Nailing a new business

When Tammy Duckworth was forced to closed her nail business amid initial COVID-19 restrictions, she was absolutely devastated. The single mum from Queensland was terrified and didn’t know how she was going to feed her kids or meet her mortgage repayments.

A self-employed nail technician for 23 years, Tammy had always made headbands for herself to wear to work – a necessity for keeping her hair out of the way while she worked on clients’ nails. Tammy’s headband side hustle sparked the idea for Bella Bands.

“I decided to make five Bella Bands a week and sell them on my local town of Roma’s buy, swap and sell site,” Tammy explained. “This gave me an income of $A100 a week to feed my kids and $A20 petrol for the car. I had to put my mortgage payments on hold for the time being while the nail salon was closed.”

Beyond sharing the headbands on her local site, Tammy also created a Facebook page and a website. Within two weeks of starting Bella Bands, business exploded.

“I have been inundated with orders – it has blown my mind!” Tammy says. “I went from having a few followers on Facebook at the end of March to now having more than 10,000 - all through word of mouth, likes and shares of my page. We’re now making around 100 headbands per day.”

Tammy now has seven people working in the Bella Bands business - one full-time administration person and six casuals. With restrictions now easing in Queensland, Tammy’s nail salon has also reopened as per government health and safety guidelines.

“I’m now at a new location in Roma and will keep seeing my regular customers as this is what I love to do.”

Tammy says she will continue to create Bella Bands for as long as there is demand from her newfound customers.