had absolutely nothing. Now we’re the largest teeth whitening company in Australia.”
From humble beginnings to national success, Sparkling White Smile founder and director Alison Egan has seen a lot in her four years of business operation.
The bubbly Sydney native launched her mobile teeth-whitening venture as a side business to complement her work schedule, before consumer demand took over.
“I was doing nursing during the day and teeth whitening in afternoon and into the night. Following that, I was so busy that I had to quit my full time job. It was a big step, but I quit and within two months I had my first employee,” Egan says.
Fortuitous timing and a model reliant on consumer convenience had placed the young businesswoman at the forefront of the booming $3 billion global teeth whitening industry.
As the brand grew, Egan found herself struggling to take on the immense demand alone, prompting her to recruit additional staff members, resulting in 10 hires in just five months.
Business was booming and growth was rapid, however Egan admits it was the helpful, albeit forceful advice of an accountant that inspired her to head down the franchise path.
“I was going to go into teeth-whitening training as my next step because I had so many people asking me ‘Can you teach me how to do it?’ I went to a lawyer to write up a training program, but when I met with my accountant, the accountant said to me ‘You have such a good business, I don’t know what you’re doing, it is stupid going into training – you need to franchise this company’.”
Following the encounter, Egan gave herself 12 months to research, develop and implement an effective strategy for franchise growth, focusing on providing an affordable platform for young women to enter business ownership, before returning to the accountant.
“We sat down and did the franchise agreement together, and due to my industry (the beauty industry) we focused on the management of younger girls coming through and buying franchises,” Egan says.
“We aren’t going to have millionaires buying the franchises, so we had to understand that there is a cut-off point for who was buying these franchises.”
FAST START
With the backing of a strong franchise agreement, Egan set to work on launching the model, starting first with internal recruitment.
“I have about 29 staff working for me across Australia. I offered every single one of them their own franchise because I believe if they are good enough to work for me, they are good enough to run a franchise. I only took on people who had that entrepreneurial mindset.”
Since launching the model, four of Alison’s staff members have made the move to franchisee, with another agreement signed in Adelaide, marking the first external recruit for Sparkling White Smile.
Egan admits, however, an immersive and in-depth employee to franchisee model would be favoured moving forward.
“With the Adelaide franchise, I’ve learned my lesson in that perhaps I should have them work for me for three months prior to engaging in franchise negotiations. The reality is that someone can come across as a perfect fit for the brand, but as soon as they get into the business it can become a negative experience.
“The ones who have worked for me, the franchise agreement was so much easier to sell because they already know the know the brand, they already know the systems and they already know me as a person.”
Prospective franchisees are offered a non-exclusive mobile agreement, whereby they purchase the Sparkling White Smile brand collateral and a postcode in which to operate with first preference, allowing the franchise network to work cohesively to cover all bookings.
Egan is determined to continue the brand’s strong growth trajectory, earmarking a number of franchise locations as critical to Sparkling White Smile’s expansion strategy.
“Obviously, we have the desire to go international, but we’re focusing on Australia first. As we continue to grow, I’ll take on an advisory board to help direct our future expansion plans,” she says.
“We’re very early days, we get around 50 franchising inquiries a day. I went from five clients a week to averaging nearly
3000 clients a week.
“We’re in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast with the aim of selling 500 franchise locations in Australia.”