Here at DB, we’re all about helping women look and feel their best through effective, accessible, and trend-led cosmetics. In celebration of International Women’s Day this year, we speak to the inspiring female head of DB – co-founder Sharon Rechtman.
A mum of 2 and entrepreneur, Sharon dreamed up DB over dinner with husband Tony, in LA, more than 15 years ago. Sharon reveals what it’s like to run a successful business while taking time out for herself and devoting plenty of time to family.ON STARTING DB COSMETICS…
My husband Tony and I created DB to challenge the notion that affordable makeup can't match the quality of high-end counterparts.While living in the U.S., we noticed that LA women managed to look a million dollars wearing high street fashion, yet when it came to cosmetics, inexpensive usually meant poor quality. Something was missing. So, we actually devised our big plan on the back of a napkin over dinner: it was to create quality, affordable cosmetics that would rival or surpass high-end brands. When we moved back to Australia to launch DB, we only had 15 products and one staff member (Tony)!
Today, we employ over 100 people and are stocked in more than 4,000 pharmacies across Australia and New Zealand, selling over 3 million products each year.
A BIG INSPIRATION IN MY LIFE IS…
My personal Trainer Kirsty McDaide is my mentor. She is a holistic personal trainer, coach and has helped guide me through many of life’s challenges, giving me a fresh and well-balanced perspective. Her holistic website showcases the products she believes support a healthy and ethical lifestyle – including our brands.THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN MY CAREER…
Was being a working mum with young children. It was very hard to find a senior part-time role in IT. Once I secured a role, the next challenge was to find childcare. In those days, getting a place in childcare was as rare as hen’s teeth. And if I needed to work an extra day or stay late it was a mission to find childcare. And in those days remote working from home wasn’t an option. So, it was only with the help of the family and nannies that I managed to survive.ON BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY LIFE…
It’s extremely tough to balance work and family when you are in business with your husband. There is never a non-work moment; be it dinner, car or taking the dog for a walk, work comes up everywhere.Since family is so important to me and work never stops, I prioritise family and health making sure I schedule in family time as a non-negotiable. No matter how busy I get with work I will always be there for my family. I may miss the “nice to attend” occasions, but I’m always there when it counts.
ON HOW TBN IS LEADING THE WAY IN WORK FOR WOMEN…
TBN being a beauty business is very female-oriented. In our company, no one is discriminated against for age, ethnicity or gender. We support working mothers, and we equally value men and women of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. We are proud that our Senior Leadership team has a mix of both women and men.ON HOW DB IS CHAMPIONING WOMEN IN 2022…
Our products and how we develop new ranges is always with women’s needs in mind. We appreciate women have different budgets, but they don’t want to compromise on product performance. That’s why at DB, we offer affordable and effective cosmetics – and we strive to deliver a variety of shade ranges, especially in bestselling products.And this year, we have a new grey brow product launching for DB. This offers women who want to show off their grey hair a way to fill and shape their brows with a product that matches their hair colour. We always want to support women’s confidence.
ADVISE TO ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS…
Being a business owner is a 24/7 commitment. To be successful, you need to be passionate and driven and prepared to put in the hard work. You also need to have a broad skillset to run a business.While a great product and great marketing can get you started, there is so much more than that to running a successful saleable business. That’s why Tony and I work so well together. We each bring different, complementary skill sets.
ON STAYING MOTIVATED…
I am a driven person naturally, so motivation is never an issue. I look at the positives and find ways to make a difference. Opportunities excite me. I love to turn a challenge into an opportunity. For example COVID.The pandemic meant there were so many challenges to face, yet so many opportunities presented themselves. Despite the hardship of COVID, I am very positive and optimistic. We spend more time at home as a family and build stronger connections. Since previously I spent time spent on travel and entertainment, I was now able to dedicate more time to exercise, health and wellbeing. As a business, we learned how to be resilient and form stronger bonds as we worked together on overcoming the challenges of COVID. I’m proud to say that our business embraced the positives and grew over COVID as a result of our resilience and teamwork and family attitude.
