Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 9, 2023 - January 15, 2023

Growing up, Yap Yann Fang always thought that her mother, a hairdresser, was a bit of a magician. The way she could transform someone’s look with just a trim or a total makeover was always wondrous to behold.

All those years of shadowing her mother in her salon made it clear to Yap that attractiveness could make or break a person. Her lifelong career in the service industry reinforced that perception and she developed a desire to make people look good.

But the founder and CEO of Beauty & Co tells Digital Edge that she wants to focus on more than just outward appearances and encourage wellness based on science and technology.

“I studied a lot about nutrition and alternative medicine because my mother got sick. This helped me a lot when I was starting my career,” says Yap, 42, who was still in her teens when she lost her mother to brain cancer.

Since her start in the beauty industry in 2005, the knowledge she has acquired has grown by leaps and bounds. Yap, now an industry veteran, has seen how technological advancements have revolutionised the industry.

According to market research firm Reportlinker, the global market for beauty devices is forecast to surpass US$34 billion (RM149.8 billion) by 2024.

Yap wants to capitalise on this trend as the industry (in particular, skincare) is becoming increasingly tech-dependent. The primary driver is artificial intelligence (AI), which can assess, monitor and evaluate a person’s skin and body condition to provide hyper-personalised service. But these services are still nascent in Malaysia so she relies on existing technology to boost Beauty & Co’s offerings while preparing to incorporate AI in the near future.

She was adamant about employing the best technology available when she started Beauty & Co in 2018. The beauty company uses Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved technologies and machines to provide its services.

Yap laid the groundwork for better tech adoption in Beauty & Co at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic when she launched the BeautynCo app in 2020 to make it easier for customers to purchase products. The app also acts as a repository of training materials for the company’s beauticians.

This move was also necessary because when the nation went into lockdown, the company needed to keep afloat to cater to existing clients.

“It was a dire time. We were unable to operate our physical outlets so we immediately launched our e-commerce platform, where clients can purchase beauty products and get information on skincare,” says Yap.

“Our industry was among the worst affected by the pandemic because we were the last to be allowed to resume operations. And because beauticians require close contact to work, most customers were afraid to come for treatments even after we were allowed to operate,” she adds.

Although Beauty & Co was badly affected by the many lockdowns, it still ran online workshops for its beauticians, Facebook Live sessions, wellness programmes and the “onlinepreneur” programme, a specially curated series for beauticians to sell products online.

“At this moment, we only have this interface. Ideally, we want to be able to improve the app to take bookings and match potential customers with beauticians, but these updates will not be rolled out yet,” Yap says.

This is Beauty & Co’s first step into technology and Yap aspires to explore more tech if it applies to her business. This is especially in the case of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), where clients can visualise how they look before signing up for wellness treatments, for example.

“We definitely have the technology for slimming treatments with machines that can check body composition and all that. But I’m sure there will also be technology to visualise how you would look if you lose weight. That is something that we’re looking at,” she says.

“Beauty & Co is also looking to explore the metaverse, where clients’ avatars can walk into a virtual store and experience the salon journey before they even step into the physical stores.”

Seeds of ambition

Yap always knew she wanted to build her own brand after working in the slimming and beauty industries for more than two decades. It was then that she started learning the ropes of the wellness industry. She also became well-versed in nutrition to better help her clients.

“I read so much about nutrition and learnt so much when I worked with clients who wanted to lose weight,” says Yap.

This prompted her to start her own brand, BizzyBody, in 2005, together with several business partners. Before long, the company had established 30 outlets. In 2012, it was sold to a multinational corporation. “I was on contract with it for four years and helped to manage and grow the business until I exited in 2016.”

In 2018, Yap founded Beauty & Co-Working, a co-working space that gives beauticians access to a shared business medium. The specialised co-working space is a viable alternative for aspiring beauticians, professionals working independently and small business owners to work collaboratively in a shared space.

Prior to establishing the co-working business, Beauty & Co opened wellness spas all over the Klang Valley, offering beauty services such as facials and body treatments.

“We already had six beauty retail stores operating before we started Beauty & Co-Working. After a year, when we made a profit, I transformed our outlet in The Gardens Mall into a co-working space,” Yap says.

The Beauty & Co-Working space offers private rooms for treatment and beauty sessions, and also space to sell beauty products. It is equipped with advanced tools and machines.  For instance, the Ultra Femme 360 and Emsella machines are for women’s intimate health. The Ultraformer machine uses high-frequency sound waves for skin tightening, among other functions. Beauticians who aspire to work independently will no longer need to fret over long-term leases, big capital investments in expensive machines and minimum order quantities of high-end beauty products.

“I think with co-working space, we definitely can help beauticians to start their business almost immediately. They don’t need to invest again, open a physical store and hire people. They can basically come to Beauty & Co to get trained on how to use our space and products; then they can start serving their clients here in the outlet. So it’s almost zero start-up costs. It’s easy for them to start their business again [after the pandemic],” says Yap.

The Beauty & Co outlet located in the luxury mall adjacent to Mid Valley has a unique horseshoe-style architecture with two separate entrances for the two brands under the company: Beauty & Co Platinum Club and Beauty & Co Clinic. Both co-exist at the co-working space. Platinum Club offers spa and body treatments while the clinic primarily focuses on slimming treatments, facelifts, skin-related treatments and other beauty-enhancing procedures that are provided by certified and qualified aestheticians.

Beauty industry fallacy

A common misconception in the beauty industry is that businesses use harmful substances in products along with poor-quality machines handled by unqualified individuals. It is because of a few errant beauty centres that the industry is stereotyped as being unethical or using unlicensed “experts”.

“We get a bad reputation because [some] people are selling unapproved products and machines. Some products have banned ingredients that are harmful. And there are illegal services that use cheaper substitutes for injectable dermal fillers and surgeries without any proper accreditation or certification,” she laments.

The recent uproar over cosmetic products using hazardous substances led the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) to ban certain chemicals and beauty products. Incidents such as this have damaged the credibility of the industry.

Yap also says that most uncertified beauty salons overpromise on the effectiveness of their services. Products promising cheap and fast results are being promoted at the expense of customers’ health. The quality of the medical machines used in some of these salons is also questionable.

“I think a lot of times, they (unlicensed beauty centres) are using unlicensed or rip-off technology and they are not Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Medical Device Authority Malaysia (MDA) approved. Most of our machines here have medical-grade certification,” she stresses.

The MDA is an agency under the MOH that authorises businesses to manufacture and sell medical devices and registers medical equipment produced or sold in Malaysia.

IPO aspirations

Earlier this year, Beauty & Co declared that it plans to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next five years as it is confident that the industry will continue to prosper. 

The company launched in 2018 with an initial capital of RM3 million. It set up six outlets that year. In 2020 and 2021, it recorded a 60% year-on-year increase in sales even though the country was in the thick of the pandemic.

“The reason I wanted to go for an IPO is not to exit the business. I want to do it to sustain the business,” Yap says.

Next in her plans is to set up the Biohacker’s CEO Club, a curated community specifically for business owners, CEOs and bosses to learn how to live an optimal and healthy life.

“The Asian culture births hustlers. You feel guilty for not hustling. You feel guilty for resting because you feel the need to work and be productive all the time. We don’t have the resources or platforms in Malaysia for CEOs to learn how to live a healthy lifestyle. There are so many workshops telling you how to run your business more productively, but nobody tells you how to live your life optimally,” she says.

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