Sophie Gogos, president of Mississauga-based Spavaro, knew exactly how she wanted to run her company when she launched Spavaro 10 years ago.
She wanted a company where everyone she worked with, including her customers, felt it was a happy experience. It was a big hit from the outset and has become one of the hallmarks of Spavaro.
It’s also was led her to one of Spavaro’s popular products – Celluma, an LED device that can not only minimize the appearance of deep fine lines on your face but also do a lot of things to make life better and healthier for your clients.
Celluma’s light therapy medical device has been approved by Health Canada.
Her network is extensive and reaches all over Canada, It was how she heard about Celluma – from one of her friends, a spa owner, who told her she had found the perfect addition for her spa and asked Sophie to stock it. She also saw it as something Sophie could offer her other customers.
In the next few months, she met the company behind Celluma and learned all about the device. Spavaro is exclusive distributor for Celluma.
“Celluma’s results were amazing. Our customers are happy and so are their clients.They’re making money with Celluma’s treatments. At $1,995, it’s affordable for spas. Spas using Celluma are charging anywhere from $40 to $50 or even $60 for each session. It’s easy to see why spas see it as a great money maker.”
What can it do for your clients?
For starters, it can increase blood circulation, accelerate tissue repair, kill acne bacteria, reduce inflammation, improve skin tone, texture and clarity, ease muscle and joint pain, stiffness, spasms as well as arthritis.
In the cabin, Celluma provides damaged skin cells with added energy. It enables fibroblast cells to increase elastin and collagen production in connective tissue.
How does it do this?
The secret is in its light-emitting diodes of varying wave lengths of light to trigger a natural way to stimulate skin improvements.
To ensure it does this, Celluma is designed to bring these light-emitting diodes as close as possible to that area of the skin that needs treatment.
Why is this important? Success, she notes, depends on the amount of energy absorbed by your skin. Not on the output of the device you’re using. For that reason, it’s important that the cuff, containing the diodes, is able to hold its shape and stays in place during treatments. Celluma solves this problem by making its cuff very flexible so that it can focus on any affected areas.
Why light and why different coloured lights?
“Our skin cells absorb particles of light. These particles are called protons, which transform their energy into ATP or adenosine triphosphate in a form our cells can use to repair or regenerate cell components and foster cell growth.
Celluma uses three diode colours – blue, which deals with acne problems; and red and infrared, to reduce inflammation and increase micro-circulation, bring more oxygen and nutrients to any place of the body that needs help.
In my case, I often have trouble sleeping from arthritic pain from my shoulder joint. I was curious just how effective Celluma actually is in removing the pain.
One of Spavaro’s therapists placed the cuff carefully around my shoulder. The diodes are built into the cuff. She then makes sure the cuff is placed close to my skin and retains its shape throughout the treatment.
For facial treatments, Sophie suggests using goggles with clients during each session.
Celluma also uses pulsating to enhance the effectiveness of each treatment by increasing the ability of your skin to absorb more energy.
In my session, there was no sensation or indication that the treatment was under way or when it came to an end.
“It also shuts off automatically after 30 minutes,” added Sophie. “With Celluma, you don’t have to worry about over-treating your client’s skin.”
Celluma also comes with a hand-size console used to program it for each type of treatment. In my case, the therapist took fewer than five seconds to set it.
It can also be used by spas as an add-on for a range of treatments, including skin resurfacing, micro-needling, derma pealing and derma clean up.
In the case of facials, the skin should be clean and no makeup for best results. For wrinkles, she recommends 12 treatments – two or three times each week – for lasting effects. Most spas that use celluma also take a picture of the client before they start their treatments, and another, when they finish.
Celluma does not use hard plastic. There’s a reason. “You don’t want a device that actually inhibits light and prevent your clients from getting the benefits of a full treatment.”
Spavaro offers a complementary one-hour training session for your staff either at your spa or at Spavaro, and for those further away, on Skype. Training also includes promotional material as handouts for your clients. There’s also a question-and-answer session as well as practical, hands-on experience that includes setting up Celluma in different treatment positions.
After training, most users feel very comfortable using Celluma.
Celluma also comes with a two-year warranty “but we are also willing to help as well, even after 100,000 hours of use, depending on the situation”.
Celluma also offers a home version, which uses two colours – red and infrared – to help people with arthritis, anti-ageing and pain. It’s treatment area is smaller but efficient enough to have a facial treatment.
She also recommends booking clients four to six treatments at the outset and to use Celluma to promote your other treatments.
“It’s also great for treating after-surgery and other pain causes. Since introducing Celluma, there’s been a large spike in spas showing interest in Celluma as well as a number of wellness clinics. Many spas also use it as an add-on to their other treatments.”
Getting back to my treatment, I was told its effects would last 24 hours – and that I would need more treatments for a more lasting effect.
When I went to bed, I found I had no pain in my shoulder, none the next night either and only a muted pain on the third night before a downpour, when arthritis is at its worst.
Three things are important in Sophie’s life that have made her successful. The first is lots and lots of hard work.
The second is going the extra miles for all her customers.
If one of them orders a certain item Spavaro does not stock, for example, staff members point them to another distributor who does stock it.
“We make it easier rather than have our customers search for someone who does stock the item they’re looking for. They’re happy, of course, and so are we to have happy customers.
The third is hiring the right people. Smart people. She channels Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, who believed he needed smart people around him to tell him what to do.
In Spavaro’s case. Sophie introduces all new hires with the company’s mission and values and makes a point of hiring “smart people, who have different strengths, people who can teach us things we don’t know.
“All of our people are focused and bring something special to us and our customers. Some are technical, others are very good with people and focused on helping our spa customers grow their business.”
She also recognizes that while nothing is forever, she would like Spavaro people to be with her forever.
Having a happy staff is equally important to her. When her staff is happy, their sense of happiness spills over to the company’s customers and makes them feel happy about things.
“We’re not just about selling products. We’re so much more.”
As a result, her customers tend to stay with Spavaro for a very long time, she says.
“What we do best is service, keeping up with the latest trends in the industry and, above all, helping every spa to be as successful as it can possibly be.”