These entrepreneurs have cracked the social media code to making millions
Find out how these Australian entrepreneurs leveraged their social media success into multimillion-dollar businesses.
Business
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Social media has levelled the playing field for small to medium-sized businesses in competing with large corporations for attention.
There has been an immense growth of businesses using social media to showcase their products and some of these companies are making millions within a few years thanks to the virality of the platforms.
Instagram and TikTok are the big players for these companies and are vital for marketing and boosting visibility.
On one side, there are the ‘influencers’ who have built an existing platform and personal brand they can use to build their own business venture, whereas, on the other side, some existing businesses are harnessing the power of social media and gaining their own following.
These are some of the top Australian businesses that have cracked the code.
Georgie Stevenson, QLD
Naked Harvest
Gold Coast local Georgie Stevenson began Naked Harvest in 2019 with her brother Cooper when she discovered her favourite supplement company she had previously worked with as an influencer had lied about its contents on the packaging.
After already having a connection with a reputable Australian manufacturer and food technician, the pair were able to get their product up and running with exponential growth in sales over four years.
Ms Stevenson said her background of being an influencer and having already built a solid community, gave her insight and knowledge of how to treat ambassadors.
“There’s a lot of influencers who try to start businesses who don’t necessarily succeed and I truly believe it’s because I had a lot of trust within my community and they trusted me and I’m quite transparent with everything we do,” she said.
In what was a big risk for Ms Stevenson and her brother, the pair who had started in their living room have now created an eight-figure business.
In just the last financial year alone, the company has had a 42 per cent increase and Ms Stevenson said with planned growth this will triple in FY24.
With a team of 30, Ms Stevenson said the company is focusing on stability, with in depth projections and monthly budgets.
“A big part of us is we want to make sure we have the products in e-commerce and in retail and they’re not cannibalising each other,” she added.
Naked Harvest is set to have quite a bit of growth in FY24 with the expansion in the retail market sending their product to two-to-four times the 150 existing stores they are stocked in.
However, Ms Stevenson said she is not looking to take the company off Australian shores any time soon.
“I really want us to be more available to our Australian community, and that’s what we’re doing soon with some really exciting retailers in some really cool locations.
I honestly just think we have so much more to tap into the Australian market, I think sometimes people underestimate it and they want to go wide not deep,” she said.
With its strong ambassador program which involves paid influencer partnerships with their products, Naked Harvest continues to have a strong presence on social media, helping to drive their consumer audience.
“These people are representing your company, so it’s really important to invest in the relationship and be about the relationship,” she said.
Instagram: Georgie has 408k followers, @nakedharvestsupplements has 160k followers
TikTok: Georgie has 93.4k, @nakedharvestsupplements has 20.7k followers
Ali Clarke, NSW
Bondi Blades & Bondi Beauty Distribution Agency
After spending $150 a fortnight on dermaplaning at a salon, Ali Clarke thought that there must be a cheaper, at-home alternative she could use to essentially ‘shave her face’.
Bondi Blades was born in 2019 and in what started as a money saving hack for Ms Clarke, has now turned into a multimillion-dollar company making waves on social media.
Ms Clarke began documenting her journey on TikTok quite early where she would test first products, design packaging and distribution plans.
“That’s how it really took off,” Ms Clarke said.
“People really resonated with it and they saw not only a need for the product, but the want to support a local Aussie business.”
From the first 18 months until now the company has grown 400 per cent and made just over $2.5m in the last financial year.
“It just wouldn’t have happened without the social media aspects, we were using influencers, and in lockdown we’d get someone from MAFS for example using our product, people would go crazy for it.”
As one of the only sustainable female face shaving products on the market, Ms Clarke said retailers were immediately interested in distributing the product and partnering with her business.
Bondi Blades revenue is projected to quadruple in the next financial year as they begin to distribute to Europe, the Middle East and America.
Ms Clarke does not employ any full time workers and rather contracts them out for various aspects such as PR, marketing, photography and graphic design.
“It’s a business that runs out of third-party logistics, everything is outsourced which just makes it so much easier and sustainable to run the business,” Ms Clarke added.
Ms Clarke and her husband have recently begun another business venture in creating Bondi Beauty Distribution Agency which helps other female founders get their products ready to pitch across the globe.
“We can help coach these brands, guide them without connections, and get them there in 12 to 18 months, so in a much shorter time frame.”
The agency currently has six clients and is expected to grow.
In terms of growth plans, Ms Clarke said they have more products that they have been testing such as an entire skincare range built around blades, shave gel moisturiser and face wash.
“Everyone [in Australia] at some point in the beauty space has heard of Bondi Blades and the influencers that use it are now organically sharing it because they love the product.
“But we will be doing more marketing and things with influencers for the upcoming expansion overseas.”
Instagram: @bondiblades has 12.7k followers
TikTok: @aliclarke82 has 24.5k followers
Bridey Drake, NSW
Night Sweet Thing
Before Bridey Drake became a TikTok sensation, she had the idea for a pyjama business which she started selling at her local markets on The Central Coast in NSW.
However, Covid-19 shut down the markets and as a last-ditch effort to sell her remaining product, she made a TikTok video selling her PJ’s for cheap, which amassed hundreds of thousands of views.
Ms Drake said not only was her business booming on social media, she was also creating her own personal brand and growing her own ‘fan base’.
“They go hand-in-hand, I love creating content and I love creating videos, and it just so happens that I also have a business that thrives on social media as well,” she said.
While the business is still in its infancy, Night Sweet Thing turned over $1m in FY23 with growth in revenue expected as they move into a much larger warehouse.
Christmas is the company’s busiest time of the year, with certain designs selling out in two minutes in 2022.
“We’re planning to release more collections and have more stuff available because in quite a few of the designs we do sell out quickly, so to be able to cater for more customers is our goal for next year,” Ms Drake said.
Ms Drake has also been looking into different avenues regarding getting the business in-store and not just online.
When speaking on the rapid success of the brand, Ms Drake said interacting with her customers in an online fashion about the struggles and joys of business has helped elevate the brand.
“People buy from people, people buy from people who they are inspired by and want to support you,” Ms Drake said.
Intertwining my personal life with the business has been the best advice I could give to someone because it’s really helped my business grow, and it’s changed the game.”
Instagram: Bridey has 775k followers and @nightsweetthing has 43.8k
TikTok: Bridey has 1.7m followers and @nightsweetthing has 18.9k
Ali Chebbani, NSW
Chebbos Burgers
In an effort to exercise his love for burgers and cash in extra pocket money, Ali Chebbani set up a pop-up burger business called Chebbos Burgers in January 2019.
Throughout the year Mr Chebbani did three pop up stores that were successful thanks to family, friends and community support.
However, as Covid hit, he said the opportunity to trade from home surfaced, and began selling burgers from his driveway every Friday and Saturday night, while also venturing to TikTok.
“I would do organic, fun videos of myself making burgers … the challenge or the trend that I started was making a burger every day until I got TikTok famous,” he said.
“And from there, both of them grew exponentially across the channel and the business where we were selling, around 50 burgers that first weekend to then 300 a day two months later”.
Now, Mr Chebbani has taken on content creating full-time, along with the burger business, racking up 1.1m followers and over 36m likes on TikTok alone.
Chebbos burgers operates every Wednesday to Sunday in the southwest Sydney suburb of Roselands, however Mr Chebbani revealed his first shop in Marrickville is just a few weeks away from opening.
During Covid times Mr Chebbani said he would be making $3000 a weekend, now however with just the single food truck, he has brought in well over $1m in FY23.
“That’s a combination of I guess, increased customers but also strategic pricing with more sides, loaded chips, package options, that kind of thing, now we’ve matured and been able to establish ourselves on that font,” he said.
With the new shop opening, Mr Chebbani is anticipating revenue to double current intakes, along with the introduction of new product variations.
With 18 employees at present, Mr Chebbani is expecting to hire another 10 casual employees, plus a full time manager and two supervisors.
Chebbos Burgers has got big growth plans in the works, including national and international expansion, as well as a second restaurant chain.
“I’m really working hard now to establish systems processes and supply chain so that when the time comes that we’re ready to go to Melbourne, or any other place in the country, we are able to,” Mr Chebbani said.
Mr Chebbani said the use of social media to grow the business was a “very organic funnel” and it works in growing his own personal brand which leads into his own business.
“It was like the perfect formula to ensure that people are engaged and following a story, but then also not feel like they’re being sold to. So there was enough value going both ways for people to remain tuned in.”
Instagram: @chebbosburgers has 29.5k followers
TikTok: @chebbo has 1.1m followers
Philip Kuoch, VIC
Goldelucks
Goldelucks came to rise thanks to their ‘exploding gift boxes’ which sold at a rapid rate during Covid when families and friends could not see each other.
Just two years after launching, the age of Covid hit and Philip Kuoch pivoted the Melbourne-based bakery business to the online space where they entered a market of edible gifting for those struggling with distance.
Mr Kuoch said that the business had been a hit on social media from the start, beginning with their first ‘golden’ doughnut they posted on Facebook.
“We slowly started building our name and then when Instagram became really popular, we became an Instagram bakery, and then when TikTok came out, that was kind of when we started, transitioning to the gifting space,” he said.
With a background in journalism and marketing, Mr Kuoch said he was constantly thinking of innovative ways to grow his business, and the experience gift boxes were the perfect product to get them to the top of a popular market.
“That’s where it all started, trying to think outside the box about how we can promote the business without having to spend too much money … that’s what prompted me and our business to really try social media”.
When the business began posting on TikTok they would hardly get orders outside of Melbourne, but soon enough their brand grew exponentially and were selling a gift box every 31 seconds.
In their first year of the online store in 2019, they made approximately $100 thousand in sales, and within a year Goldelucks had 1000 per cent growth to making $2m in revenue.
With steady growth in the last financial year Mr Kuoch said they have now purchased their own warehouse with a commercial kitchen and space, as well as a new office space.
“I think we’ve done a really good job transitioning from being a traditional bakery to e-commerce based, so we maintain our growth,” he added.
Goldelucks currently has 15 employees and has plans to open warehouses in each state for on demand gifting, as well as expanding their product range – specifically in the ‘exploding gift box’ area.
“We’re always looking for new ideas and new ways to innovate the gifting space, so keep your eyes peeled,” Mr Kuoch said.
Instagram: @goldelucks_au has 66.4k followers
TikTok: @goldelucks has 770.2k followers
Brooke Saward, QLD
Brooki Bakehouse
Brooke Saward started making TikTok’s in October 2020 about her ‘day in the life’ as a bakery owner because she was bored working alone all day.
What started as a hobby to keep Ms Saward entertained turned into an online sensation which grew her customer base ten-fold and generated over 34 million likes alone on TikTok.
Brooki Bakehouse in Brisbane was only founded in May 2022, but has made more traction than most bakeries in Queensland.
“I wasn’t really aware of the power (it had),” Ms Saward said.
“The first videos had like a million or 2 million views, and I thought, wow, that’s crazy, but it really didn’t mean anything to me until people were physically coming through the door saying, Oh, we saw you on TikTok, we wanted to come and support you”.
Since November of 2022, Ms Saward disclosed that revenue has grown 10-15 times, with 1000 cookies alone selling at approximately $5 in store every day.
In November, Ms Saward had one other employee and in the short span of 10 months the team has grown to 11.
Along with the store, Ms Saward has just opened a second production kitchen to handle the growing popularity of baked goods.
“There’s only so many people in Brisbane and so many people were commenting from different places within Australia and from overseas that I was like, well, if you can’t come to the bakery, how can the bakery come to you?”
After shipping orders nationally and selling out online, Ms Saward has recently started the process of shipping cookies internationally, launching one country at a time starting with New Zealand.
“It’s kind of a way for me to really navigate the amount of orders that we have.
We’re shipping so many cookies that we honestly can’t keep up if we did it any other way”.
Ms Saward said she is always looking for ways to expand the business and every decision she makes is justified by asking the audience.
“I’m thinking okay, if you’re discovering us through social media, how can you become a long-time customer and what does that look like and kind of shaping the business around that.
It really is a matter of very much listening to the market and saying okay, this is what you want, here it is,” she added.
Instagram: @brookibakehouse has 340k followers
TikTok: @brookibakehouse has 1.2m followers
David King, NSW
Sticky Australia
Serving up mouth-watering, handmade lollies, Sticky Australia started up in Sydney, in 2001. Founder of the artisanal confectionery shop, David King expanded the company overseas sharing his passion for sweet treats with the world.
But when Covid hit, it hit hard for Sticky Australia.
“So we were kind of about to go broke, but there has always been a theatrical aspect to what we do. With how social media has changed over the last five years … we thought maybe there’s an opportunity to leverage some of the theatrical nature of what we do and turn it into a live streaming and short-form video online,” Mr King said.
“At the same time, it was just to try and get us through the pandemic, so we started going live on Instagram and Facebook … it was pretty much an instant success.”
“We had 60 people watching, and then 100 people … at the height of the pandemic so March, April, May (of 2020) we had 20,000 people watching us make lollies on Facebook.”
Then Mr King’s daughter Annabelle King had the great idea of making a TikTok account for the business.
“The TikTok went really well and then we started doing YouTube, and now we are on Snapchat … we put content across a whole lot of different platforms and reach a whole lot of different demographics,” Mr King said.
“We continue to do live streams and all of the social media platforms are kind of an integral part of the business now.”
“Initially it saved our business from bankruptcy. But in the process we became probably 300 per cent bigger than we were before the pandemic.”
Ms King said social media became a great tool for Sticky Australia.
“What it can do for your business, at a very low investment entry point is amazing,” Ms King said.
Tiktok: @stickyaustralia has 7.4m followers
Instagram: @stickylollies has 566k followers
Kaine Vakai, NSW
Kaine Vakai Hair
Hairdressers and stylists have swarmed the TikTok space in the last year and have gained millions of views to showcase their business.
Kaine Vakai is just one of these creators taking advantage of the space after owning his Sydney salon for over four years, racking up over 140 thousand followers and over 4.5m likes on TikTok alone.
Mr Vakai said he was convinced by a friend in February this year to download TikTok and after one video went viral, every video for a while after that “popped off”.
“I have noticed that what sells on TikTok though is more drama … they want to see a massive transformation … people want to see a story,” he said.
Since focusing on social media, Mr Vakai said his business has grown exponentially with 80 per cent of their clients coming in from social media.
Mr Vakai said that from his second year of business, their revenue grew by 350 per cent, with most of this coming from their social platforms.
“It hasn’t just grown within our salon though, it’s growing for me to be able to actually launch education and for me to grow and have sponsorships with businesses and things like that.”
Mr Vakai and his team have also introduced a separate payroll for employees that use social media to promote their own personal brand and Kaine Vakai Hair.
“If you create social media and you post a certain amount we pay our staff for it because we know how much it grows both ways, it’s now a part of a commission incentive payroll for us,” he said.
As of now, Mr Vakai does not take any customers and has turned to doing masterclasses around the country and internationally.
“I would never have been able to sell a masterclass ticket without social media, that’s being plain honest and simple”.
Starting in November, Mr Vakai is also launching online education and has already got 955 people subscribed to a $30 a month channel through Instagram (who take 30 per cent of the subscription revenue) and has already generated over $28 thousand in the last month.
In terms of further growth Mr Vakai said there are a lot of plans in mind including more masterclasses, branding supplies for the hair salon as well as collaborating with global brands to boost the business name.
“So it will all really help kind of get me more recognised globally for when I launch, say next year to do my education over in the US and stuff,” he added
Mr Vakai said the one thing he always says in his masterclasses is to do social media.
“It’s a thing that you have no choice to do, it’s a part of your business now.
“The way to build your social media presence is to start small, don’t go and look because a lot of people look at a lot of other people and then they get overwhelmed and they’re like, where do I start?”
Instagram: @kainevakaihair has 64k followers
Tiktok: @kainevakaihair has 142.8k followers
Bethany Walker and Sean Meyer, WA
Leelo Active
Bethany Walker and Sean Meyer were at a crossroads after returning to Perth from the UK in 2019, and took the risk of entering the saturated active wear market.
Running the business out of a spare bedroom, the brand began to cement its place in the industry and hit the yoga and pilates market hard on social media.
Ms Walker said when they figured out “who they were” as a brand, that is when the products started to take off.
“(Leelo Active) is the girl that wakes up in the morning and grabs her coffee or matcha latte, goes to pilates and sees her friends for a coastal walk after and that is really who we are.
“It’s that piece that you chuck on in the morning, that you can work out in but you can also wear during the day and style it up and wear it out,” Ms Walker said.
According to Ms Walker, Instagram has had the biggest impact on the brand, with the addition of TikTok and Facebook advertising.
“We now actually work with a team of girls that do [Facebook advertising] in Sydney, which we have seen massive growth from,” she said.
“It’s like combining the organic strategy and the paid strategy together, and that’s really what snowballs things, that’s worked really well for us,” Mr Meyer added.
Leelo Active has had unprecedented growth since launching four years ago and Mr Meyer said they had quadrupled revenue growth each financial year.
“We probably did somewhere around $60-70 thousand, the year after was somewhere around $300-400 thousand and the third year it was about $1.2m.”
In FY23 the business hit approximately $4m in sales and in the next financial year they are forecasted to hit between $8-10m.
‘We’re really trying to get out of that seven-figure range and really crack into the eight-figure market,” Mr Meyer added.
Leelo Active has just started rolling their product out to female curated fashion website, Stylerunner which have 22 stores in Australia and two in New Zealand, as well as entering a deal with The Iconic.
However, Mr Meyer and Ms Walker said in the next year or two they are hoping to expand internationally.
After continuing to harness the power of social media to showcase the brand, Ms Walker said word of mouth and building a community is just as important.
“A lot of people are so focused on social media and they’re posting all the time trying to get traction, but I think for us as well, we’ve really tried to build a really strong focus on community … that’s something that we’ve really leaned into,” she said.
Instagram: @leelo.active has 57.2k followers
TikTok: @leelo.active has 5462 followers
Jason Daniel, QLD
LSKD
Logan-based active wear business turned global sensation, LSKD is consistently smashing sales goals and expanding every year.
Founded by Brisbane dad, Jason Daniel, LSKD or Loose Kid strives to encourage its customers to improve their life one per cent every day.
The company has skyrocketed to making $76 million a year, selling active wear worldwide.
LSKD head of content Matt Kirby said social media has been an integral part of creating brand awareness and growth for LSKD.
“It helps us with our story telling and promoting our brand’s mission and values,” Mr Kirby said.
“We think of our Instagram feed … as kind of like an online look book. We use our Instagram to showcase all of our products and what we have coming to really kind of like show who we are as a brand, not just our products but who we are behind the brand and show our personality through our social media accounts as well.”
Using a suite of social media platforms, LSKD is able to showcase the brand to a wide audience.
Mr Kirby said there has been a big correlation with the implementation of social media and the growth of the brand as a whole.
“Our social media has definitely over the last few years … and a lot of our awareness for new collections and new products comes from social media,” Mr Kirby said.
“So it is definitely a really powerful tool for us when it comes to promoting … as our social media following getting bigger so does the brand, which is a great thing.”
Instagram: @lskd has 490k followers
TikTok: @lskd.co has 336.7k followers
Ebany McLees and Olivia O’Neill, VIC
Ellore
Ebany McLees and Olivia O’Neill refer to their Ellore hoodies as the “bread and butter” of the company and have had large online growth in their brand since launching in March 2021.
The girls decided to start driving social media for their ethically-made, staple clothing brand early, and one of their first videos they posted on TikTok went viral before the product had launched.
Ms McLees said while they had a “crazy amount of people” on their mailing list thanks to the virality of their hoodies in particular, they realised they needed to not fall in a trap and nurture and build their community.
“We really took social media for our launch and used it as best as we could, and we could really credit social media to most of the success for a lot today,” Ms McLees said.
Ms O’Neill said it was important for them to harness both Instagram and TikTok to show multiple sides of the business.
“Instagram is the highlight, it’s the aesthetics and everybody wants to see the pretty side of your business. TikTok is the disasters … your crappy little warehouse that you’re running from your home … it’s the ugly side of your business and people appreciate that,” Ms O’Neill said.
Ellore has had over 80 per cent growth and in FY23 making $541,000 and becoming a seven figure business.
“We’ve had a really good trajectory, and we’ve been on a good incline with our sales and our income and everything.
“Ebany and I have been able to quit our jobs and take salaries,” Ms O’Neill added.
Ms McLees also said that the business has had four or five months of back-to-back record months.
The Australian made products are manufactured in Melbourne and Brisbane, and since starting from their bedrooms, Ellore has two spaces now to continue their growth.
The girls have plans to open a larger warehouse space, as well as grow their three person team, but looking long term they want to break further into the overseas market.
“Our main goal and focus is to become the world’s best hoodie. Our hoodies and fleece wear is our bread and butter, it does so well even through the summer months,” Ms McLees said.
“So we want to continue to try and penetrate overseas as much as we can through the summer here.”
Instagram: @ellore.co_ has 38.8k followers
TikTok: @ellore has 134.4k followers
Sarah Forrai and Lewis Battersby, NSW
Contour Cube
The success story of Contour Cube began when Sarah Forrai was introduced to ice facials by her mum. Grabbing ice cubes from the freezer, Ms Forrai and her mum would attempt to de-puff their faces before the ice would melt in their hands. Ms Forrai couldn’t believe there wasn’t a product on the market to help make ice facials easier.
So with the help of her partner Lewis Battersby, and the 3D printer she conveniently gifted him, the Contour Cube was born. Beginning in 2021, the Contour Cube sold out immediately when it first launched with TikTok quickly becoming the primary marketing tool for their product.
“When we launched the product we didn’t really expect to get the engagement that we got, we originally wanted to just use it to test the demand for the product. But our first Tik Tok was already generated sales,” Ms Forrai said.
“By the third video that we posted about it we went viral and sold out of the first couple of contract units.”
“We weren’t just trending in Australia, we were trending around the world. So it was really cool for a small business to be trending in the US and be getting all these US sales from day one.”
“[Now] we try to post at least once a day, organic posting does really well for us.”
Ms Forrai said starting up a small business during the height of COVID-19 brought it challenges.
“It was pretty hectic, everything was a lot more expensive, like getting stock to Australia was expensive, and getting the product out to customers took a lot longer. So it definitely did buff out timelines,” Ms Forrai said.
“But I guess everyone was kind of on Tik Tok at the time, so it was a really great place to launch a brand and product because there were so many eyeballs on the platform.”
“It was a really great way to drive traffic and online sales.”
“We actually made $1.6 million for the last financial year … we have also had 400 per cent growth every year.”
Having had incredible success on TikTok, Ms Forrai and her partner Mr Battersby went onto Shark Tank with the Contour Cube having positive reception. The team’s latest “wow” moment came from Kendall Jenner adding the ice facial tool to the 2023 Kardashian and Jenner Holiday Gift Guide.
“We wanted to post about this unicorn moment on Tik Tok and it went viral, it hit 30 million views,” Ms Forrai said.
“Anytime a mental moment like Shark Tank or Kendall Jenner’s post happens we’re like “okay we’ve got to share this”.”
Instagram: @contourcube has 62.3k followers
Tiktok: @contourcube has 395.1k followers
Cynthia Litster, NSW
Miss Customs
From a hobby for passing time during the pandemic lockdown, to a cool, unique product TikTokkers rave about, Cynthia Litster certainly knows how to jazz up a pair of kicks.
Painting pairs of shoes by hand, Ms Litster wanted to share her creations with the rest of the world, and began posting on TikTok and Instagram under her account name, Miss Customs.
“I was posting for like two to three months and only getting two views … and then one day I woke up and my Instagram was blowing up, I was so confused. I checked on TikTok to find one of my videos had reached four million views,” Ms Litster said.
And it only went up from there, with the Miss Customs TikTok account jumping to over 200,000 followers. Ms Litster said she was getting hundreds of shoe orders each week, hiring her sister and friends to share the workload.
“It was all super cool because I didn't have to pay a cent for marketing, it was all free. There were no ads, it was all organic. Just people being really interested in the product,” Ms Litster said.
“Eventually, I was getting up to six figures in sales all thanks to social media and organic sales.”
Ms Litster said she has now transformed her business by running activations and events. Teaming up with Nike, Ms Litster has had the opportunity to customise shoes for the Matildas, and the Opals.
“I prefer to do [activations] because I am also juggling opening up my own bar in Darlinghurst. The skills that I have learnt from Miss Customs have been transferable and have helped me to blow the bar up on social media as well. I am still doing customs but it is a bit more focused on activations and bigger scale events,” Ms Litster said.
Instagram: @misscustoms has 8007 followers
Tiktok: @misscustoms has 289.7k followers
Kunti and Ramana Benson, QLD
Lahana Swim + Active
Lahana Swim started on a night out in Bali where Ramana Benson and her sister Vrindi met a swimwear manufacturer who they began to work closely with to design their first swimwear collection.
The sisters entered the market as one of the first “cheeky” swimwear brands, where the space was highly dominated by “surf” style bikinis.
Ramana said when getting ready to launch the brand, both her and Vrindi focused their time and energy into Instagram and creating content from their Gold Coast home.
“We just went hard on social media, which was quite easy back then, you didn’t have to really pay to be seen much and everyday girls in the community came around and we did little shoots with them, that spread the word,” Ramana said.
Vrindi was an original founder with Ramana before stepping out which led to their other sister Kunti joining the team as a co-owner, bringing her active wear brand with her to merge the two.
“I think the girls hit the market at the right time,” Kunti said.
“It was the start of being able to promote freely on Instagram and having an audience there, and that paired up with the birth of Shopify, so it made it super accessible and easy to develop the brand at that particular stage.”
Kunti said the success was “quite immediate” due to the different style they were offering with Lahana Swim gaining 500,000 followers on Instagram alone.
“We’re now proud to say that we’re a multimillion-dollar brand, and that’s through years of hard work, but we’ve definitely seen the market shift and change in the last few years with upcoming new competition, the saturation of the market, increased marketing costs and Covid-19.”
However, while Ramana said they are on track this financial year to increase growth, it had been slowing since Covid times.
“Covid was a really big boom for us because a lot of our customers got payments and now coming into inflation and an economic crisis, it has been harder to catch our sales,” Ramana said.
Lahana Swim has partnered with other businesses such as Beginning Boutique to stock their products which has assisted in their growth.
Ramana and Kunti said they had big growth plans including expanding their international audiences, expanding to wholesale, as well as offering their customer base more variety of products.
“We’re definitely looking, as part of our expansion in the next few years, to move to not only exist in the online space but to potentially open up a store ourselves,” Kunti added.
Kunti said that while they have a following on TikTok, they put the majority of their effort into their success on Instagram, and are continuing to keep up with the changing landscape.
“Engagement has changed, the way people interact with social media platforms has changed what they require from brands on different platforms has transformed as well.”
“For example, on TikTok people want to see more real life, behind the scenes related content, and Instagram, I think still very much the place to show your more high-end content like your campaigns that you invest the money into.”
Instagram: @lahanaswim has 472k followers
TikTok: @lahanagroup and @lahanaswim has a combined 15.13k followers
Originally published as These entrepreneurs have cracked the social media code to making millions
Share tips: stock market experts take a stick to NAB
National Australia Bank and Domino’s Pizza Enterprises feature strongly in new share market buy, hold and sell recommendations.
Don’t spend $85k on two degrees that won’t get you a job
HECS is ‘good debt’, Barefoot Investor tells a mother who paid off her struggling son’s $85,000 bill because he was unable to find a well-paying job or save for a house.
Market Trump bump a US-only response, so look abroad
Evidence shows Australian investors have been pulling back from US markets but if they want to cash in on a Trump presidency then they are moving in the wrong direction.
City’s chance to shine as stock pickers come to town
He was the first presenter at the very first Sohn conference in 2016, and now Adelaide’s David Prescott is hoping to put his city on the funds management map.
Don seeks new slice of life
What’s next for Brisbane pizza king Don Meij who announced this week he was leaving the Domino’s fast-food empire he built into a $4bn colossus over more than 30 years?
Woodside’s climate ‘lightning rod’ close to completion
Woodside is under pressure to show it can guarantee shareholder returns while investing in growth, with its $18bn Scarborough LNG project set to come online in 2026.