November 25, 2020
People go to spas to relax and get away from the daily rigors of life. These businesses act as an oasis of sorts for customers, providing a rejuvenation of the mind, body, and soul. But spas can bring more benefits than just relaxation For example, medical spas, which further enhance the spa experience for customers contribute to wellness in a more scientific way. A medical spa — also known as a medspa — is a spa-like facility that offers optional often appearance-improving procedures under the care and direction of a trained physician and a team of nurses and aestheticians.
These procedures include botulinum toxin injections (Botox®, Dysport®, Xeomin®), injectable dermal fillers, non-surgical fat reduction, laser hair removal, microdermabrasion, laser skin resurfacing, and tattoo removal. The medical spa industry is continuously growing and thriving. Stats show that the spa industry registers 155.8 million visits every year, and the US medical spa industry is estimated to reach approximately $6 billion by 2022. Client wise, fifty-two percent of medical spa clients are between 35 and 54 years old, and more than 85% of a medical spas clientele is female. With such rising success in the spa industry, you might be interested in starting your own medical spa. Here are five tips on starting your own medical spa.
1. Focus on a primary concept for your medical spa.
When opening a med spa, you might have the desire to try to provide every service under the sun and that’s certainly an option. As mentioned before, medical spas provide a host of services. Some of these include injectable dermal fillers, non-surgical fat reduction, laser hair removal, and microdermabrasion services. However, bear in mind that one way to make your new medical spa stand out to prospective customers is to try and specialize in just one area. Rather than create a smorgasbord of services offered, focus on just one.
For example, there are medical spas that specifically focus on treating skin of various ethnicities, and other medical spas that focus on organic skincare products and treatments to enhance plastic surgery. Imagine running a place which primarily focused on providing collagen enhancing services like Sculptra? Sculptra is a bio-activator treatment that stimulates the body to build new collagen and restore lost volume in the face.
This might even include using collagen manufacturers to provide such collagen peptide supplements for customers who decided to not necessarily use the Sculptra method, but still want to utilize the collagen enhancing methods provided by your medical spa. The best way to ensure success for your medspa is to find out what you want to specialize in — choose a lane and stay in it. This way, you’ll be able to build the best brand possible, while building your loyal client base.
2. Buy the necessary equipment.
When opening a medical spa you’ll want to purchase the right equipment for the job at hand. Since a medical spa combines both a medical and spa experience, you’ll need both aesthetic equipment and medical laser equipment. Some of the necessary tools include electric facial chairs, massage tables, discounted aesthetic lasers, hydraulic chairs for staff, sterilization units, UV light towel warmers, magnifying lamps, diamond microdermabrasion machine systems, exam beds, multifunction skin care trolleys, facial steamers, and manicure tables.
It’s best to diversify your medical spa equipment. This will allow your medspa to offer more services. For instance, having more cosmetic laser equipment and aesthetic laser equipment opens up the possibility to increase the value of your medical spa. This can help your revenue to grow, in addition to the value to your customer increases.
3. Create a solid business plan and crunch the numbers.
Having a business plan is needed for creating any type of business. The business plan is your foundation for a successful business, and without one your enterprise will be doomed to fail. At its base, a business plan is a formal written document containing business goals. The business plan includes the methods of how these goals can be attained and the time frame within which these goals need to be achieved. This acts as a sort of map to building a successful company.
This business plan is the document which potential investors will look at to ensure their money is not going to be wasted. You can present the same document to banks or other small business loan providers, just in case finding investors is not the route that you’re heading. In each circumstance, having a solid business plan for a medical spa helps a prospective donor of any type that you’ve done the homework. You’re showing them that you are worth taking a financial chance on.
As a part of building a sound business plan, you will also crunch the numbers to see financially where your business stands at the time of its creation, and for future months to come. It might help for you and your accounting staff to sign up for CPE solutions related courses that focus on accounting and auditing, business tax, federal taxes, and Quick books. Having a handle on the “number crunching” can also spell success for a medspa, by keeping you on target, and upon opening, it can serve as a monthly revenue target to shoot for.
Lastly, having a sound business plan helps your employees know where things stand with the business. Your architect will review this plan and get a visual image of how you want the medspa to be designed. Secondly, your consultant will use the plan to understand how to program and market your project. Your spa manager will also use the document to know who he or she needs to hire.
4. Create a strong menu of services and choose the best product lines.
It’s key that you maintain the support of your physician/ doctor. You want the services that your medical spa is providing to not make your doctor feel as if their integrity is being compromised. Work hand in hand with her or him to find out which services they feel best represents the work they are capable of doing, and that they feel would best benefit spa visitors.
Also, you’ll want to choose the best product lines in the service of your customers. For instance, when choosing skin care products, choose those that have a proven track record of being the most effective. The great thing about such products is that many pharmaceutical companies have expanded their range to fit the utilization of the medical spa community. This provides you with an opportunity to have more variety of products, and the ability to diversify your menu of services.
5. Be smart when hiring staff and find ways to keep staff.
When looking to hire staff for a new medical spa try to find those people who have had previous experience in a medical setting. Also try to find those people who have a “healing touch” including individuals like estheticians with continued education certifications, dermatologists’ assistants, and registered nurses.
Unfortunately, the medspa industry is one with high turnover. To ensure that is not the case for your business, try to find those individuals who have a stable work history, and without long gaps in employment. Steps that you can take to make sure that your staff stays onboard your business includes treating them fairly and with respect, creating an environment that is positive and friendly, and offer continued learning opportunities and fair compensation. You want to create a place where everyone wants to come to work.
