From life as a Palestinian immigrant, migrating to Australia with his family in 1996 and coming to grips with a new country and lifestyle, to owning his own pharmaceutical compounding distribution business and two franchises in the billion dollar hair and beauty industry; Australian Skin Clinics Plenty Valley franchisee Adam Odeh has always had an incredible drive, determination and passion to succeed in life and business.
When listening to Adam Odeh speak of his life and business journey, it’s easy to see that he is the personification of the phrase ‘to wear many hats’ and chased his dreams from an early age.
“I have always had a genuine passion for business, and I found myself in an extremely privileged position to follow that, in such a great country.”
After graduating with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Charles Sturt University, Adam went on to gain his accreditation from the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy and founded his own pharmaceutical compounding distribution business, Dermicare, dubbed ‘The Problem Solvers of Pharmaceuticals’. At the same time, Adam was already a Hairhouse franchisee, having acquired his own store in 2007.
“I first entered into the beauty industry because it’s a growing sector regardless of time and location. This has been true in the past and will continue in the foreseeable future,” says Adam.
When Hairhouse officially teamed up with Australian Skin Clinics in 2016, Adam didn’t hesitate to join forces.
“I heard about the merge through Hairhouse and flew up to the Gold Coast to meet with the Australian Skin Clinics management team as part of a two-way vetting process and once approved, the rest was straightforward,” recounts Adam.
The two-way vetting process turned into Adam interviewing with Australian Skin Clinics as a business partner as well as a prospective franchisee. Today, not only does he own his own Australian Skin Clinics franchise in Plenty Valley and Hairhouse store in Warrnambool, Victoria, he is the main compounding product supplier for Australian Skin Clinics nationwide.
“When I first started working with Australian Skin Clinics, I identified a need to streamline the ordering and supply process for professional skin care formulations used for advanced aesthetic skin treatments in clinic,” explains Adam.
His company Dermicare, effectively simplified the entire ordering and supply process for Australian Skin Clinics via an online ordering platform. The process now provides the brand and its clinics with more consistency in the quality and efficacy of their products, which both Adam and Australian Skin Clinics create and develop together.
“I wear both my franchisee and product supplier hat simultaneously on multiple occasions. I worked with Australian Skin Clinics’ marketing team and training academy, The Advanced Skills Academy (TASA) to deliver many innovative products, including a product for their 2018 Christmas campaign that was a first for the brand.
“Wearing my franchisee hat, I truly understood what franchisees and their customers were looking for and how it would transcend to the retail floor. That way we were able to directly pinpoint the gap in the market, not just create something we hoped someone would like,” says Adam.
With, to say the least, a very full plate, it’s a wonder how Adam finds time to lead a normal life on the side.
“I’m very busy. I am also married with two young boys, nine and seven. From a work perspective, it usually starts early in the morning reviewing data and performance from all businesses, responding to emails, non-stop phone calls, client meetings, site visits, and much more.
“I’m a family man always, and they are my number one priority but I couldn’t juggle it all without my fantastic work teams.
“We support and empower each other which is definitely the driving force behind our success,” said Adam. Adam shows no signs of slowing down however and continues to find ways to nurture the businesses he partners with, recently completing a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Melbourne. When asked how or why he does it, especially in a female-dominated industry, Adam simply says, “I genuinely get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing that I have helped clients feel more confident and better about themselves.”