1. Can you please tell us more about your business?
We consider ourselves more of a tribe than a business. When I was asked “Who or what is The Laser Beautique? I wrote the following which is now on our career page on our website.
We are a tribe of strong beau-gicians who inspire self-confidence and create obsessive customer service. What are beau-gicians you may ask? We are beauty therapists who can perform magic. Yes, you read right! We can perform modern day magic. Don’t just take our word for it, go and have a look at some of our before and after pics or go read some of our magical google reviews.
If we told you, 10 years ago, that we could permanently and painlessly remove unwanted hair OR if we told you we could iron out a fine line or plump out a wrinkle without having to go under plastic surgery, you would have thought we were magicians.
Today, with our groundbreaking technology and intense training, this is possible.
Feeling comfortable in your own skin is the most liberating feeling in the world! We aim to make our clients (Beauts, Beauties and Beau-teens) feel both comfortable and confident. From getting rid of embarrassing hair and painful ingrowns to treating breakouts or acne, backne, black or whiteheads, pigmentation, scarring, uneven skin tone or texture. We can even reverse the hands of time! In short, we are dedicated to ensuring our clients live smoothly ever after. Smooth is our game. We specialise in skin and permanent painless hair removal.
2. When, how and why did you start your business?
We were the first in Africa with pain free permanent laser hair removal. We started the very first Laser Beautique in 2008.
Here is a link to our story on our website.
3. What is your role in the business?
This is a tricky one cause I do a little bit of everything. I oversee just about everything in the business. From design and marketing to training and operations. My husband, Neil joined the business, and he runs the financial aspect of the business. I have an incredible team of ladies who work with me in our Support Office.
4. Where did you study and what did you study?
I studied an LLB but became bored with law very quickly. I then did a short course in design and graphics. I’m quite creative. That’s why I love overseeing all the design and marketing.
5. How did you finance your business?
At first I was going to apply for a bank loan. I put together a business plan and a 5 year forecast of how the business would grow. I showed it to my boyfriend, now husband, for his input and he said he had savings and would like to invest. We started off in a spare bedroom in my mother’s house before we moved into Morningside Shopping centre.
6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.
I’m all over as you can imagine. Some days I can be at our support office all day and some weeks can be out all week. It really depends on the business needs. I could be at branches or training at our academy. Sometimes I opt to work from home so I can get some uninterrupted time to get admin done.
7. How do you balance your home life and your work life?
Most people ask me this question. It’s not easy, especially because I have little kids. My daughter is 12 and son is 10. I have learnt to surround myself with a support network. I have so many wonderful woman who I depend on every day. From my amazing domestic worker who is like my kids second mom to our driver who helps me get to places I just can’t manage to get to. Our tribe of beaugician never cease to amaze me. At a drop of a hat they are there to help and assist whenever needed. The group of ladies we work with are a true inspiration and a real life example of how woman build each other up.
8. What drives you and inspires you?
Our tribe. I wake up every morning wanting and needing to make our tribe proud of what we accomplish together. We all feel the same way and that’s why it works. Everyone loves coming to work and we all come to work to blow our clients socks off. It’s all about making sure our clients become obsessed with us and our result driven treatments and products. It’s about under promising and over delivering.
9. Where and when do you have your best ideas?
I get inspiration from everywhere and everyone. I love traveling overseas to see what is popular in other countries. What do they know that we don’t. I get ideas from woman and men in my life, from other brands, even my daughter and her friends inspire me. She comes up with such good ideas and even creates tik toks she thinks we should post. She created the latest tik tok we posted of a cat driving a car on way to Laser Beautique after pay day. We can learn and be inspired by everyone. Every single human being has their own gifts and strengths that we can draw from and learn from.
I am a huge believer in having a coach or two or even having a different coach at different stages of your life.
I had a life coach very early on in the business. She taught me how to manage my time and work life balance.
Neil and I have a mentor and business coach. Ian Fuhr, Ian has taught us all about culture-neering. Having Ian around to assist and support us has been a game changer.
10. Where and how do you market/advertise your business for sales leads?
We are very lucky because we were the first with many of the treatments we offer. We also keep ahead of the latest, result driven treatments. Being the first with many offerings means we have the most experience and the longest standing website. We have a large, loyal following on social media. We get a lot of support from the centres we based in, magazine editors, influencers and celebs. Many know is from all the way back in 2018.
There are many fly by night clinics these days that advertise very cheap products and treatments. I think people are sceptical (and so they should be) and they prefer to be treated at a more reputable laser brand.
There some very good laser clinics out there but there are unfortunately just as many irresponsible laser clinics who give the industry a bad name.
Most of our clients are referred by family, friends and google reviews. This makes me very proud. When most customers are referrals, you know you doing something right.
11. What is next for your business?
We are a fast-growing, ever-evolving company with a thirst for what’s next. We try to be innovative, and creative and we thrive off feedback. We love operating in new ways that are target and result-driven but sustainable and responsible too. We embrace growth and change like no one’s business.
We are about to launch our very own client app. We have had an internal app for our tribe for a few years now and launching the client app has always been a goal for quite some time. Our client App is dropping next week!
We have recently launched our franchising opportunity. With Ian Fuhrs guidance, we want to be able to help many woman open their own laser beautique. Creating a business framework and job opportunities for woman across Africa is a dream come true.
Last year we launched our very own skincare brand called Scientific Skincare. It took us a good few years and we finally launched at the end of last year.
12. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business?
Planning and time management is key! I love time blocking so i get important stuff done and i dont get caught up pushing paper. Done is better than perfect. I used to be a perfectionist and i kept putting things off till they were perfect. Close to perfect is good enough. Making sure your business plan is always up to date with a 3-5 year forecast is always helpful. Make sure you have a guide, coach or mentor. Having someone on your side who wants the best for you will give you strength when you most need it. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who have the same goals and aspirations as you.