{"id":40810,"date":"2023-10-20T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/frank-body-co-founders-jess-hatzis-and-bree-johnson-on-how-their-side-project-became-a-multimillion-dollar-success-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:10:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:10:08","slug":"frank-body-co-founders-jess-hatzis-and-bree-johnson-on-how-their-side-project-became-a-multimillion-dollar-success-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/frank-body-co-founders-jess-hatzis-and-bree-johnson-on-how-their-side-project-became-a-multimillion-dollar-success-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Body co-founders Jess Hatzis and Bree Johnson on how their “side project” became a multimillion-dollar success – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Serial entrepreneurs Jess Hatzis and Bree Johnson say they\u2019re looking forward to the day where \u201cfemale entrepreneur\u201d becomes an outdated phrase and women business owners are recognised simply for the hard work they\u2019ve done to build successful businesses.<\/p>\n

Hatzis and Johnson, who co-founded coffee-based skincare brand Frank Body with three others and also created advertising agency Willow and Blake, have been awarded the 2017 Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award in recognition of their vision as Australian businesswomen.<\/p>\n

The award honours the contributions of businesswomen under 40 in tribute to the \u201cGreat Dame of Champagne\u201d Madame Clicquot, who took over the Clicquot House business at the age of 27.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s shortlist featured a who\u2019s-who of top entrepreneurial minds in the technology, design and consumer goods sectors, including\u00a0the likes of young rich-lister and Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins and The Daily Edited creator Alyce Tran.<\/p>\n

Hatzis and Johnson\u00a0told SmartCompany<\/em> this morning that while they talk \u201call the time\u201d about how Australia should foster more women entrepreneurs, a balance does need to be struck to ensure business founders are recognised for their strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a really interesting topic \u2014\u00a0Bree and I spend a lot of time talking to each other about this,\u201d Hatzis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s about celebrating women\u2019s success while not segregating women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to seeing a day where we\u2019re not \u2018female entrepreneurs\u2019,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been really lucky because we\u2019ve been recognised for the hard work that we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winning duo say that the path to running not one but two successful local businesses kind of snuck up on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started Frank it was always considered a side project, but you find yourselves in these positions sometimes,\u201d says Hatzis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a number of reasons: for Bree and I, we were looking for the creative challenge of owning the project from start to finish. Our co-founders were really interested in the product side of things, and it all came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Body recorded revenue of $14 million in the 2014-15 financial year and the company told SmartCompany<\/em><\/a> in 2015 it was on track to more than double that figure.\u00a0But throughout this time Hatzis and Johnson already had enough fully fledged business on the go, in the form of design and editorial agency Willow & Blake.<\/p>\n

They launched the content agency in 2011 and have since worked on projects for clients like Grill\u2019d and Elle MacPherson.<\/p>\n

Time management between the two businesses was naturally a challenge, but Johnson says that is always a pressing issue for any self-funded business. She says the biggest hurdle was finding people to delegate to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a constant issue \u2014\u00a0a big thing for us is that [Frank] is a self-funded startup, and what we did have was our time. Learning to let go was a really big challenge, [as was] learning when to bring on external resources,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

When it comes to working out the nuts and bolts of the business, from manufacturers to partners, the internet gave a lot of assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of our partners \u2014\u00a0manufacturers \u2014\u00a0we Googled a lot of things, to be perfectly honest,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

The next 12 months will be jam-packed for both businesses, and Hatzis says there are currently plans to \u201cbroaden the scope\u201d of the Willow & Blake business.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Frank, we\u2019re lucky to essentially be running a full service agency,\u201d Hatzis says of controlling the brand and its messaging from start to finish.<\/p>\n

She says the team is looking to push the Willow & Blake business more into the area of \u201cgeneral artistic direction\u201d on projects.<\/p>\n

While the pair say they haven\u2019t had any formal mentors over the years, it has helped that their social networks are full of other business-focued types.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think we definitely do \u2014\u00a0our friendship circles involve people that are quite entrepreneurial,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to advice for other entrepreneurs, Johnson says to just go for it and get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to risk it for the biscuit,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award 2017 \u2013 the list of nominees<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jess Hatzis and Bree Johnson<\/strong>, co-founders of Frank Body and Willow & Blake (winners)<\/p>\n

Jackie Bull<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>co-founder of Sidekicker<\/p>\n

Jessica May<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>co-founder and chief executive of Enabled Employment<\/p>\n

Melany McBride and Amy Parfatt<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>co-founders of WedShed<\/p>\n

Melanie Perkins<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>co-founder and chief executive of Canva<\/p>\n

Alyce Tran<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>co-founder and creative director of The Daily Edited<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on SmartCompany<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial entrepreneurs Jess Hatzis and Bree Johnson say they\u2019re looking forward to the day where \u201cfemale entrepreneur\u201d becomes an outdated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}