This year is already shaping up well for businesswoman Shahna Smith – originally from Broken Hill – and her Amplified Beauty brand, with the news she’s been asked to be one of the guest speakers at the prestigious Forbes Australia Women’s Summit in March.
Last year saw Amplified Beauty firm its position in the Australian market when it was given space on the Westfield Direct service, the online version of the massive Westfield Shopping Centre stores.
The deal with Westfield gave the fledgling brand a level playing field alongside some of the best-known cosmetic brands in Australia.
“Exciting is an understatement,” Ms Smith said at the time, before adding it was just the beginning and she was keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground for the time being, continuing her hard work in earnest – and it seems to be working.
The Forbes Summit is a live in-person panelled event being held at the ICC in Sydney, on March 22.
The first of its kind in Australia, it will feature female business leaders from across the globe, and the inclusion of Broken Hill’s Ms Smith as one of the panellists is confirmation of her arrival as one of the leading up and coming CEOs in the business world.
Ms Smith spoke to us about what being selected means to her, both personally and professionally.
“Our audience is just going to broaden. It is going to impact the business with further opportunities coming our way and just open doors for the business,” Ms Smith said.
“For me personally, it’s getting my story out there to a female audience. It is a female event tapping into our female empowerment and helping them feel included.”
Amplified Beauty will also be opening their own pop-up store in South Australia on iconic beachfront strip, the Esplanade in Glenelg.
The store is something Ms Smith claims could not have happened without the help of the First Nations Entrepreneur Hub – The Circle. And she is looking to help other First Nation entrepreneurs by offering them a space in her store too.
“I’m creating a space for other First Nations businesses to come in and get that opportunity as well.”
“It was a big commitment to make, I wasn’t sure at first,” Ms Smith said when we asked her how the store came about.
“I did some digital mock ups and showed The Circle,” she told us.
“And The Circle, being the lovely advocates that they are, showed Holdfast Bay Council and the council said they wanted to meet with me. So, I met with them, and they basically said ‘congratulations, we want you to have it’ [the shopfront].”
After a rapid-fire application, Ms Smith was given the green light and will receive the keys in the next week for an opening that she plans for Saturday, January 14.
“It all happened very quickly. We’ll open on the 14th if all goes to plan. I get the keys next Monday and we can start the store fit out. Everything’s here. Everything’s ready. We just got to make it look beautiful and get those businesses in.”
With foot traffic in the summer months peaking at over 100,000 per week, the idea is to remain a pop-up store through until April 30 and reassess then.
“Given everything else that is going on, and where that may take us, we are just looking at the summer months at the moment,” Ms Smith said.
With the new store opening just over a week, and a spot on the Forbes Australia Women’s Summit to look forward to in just a couple of months time, it is possible 2023 might be an even bigger year than 2022 for Shahna Smith and Amplified Beauty.
