More than skin deep

Maureen Houssein Mustafa has built up one of the country’s leading independent hair and beauty colleges on the principle that in business, as in life, you get back what you give. By Andrea O’Driscoll.

Maureen Houssein Mustafa
developed her one-room
beauty college into
a $30 million company.

BORN INTO AN immigrant Turkish Cypriot family in the inner-city suburb of Redfern in Sydney, Maureen Houssein Mustafa has built up one of the country’s leading private beauty colleges. But she has never forgotten where she came from nor the importance of staying true to your values.

"The basic principles of being a decent person can be applied in the workplace," she said. "At the end of the day, if you’re a good person and you show respect to your clients and your staff, you will get that back tenfold."

Mustafa revealed an entrepreneurial streak at a very young age. "I came from a poor family and I left school at 16," she says. "But I was always a people person and fairly entrepreneurial. I was selling Avon products door to door at the age of 13. I couldn’t sign the documentation myself so I sold it under my mother’s name. I worked out pretty early on that if I went out in the rain, people would feel sorry for me and buy more."

After leaving school, she worked in the public service for 18 months before realising that it wasn’t for her. A big turning point in her career came when at age 20 she secured a job with the retailer Joyce Mayne. "My boss at that time gave me the kind of education that money can’t buy," explains Mustafa. "I still find myself quoting him sometimes. Just this morning I found myself repeating something he used to say: ‘I will never ask you to do anything illegal or immoral so I expect you to say yes when I ask you to do something. Never say no or I don’t know. I pay you enough to find out.’ He was a hard task master, but you learned so much."

Mustafa worked for him for five years before the idea for her first business struck her. "The nail business was just starting to take off back then," she recalls. "I would go and get my artificial nails done, and I thought to myself this can’t be that hard to learn. I did a two-day course and then sold my house and opened a salon. Within a short space of time, it grew to five nail salons, and then I sold the business."

Her next job was due to be a six-week stint at a full-service beauty salon with 70 staff. It turned into a longer-term position and pointed the way for her next business venture. "I was supposed to be covering for one of their employees for a brief period and I ended up staying for five years," laughs Mustafa. "We took it from $18,000 a week to $42,000 a week and it was there that I realised that training was the way to go."

Training in beauty therapies at the time was nowhere near the level it’s at now. The big international spa brands had yet to launch and standards throughout the industry were patchy at best. Mustafa’s idea was to launch a training college that would accredit beauty practitioners across a range of disciplines and she achieved it with the opening of the Australasian College Broadway in September 1994.

"We started with one room, ten tables, two staff and $1600," she explains. "Today we have a $30 million company, 78 staff and we will grow threefold in the next five years. I think we achieve that kind of growth because we’ve always been leaders and pioneers in beauty training."

Number of firsts

The list of firsts for the college is impressive and has continued to grow. It was the first independent college to get a government accredited nail course. It was the first beauty college in Australia to be included in the government’s VET FEE-HELP loan scheme, designed to assist students undertaking vocational education and training and cover the cost of their studies. It’s also about to become the first beauty college to offer child-minding facilities for its students.

And Mustafa hasn’t finished adding to the list of groundbreaking services yet. "We are currently a registered training organisation, but we’re in the process of putting in the paperwork to become a higher education institution, which would mean you could come here and do degrees," she says. "Within five to eight years, we’ll probably be the very first specialist university in the world for hair and beauty."

Mustafa is keen for her college to play an integral role in the wellbeing of the local community. "We now run around 20 courses and we are the largest college outside of TAFE in our industry," says Mustafa. "We’re also about to add fitness and childcare to our range. You’ll be able to come to us and train in those areas with articulation to university. But we wanted to give something back to the community too, so anyone over 50 will only be charged a nominal membership fee to use our fitness facilities. We also offer free haircuts. We have 66 stations here, so anyone can just walk off the street and have a haircut."

Giving back

Growing up in one of Sydney’s poorest neighbourhoods, Mustafa has sought to give back to the community. Last year she set up a mentoring program for troubled indigenous and unemployed youth in the area in partnership with the local police force and this year she is partnering with the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy (NASCA) to set up an Aboriginal youth training program.

"We have a trial happening with 12 students," she explains. "I grew up alongside indigenous people and the college has always worked with Aboriginal groups and local charities. We always do the hair and make up for the CanTeen formal, and it just breaks your heart."

The Australasian College Broadway currently has over 500 students. Overseas students are welcome, but the majority are local. Mustafa also hopes to introduce e-learning courses where possible. "E-learning is very big, but you can only do your theoretical blocks online, you’ll still need to attend the college for the practical blocks," she explains. "It takes a special kind of person to do it, rather than be taught face to face, but it is something we’re looking into and will launch in the near future."

Not surprisingly, the college’s achievements have also begun attracting the attention of industry award committees. "In the year 2000, we won Training Provider of the Year at the Australian Training Awards, which was just huge for us," says Mustafa. "After that, we were featured on the cover of Training Matters, which is a TAFE magazine. We were also finalists in the Telstra Business Awards last year."

But according to Mustafa the success of her business hasn’t changed her in the slightest. "This year we will have been open for 16 years," she says. "It’s been an amazing journey, but I’m exactly the same person as I was back when we started, with the same friends and even some of the same staff. My General Manager joined as a temp 15 years ago and our old receptionist is now the International Marketing Manager."

Looking after her staff is high on Mustafa’s list of priorities and a key part of her business strategy. "If I had to offer some advice to someone looking to start their own business, it would be that you need to invest in your staff because you need a good team around you," she says. "I’ve always treated people how I would like to be treated and I run an extremely family-friendly organisation. I like to give my staff a bit of flexibility because I’ve always found that people do the right thing if you give them a chance."

For further information visit: www.australasiancollege.com.au

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