Company: BugaBalance - Practice for regulatory impulses and inner order (as a naturopath I work freelance)
Founder: Buga Barac
Date of foundation: April 1, 2025
Industry and company: Health

What drives you? What is your motto?"
Health is the new wealth" - holistic therapy for body and soul in harmony.

What is your start-up about and what is special about it?
In my practice, I aim to help people achieve better health and quality of life. I combine body-oriented therapy (ISBT-Bowen) with psychotherapy and health advice, because body and soul are inseparable. I see people as a multi-layered entity, not reduced to symptoms or diagnoses.

What are your first successes?
I am grateful when I can help people to be free of pain and feel lighter. One patient suffered from back pain all her life - treated without success. After a short time with me, she was pain-free. Now we are working on consolidating this condition. Such experiences fulfill and motivate me every day.

What is your professional background?
In my first job, I worked in business - analytical, goal-oriented and efficient. But I lacked purpose, depth and humanity. That's why I gave up my job, successfully passed my alternative practitioner exam and started my own business using the therapy methods I had learned to help people holistically.

What was the trigger for you to start your own business?
A catastrophic change of employer gave me the decisive impetus I needed to follow my inner calling and invest my energy in a meaningful activity with and for people from then on.

Who advised you, who are your helpers and mentors?
I was inspired by a fellow naturopath to follow my calling. Fortunately, I have always been able to rely on the support of my family. The start-up breakfast at Heimathafen was a good place for me to network. Ms. Zimmas from the BWHW was also very helpful as an advisor.

How did you experience the first few days as a founder?
The first few days as a founder were very exciting. There were of course a few more strenuous hurdles that I had to overcome as someone working in the healthcare sector, which were less fun, but the joyful feeling of soon being able to follow my calling and support people outweighed all of that.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
My main challenges were drawing up a hygiene plan, finding suitable practice rooms and ordering listed hygiene and therapy products for the practice. However, the hygiene course I had to complete helped me a lot in drawing up the hygiene plan.

How do you draw attention to your company? What is your best marketing idea?
To draw attention to my practice, I had a professional website designed and built (which took a long time and was expensive), use GoogleAds, have an Instagram account, use word-of-mouth advertising and work with doctors and pharmacies who have my business cards and flyers on display.

How did you manage to finance your start-up?
Fortunately, I was able to rely on my family's funds for financing and was able to take out a kind of personal loan without any complications.

What dream would you still like to realize?
My dream is to support as many people as possible on different levels - physically and mentally. In my health counseling, I want to show them the path to remission and self-efficacy so that they no longer see type II diabetes as fate, for example.

Please complete the following sentence: If I had more time, I would ...
... travel the world to get to know and study more alternative healing methods.

What is your special tip: What would you recommend to founders?
It was a very good decision to find practice rooms that I can rent by the hour. If this option is available, I would recommend it to others in a similar way, as it reduces the initial pressure and fixed costs.