Brave. That might not be the first word that comes to mind when you picture a hairdresser working from her home, nestled far down one of the thousands of graffiti-laden alleys of Rio’s favelas, but it’s certainly an appropriate description. It takes courage to overcome the challenges you face when starting your own business, but the bravest entrepreneurs are the ones who go into business alone out of necessity. Faced with living in a poor neighborhood with limited job opportunities, entrepreneurship becomes a means to survive and provide for your family.

It’s in these small, often home-based salons that the vast majority of Brazilian hair care takes place. They’re an integral part of the culture. These brave entrepreneurs are not just improving their own lives, but they’re also helping to support entire communities. They have spirit and drive and determination. What they don’t have is the support of major global brands to help grow their business — until now.

Micro-Distribution: Products Helping People

Rio’s salon owners need good products to grow their business, but gaining access to these products hasn’t always been easy. Product distribution across Rio is fragmented at best with no clear way to reach the thousands of small shops that make up the vast majority of hair salons.

“Hairdressers in the favelas use the mass-market brands, not because they are cheaper but because they’re the only ones they know. They don’t have the time or inclination to go and see what’s happening elsewhere.”

How can the shop owners get high-quality products with large distribution networks when these are typically sold in stores that are nowhere to be found in the favela? Enter the idea of micro-distribution, which is currently being rolled out across Brazil with the Matrix brand of L’Oréal products.

Much like the name implies, micro-distribution is all about creating a distribution network that reaches the smallest of distributors, like the individual shop owner working out of her home in Rio. This is done by creating a network of micro-distributors, also brave entrepreneurs breaking new ground by establishing connections and networks that didn’t previously exist.

Finding a way to give the shop owners the quality products they need actually creates a win-win situation. Owners get quality products, the micro-distributors develop their own thriving and growing network, the Matrix brand gains loyalty and even the local economy benefits.

Empowerment as a Growth Strategy

By starting at the bottom of the pyramid instead of the top, everyone wins. This strategy is about more than simply expanding to a new market; it’s about helping people grow their businesses through training and empowerment, and that empowerment is what drives growth.

The micro-distributors get training in business fundamentals, helping them to gain valuable business knowledge so that they can make a good living and help improve their communities. They pair that with local knowledge and even pay it forward by then helping shop owners get their own training in topics like hair dyeing or straightening. In turn, the hairdresser gains skills and confidence and has high-quality products to use — all of which contribute to moving from a home shop to a professional, growing business with a reputation for high-quality hair care.

By helping both the micro-distributors and the salon owners, two levels of entrepreneurial spirit are being nurtured by the same program. It’s not often that a global company can make a profound difference in people’s lives while expanding their own business into new emerging markets at the same time.

It’s easy to see how the method of starting with the bottom of the pyramid and ensuring social inclusion actually benefits the participants at all levels and can be an effective and sustainable corporate growth strategy. This micro-distribution project helps the individual salon owners and the micro-distributors, but it also helps the local economy by indirectly generating thousands of jobs.

In fact, the program in Rio has grown from 50 micro-distributors to hundreds in just a few short years. These hundreds of micro-distributors create over 4,000 indirect jobs across the community. The program’s success has prompted the company to expand the rollout beyond Rio. In Brazil, the program has also been implemented in São Paulo, reaching over 2,000 salons and enabling over 5,000 people to get training already. With success in South America, L’Oréal is looking to Africa next, where they’re using micro-distribution of the Softsheen-Carson product line to train and empower women in Ghana.

“This project made a big difference in my life. It made me discover that I’m an entrepreneur, that I like to negotiate and I want to develop. This project made me understand that my life is more than what I thought it was, is not just work, study and go home. My life can be more than this I seek inspiration in great entrepreneurs and I see myself in a future as a well establish business woman who will keep achieving.”

When you believe in people and empower them to accomplish their dreams, anything can happen. Social inclusion from the bottom of the pyramid up isn’t just a “touchy-feely” idea — it’s one that works for people and for profits.