London beauty pro Dipa Sudra has turned all her disadvantages to assets, writes Saumya Balsari

SHE’S in the business of making people look good. So you might expect her to be a formidable beauty therapist who makes you shiver and squirm in your cellulite. Dipa Sudra however, is charming, and surprisingly modest about the achievements that catapulted her into a nomination for the recent Entrepreneur Of The Year Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

Born in Kenya, she went to school in England before enrolling at Champneys College, one of the premier beauty training institutions in the country and the world. Sudra engagingly reminiscences about the time she worked in a salon in East London before the birth of her two children, and the period during which she and her husband found themselves in dire financial straits.

“I did not fit the template of a budding entrepreneur,” she confides, also emphasising that those ‘disadvantages’ were, in fact, her “greatest assets”. Turning the impossible into the possible led to the creation of The Body Temple, a beauty therapy practice with a holistic outlook, set up in 1999.

A single room and a therapist grew in four years to six rooms, state-of-the-art equipment, nine therapists, and over 8,000 clients. That’s our cue to whistle in admiration perhaps, for the initial investment in the Essex, East London enterprise was £ 15,000; the turnover now stands at £ 250, 000, and yes, Sudra was able to buy her first home.

To Make Women Feel Good About Themselves
The core business revolves around face care, and the most popular treatments appear to focus on tackling disfiguring skin blemishes, excessive hair growth and anti-ageing. The client base ranges from ages 12 to 68, and includes the white, Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities.

Warming to her subject, Sudra is of the view that Asian women over 40 have to be pushed into looking after themselves, as they tend to prioritise elsewhere (family comes first sound familiar?). However, they appear to be far more conscious and conscientious when it comes to face-care regimes.

So how much does a facial at The Body Temple typically cost? £ 35, going up to £ 100, depending on the product used.

Sudra is enthusiastic about her e-commerce business, soon to start on her website www.thebodytemple.co.uk. The intention is to deliver high-quality beauty products internationally at a reasonable price.

She still works a gruelling 14 to 16-hour day, and only has Sundays off. What advice does she have for a woman who prioritises her family, but also wants to develop her talent and business skills, I ask. Well, according to her, it’s about finding the balance. “It’s about having the support of your family. Women are notoriously good jugglers,” she laughs, “they put things in compartments.

But children are resilient, and the important thing is not to feel guilty, but to feel positive about one’s goals.” There’s always a bit of ‘sacrifice’, concedes Sudra, but is cheery as she advocates “learning to deal with everything and not letting it get to you.” She concludes unequivocally, “In the end, it’s up to you.”

Sudra is credible as she talks, and her commitment to personalised service and visible results convincing; she also turned down the offer of a franchise, priding herself on her strong brand image of integrity (she says she hates the way staff in other salons look disparagingly at their clients, claiming she offers genuine customer service instead).

Sudra’s climbed a vertical track to the top almost like one of those hurtling fairground roller coasters, so does she have anything else to achieve? Surprisingly, she has; a new salon in Central London is set to open in November 2003, and her dream for the future is a health farm/holistic centre that will be a place for people to recharge at reasonable prices and then return to their daily lives.

Beauty At Any Age
In Sudra’s world of beauty therapy, it’s never too early or too late to join. A young pre-teen girl who suffered from terrible acne and hated looking at herself in the mirror, was coaxed back to confidence. And then, there is the example of another client, an 82-year-old woman, who turns up regularly for electrolysis. A hair removed in time saves nine, doesn’t it?

The body beautiful at any age? Not for nothing did Dipa Sudra name her enterprise The Body Temple.