In Melbourne, he developed Malvern Star bicycles into a household name in Australia, then retired to the Gold Coast, Queensland, where he developed property, and as Mayor of the Gold Coast, promoted the area to Australia and the world as a family-friendly holiday destination through the bikini-clad meter maids in Surfers Paradise.
His brothers, Frank, and Ralph Small, joined Bruce in his sales, building cycles at the rate of 5 per week.
At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Ian Browne and Tony Marchant won the gold medal in Tandem on a Malvern Star.
From 1945 Bruce Small owned land at Gowanbrae and promoted property development in Strathmore Heights, in Melbourne.
Bruce Small's long-term friend Sir Hubert Opperman lived in the building from the time it opened until his move to a retirement village in 1985.