Clarity
Through
Collaboration:
Suzie Hoitink
Takes Over
The World With A Little
Help From
Her Friends.
Kate Matheson
In 2005, a Registered Nurse from Canberra,
frustrated at the lack of treatment options available
for her own acne scarring from her teenage years,
opened a clinic for skin conditions using medical
therapy such as light-based technology. She
recognised a need in the community beyond her
own for a medical approach to skin conditions such
as acne, sun damage, aging, scarring and rosacea.
She was 25 years old.
Fast forward to 2015, and that slightly older - and
definitely wiser - nurse has just opened her second
clinic in Sydney, with four in Canberra. All treatments
in the clinics are performed by qualified nurses
and doctors. The nurses treat clients with everyday
skin conditions using the latest skin rejuvenation
technologies available and in doing so, not only
improve the health and appearance of their skin, but
their overall confidence as well.
That same nurse has been nominated and won (for
the ACT) the Telstra Businesswomen’s Awards, and
has her own magazine called InnerConfidence.
That nurse’s name? Suzie Hoitink. That clinic, and
the five after them?
Clear Complexions.
I first met Suzie as a fellow LBDG member in
Canberra in 2011 (time flies when you are having fun,
or something like that). She was one of the calmest
people I had ever been around; and that was
reflected in the Belconnen Clinic when I dropped
in one day to see what all the fuss was about this
‘amazing’ place (it is amazing. Just saying). Her
staff were calm. The atmosphere was calm. Even
the plants were calm. Because she was just there,
making sure the ship sailed the way it was supposed
to.
This, I sometimes think, is the secret to her success;
not just an incredibly switched on business brain,
but the ability to project an air of ‘everything’s OK’.
Although she was well-known in the ACT by the
time she came to the decision to open her first
clinic in Sydney, realistically she was moving into a
world of which she knew very little. The market she
wanted to break into, the conversations that went
on both a business and personal level - I can state
categorically that there is a very big leap of faith
to be made between Canberra and Sydney, even if
they aren’t very apart geographically.