Five years after opening the doors to her first Body Catalyst clinic in Bondi Junction, Samantha Barakat Light has just opened three new clinics − including one just 300 metres away from her first − to take her total to nine clinics.
The company, which performed over 5000 fat freezing treatments in 2018 and expects to perform more than double that this year, now has five clinics in NSW (Bondi Junction, Sydney CBD, Cronulla, Bondi Westfield and Burwood Westfield) and four in Victoria (Melbourne, South Yarra, Hampton and Hawthorn).
According to Samantha, her company’s growth from a “single treatment room” to nine clinics is “testament to the growing interest in people seeking non-invasive treatments to achieve their body goals and greater knowledge and awareness of body sculpting and contouring treatments”.
The growth of Beauty Catalyst is of course also testament to Samantha’s hard work and business acumen in this rapidly growing area of the beauty sector.
We sat down and asked Samantha a few questions about her success.
When/why did you decide to open your first clinic?
“I started Body Catalyst five years ago after I found that irrespective of how well people ate or how much they exercised, they would still retain weight in certain areas. The disconnect between the two fascinated me as much as it frustrated me. What was even more concerning was how this disconnect affected people’s confidence (including my own). In fact, the harder we work at keeping our bodies healthy and happy, the more frustrating it is to have pockets of fat insistent on sticking around. When I learned of cryolipolysis (non-surgical liposuction) I was excited to find a treatment that helped this very issue by stimulating and working with the body’s natural processes…
I also realised that changing the shape of the body was a luxury reserved for the likes of celebrities or the very wealthy. My vision was to make this technology affordable and accessible to everyone.”
What technology/treatments did you offer when you opened your first clinic?
“We offered medical grade, non-surgical treatments including fat freezing, fat cavitation, skin tightening and cellulite treatments.”
What treatments do you offer now?
“We continue to offer the same treatments but we have updated our technology every year. Just like smartphones, non-surgical treatments continue to advance and evolve and we need to ensure we keep offering the most advanced machines in the market. We have also built Body Catalyst around offering a holistic approach to helping our customers reach their body goals, combining leading technology with expertise in nutrition, health and wellness. We are fully invested in helping our clients not only reach their body goals but maintain them.”
Do you think the demand for body sculpting/contouring treatments will continue to grow?
“It has grown significantly since I launched the business and will continue to do so into the future. People are always looking at ways to make themselves the best versions of themselves that they can be − physically, emotionally and spiritually. Body contouring is not an alternative to traditional fat loss methods such as healthy eating and regular exercise, rather it is a beautiful adjunct treatment that can greatly accelerate fat loss results. It also gives people the ability to target specific areas on their body, which diet and exercise has not been able to shift.”