Gravity defying procedures lift my profits

Ageing is inevitable, but with new technology, one can defy gravity by using non-surgical technologies. These include laser, breast and face lifting, face firming, and liposuction.

Beauty therapist Lucy Wahome, owner and founder of Agape Beauty Clinic, tells her journey to starting her own body care clinic and how much it would cost you to look younger.

After years of studying and getting a degree in skin therapy from Majesty school of skin therapy in Canada, Lucy decided to return home and start her own business in a field that few people have trodden. Lucy offers the non-surgical option to her clients looking to turn back the hands of time.

Setting up

“I started my business nine years ago after I moved back home from Canada. I got employed for a year, during which I saved up enough money to buy my first machines - liposuction and face firming machines - to start my business. They cost me Sh1.5 million. Four and a half months later, I bought the breast firming machine,” shesays.

Her first year in business was good as she was able to recover the money she used to buy the machines, pay rent and make some decent profit.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Rubber meets the road as Ruto makes first full Budget proposal
• 
  Why court ordered student, 23, to forfeit over Sh130m gift from boyfriend to State
• 
  Make time to admire nature's beauty, it's free for hustlers
• 
  President should be a walking specimen of his national vision

Most of her clients come to her through referrals.

“This speaks to why it is important to do a good job and only promise realistic results to your clients, otherwise I would have been out of business a long time ago,” says Lucy.

The cost

The prices of her services range depending on the services one seeks. Some procedures take weeks while others take months, with the results being gradual. “A client who wants to undergo liposuction - the removal of fat from hips, belly, thighs, buttocks, back, arms, or face that you can’t seem to get rid of through diet and exercise - will need to come twice a week for a month and a half. The procedure costs Sh150,000.

Apart from the procedure, we change the client’s diet so that they don’t fall back to eating habits that will bring back the fats. After the client completes the liposuction procedure, which is non-surgical (we apply a gel to the client’s stomach, then use the liposuction machine to burn the fats). After burning the fats, we do skin tightening so that one doesn’t have sagging skin after the liposuction.”

Breast lifting costs Sh3,500 per session and one has to come for twelve sessions, three times a week.

The process is also non-surgical. In this procedure, breast cups are placed on the client’s breasts for 45 minutes per session.

Breastfeeding and child bearing mothers are discouraged from having this procedure as the results may not be as long-lasting.

When pregnant, the ligaments that support the breasts stretch as your breasts get fuller and heavier causing them to sag. Waiting till you are done breastfeeding is ideal. 

They also remove skin tags and charge Sh4,500 for each tag, but the price is negotiable since there are some people who have a lot of skin tags and Lucy says they cannot charge them such a high amount. The process only takes a day.

For face firming one has to come for six sessions every two weeks and every session lasts one hour and fifteen minutes and cost Sh5,000 per session.

Challenges

Although a large number of her clients are aged 25 years old going up, Lucy says her biggest challenge to date has been clients who expect instant results.

“Some clients expect that once they have finished the first session of liposuction or face firming or breasts firming, everything would have worked out and they will be perfect, not realising that it’s a process that takes time.”

Some clients also don’t pay for services even after they have negotiated the price. “Sometimes a client waits until they have completed their procedures and they are where they want to be then refuse to pay for the services. You cannot reverse the procedures in order to recover your money so I now take cash after every session or upfront payment. As a result, the business hasn’t been so good because most clients want services on credit, which I cannot allow since I have to sustain the business,” says Lucy.

[email protected]