Lawns and lasers, privets and pedicures … it’s all in a day’s work for business owner Bev Courtney.
While most of us struggle with just one set of deadlines, Bev owns no fewer than five different companies. There’s Grace’s Glory Garden Renovations, her landscaping and maintenance business. Grace Skin and Wellness. Lueur House, where the accent is on medical aesthetics. Money to Blow, her dry bar. And Body Lab.
They may all seem very different, but to Bev there’s a clear golden thread linking each one of her entities. Beauty. Whether she’s beautifying people’s homes or making them look – and feel – more beautiful, she can’t resist the allure of aesthetics.
But how did a former housewife go on to become a thriving entrepreneur? It all started back in her childhood, Bev explains. “My father could sell ice to eskimos. He had an incredible entrepreneurial brain, and used to discuss his businesses with us,” she recalls. Clearly, he passed his acumen onto his daughter … at 15, Bev was selling up a storm at the Clinique counter in Edgars, by 19, she had her own company printing promotional material. And, after a brief stint in IT sales, she moved into the fast-growing cellular industry aged 20.
Bev relished the interaction with people that came with each role, but put her career on pause for seven and a half years while she moved to the United States with her husband-to-be. “We got married, bought our first house, became parents and happily moved back to South Africa. Then, after raising our three kids until the youngest was about to start pre-school, we realised our original intention to have six children was madness!” she laughs. There was another realisation, too. By now, thirsting for adult company, Bev decided she was ready to go back to work. The question was, what to do? Since her youngest was still a baby, Bev wanted a position that offered her flexibility and allowed her to spend time with him – and so she thought about turning her love of gardening into a money-earner.
Bev had discovered this love while living in the United States. As a green card holder, she was unable to work, and so she had turned her energies into transforming her garden. “I love making something out of nothing, creating beauty,” she says. That philosophy informs her approach – she’s particularly enthusiastic about gardening from seed, and has a knack for taking what’s there and turning it, Cinderella-style, into something magnificent. After helping some friends transform their gardens, and placing a few hundred flyers in some friendly northern suburb shops to get the word out, Grace’s Glory’s reputation for personal service and beautiful, healthy gardens grew by word of mouth. The company now offers both landscaping and maintenance services, employing around 45 staff members and operating a small fleet of pretty, pastel-hued bakkies.
With Grace’s Glory running smoothly and growing at a steady pace, Bev wasn’t looking for new opportunities – but when the beautician she had visited regularly for years announced that she was retiring home to Scotland, and asked if she would like to purchase the salon, she couldn’t say no. “I had always loved having manicures and facials. I felt so wonderful and full of confidence after each treatment. I thought that everyone deserves to have the same feeling,” she muses.
Demand from clients led her to establish Money to Blow, initially a blow dry bar concept which has extended its offering to include cutting, styling and treating ethnic hair, along with a hugely popular drop-off wig service. Meanwhile, Lueur took her interest in aesthetics and wellness – the fastest-growing segment of the beauty industry – to the next level. “I’m just fascinated by what we’re able to achieve with the latest advancements,” she says, pointing to the treatments offered by the clinic, such as Broad Band Laser (BBL), electro-stimulation, radio frequency, injectables and carboxy therapies, along with innovative, non-invasive techniques such as Perceptive Touch and Buccal Massage. This led, rather naturally, to opening the Body Lab, where the focus is more on therapies targeting body renewal such as Wood Therapy, an ancient technique which has been reinvented in South America as a therapy for cellulite reduction and body shaping.
Bev admits that running each of these businesses can be stressful, particularly since she handles admin and accounts for each, too – crucial functions which she admits are not her forte and consequently feel like ‘work’. Then there are the daily struggles, like dealing with staff issues and handling the economic pressures that seem part of our day-to-day since Covid. “I’m especially proud that we have been able to keep all of our staff, in spite of the challenges that lockdown presented. Several of our Grace’s Glory clients valued our maintenance staff so much that they even paid for maintenance when lockdown prevented us from serving them,” she says.
This is where her business savvy comes in to play. Bev learned how to ensure that one business funds the other, keeping everything going. Her innate resilience helps, too. As she says, “When you are responsible for the livelihoods of more than 65 staff members, you have no choice but to be tough.”
She says that, although entrepreneurship can be humbling at times (“you never know what’s going to happen next”), and in spite of difficulties that often accompany owning a business, she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Being a business owner is such an empowering experience. My staff are my family, and I love being able to provide for people.”
Does that mean that more businesses are on the cards? “No,” Bev laughs. In fact, she’s looking forward to taking a slower pace in the near future. Having recently purchased a fixer-upper on a large stand, she’s excited about bringing a touch of beauty to her own life, and her plans now include developing an orchard and greenhouse on the property, and generally “pottering more”. “Our plan was originally to downscale, but I found that it wasn’t enough for me to focus on my client’s gardens! I need my own garden to play with.”
Details: Grace’s Glory Garden Renovations @gracesglorygarden; Grace Skin and Wellness @graceskinandwellness; Lueur House @lueurhouse; Money to Blow @moneytoblow.sa
Bev’s tips for entrepreneurial success
- Love everyone, trust no one. Remember that, when it comes to doing business, a handshake is not good enough. Never leave anything unwritten or undocumented.
- Be prepared for hard work. People only see the glamour of entrepreneurship, not the hours you’ve had to put in at night and over weekends.
- Surround yourself with a reliable team. Build a hierarchy so that your staff know where to take queries.
- Make sure you have good systems in place.
- Give back to society.
Text: LISA WITEPSKI
