Medical spas are some of the latest advancements in the industry, combining both the traditional doctor’s office with spa services designed to create a welcoming space for patients and combine medical treatment with holistic care. Opening a med spa is an extensive but rewarding process, so it is important to create a plan to create a successful and patient-driven business.
Secure a Solid Concept
While offering a wide range of services may seem like a good thing, it is often better to pick a specialization. Having a specialization will allow you to attract a more specific clientele and build a reputation as the top provider of your services in your area. If you try to offer too many services, you may realize you bring in fewer customers. Ask yourself these questions whenever you consider adding a new practitioner or service to your business. How does this practitioner complement my practice? How will these services enhance my business? What types of packages can I create from these new services?
Create Your Business Plan and Crunch the Numbers
Creating a business plan that includes your expected finances should always be the first step to opening a new business, med spas included. A business plan is beneficial if you are looking for investors to fund your new business. Even if you’re not looking for investors and choosing to finance your med spa yourself, you still need a plan to know what to expect and aren’t surprised by unexpected costs.
A business plan also helps to put everyone on the same page. From architects and designers, consultants to your spa manager, everyone can do their job better if they know your vision for your med spa. Having your business plan handy can also be a great resource to refer back to often to make sure you are staying on track with the goals you’ve set for yourself.
Hire a Development Team
A development team is necessary to ensure the success of your med spa. Even the most creative med spa concepts can backfire if your designed facility does not correctly address your clients’ needs. Your team will help guide you in making decisions throughout the entire process using knowledge and tools you may not have yourself. An experienced development team helps build a facility that enhances your concept, creating a relaxing, serene space for your clients.
Find Your Ideal Location
A doctor’s office is a destination patients will travel to visit a specific doctor, regardless of location. A spa is different, requiring a great place to attract customers. So what do you do when you’re creating a combination of the two? Many factors can affect your location, such as demographics, parking availability, street frontage, and zoning.
Ensuring that your city’s zoning laws allow for a medical spa is essential. Med spas are a relatively new concept, so your zoning board may not fully understand it. You may find it challenging to get them to understand what a med spa is, so it can be helpful to collect zoning data from other existing med spas to use as a reference to avoid the hassle.
Create a Strong Menu and Choose Appropriate Product Lines
The spa services and products you sell need to be supported by your doctor for your business to succeed. This can be difficult, as you will have to create a menu of services and products that do not compromise your doctor’s integrity yet are still marketable. It is important to work with your doctor to find products and services that do not conflict with their medical training. For example, if you are considering selling skincare, look for products that dermatologists recommend and have proven to be effective.
Many pharmaceutical companies have expanded their product ranges to suit the needs of the medical spa industry. If you choose to work with a pharmaceutical range, you can give your business the upper hand and work with your medical staff on your spa services and products.
Create and Implement Your Business Infrastructure
The main goal of a med spa is to create a welcoming environment that helps patients feel relaxed. To ensure success at your business’s medical and spa ends, you will need to develop and implement a business infrastructure that allows all aspects of your business to run smoothly – have this set up before having staff come on board. If you do not have policies and procedures in place, your staff will take advantage of you, and you will see your spa’s reputation dive as customers begin to complain. Having staff taking advantage of your business will cause your business not to produce its potential income.
Integrate Both the Medical and the Spa Side of Your Business
The entire concept of a med spa is to merge the doctor’s office and the spa into one place. You can take multiple approaches to achieve this, so it is important to consider what path you would like to take as part of your business plan and infrastructure. One direction is to create a panel of doctors and spa practitioners that work together to create a treatment plan based on an individual patient’s diagnosis. Another method is to allow clients to have a private consultation to discuss their needs and receive education on both medical and spa services that may help. If your spa focuses on the cosmetic side, you may want to create a concept that allows clients to pick and choose what services they would like based on their needs.
Choose Your Medical Insurance
Whether you choose to have your medical and spa staff work together on a panel or have them act as separate entities, everyone needs to be able to protect themselves. It is important to see a licensed insurance agent who will help you create a plan specific to your facility that includes the basics (malpractice, general liability, and property coverage) and any coverage specific to your business. Regulations will differ across each state, and your facility will have needs that differ from others, so it is important to do thorough research into what types of coverage you may need.
Hire Your Staff Wisely
Vetting your staff is important to the success of your med spa. Hire staff who have prior experience in a medical setting and an excellent bedside manner who can offer the right healing touch. Consider staff such as estheticians with continued education certifications, dermatologists’ assistants, and registered nurses.
It is important to keep in mind that this is a high turnover industry, so it is important to create an environment for your staff that is positive and friendly. By treating your staff fairly, along with offering continued learning and fair compensation, you can successfully retain staff and create a team of professionals that work well together, providing the highest quality services to patients.
Generate Revenue Through Marketing and Retail Sales
It is important to remember that your medical spa is not just a doctor’s office. Meaning you will need to take a proactive approach toward attracting clientele. In addition to having the tools that other small businesses have, med spas also have an advantage others do not. As a med spa owner, you have access to some of the greatest marketing tools, a list of spa clients’ names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. Use your mailing list to communicate with clients on upcoming promotions, new services, and events. Some ways to aid in building clientele include completing follow-ups with a phone call to get clients back and advertising promotions and events to walk-ins and passersby with signage and flyers.
You can also expand your marketing and sales using social media and your business’s website to attract new customers and make online sales of your retail products. Your online presence is an essential part of helping to make more potential clients aware of your business and allows you to promote your brand image.
Med Spa Business and Consulting Services
Once developed correctly, a medical spa is a rewarding and lucrative business. By creating a space focused on client care, you could be one of many paving the way towards making spa services a standard addition to many medical services in the future. If you’re looking to open a med spa, you may benefit from business and consulting services tailored toward the needs of your business. Arviv Plastic Surgery offers med spa consulting services that can include:
- Business consulting
- Assistance with opening medical spa with proper licensure
- Assistance with opening a surgery office with proper licensure
- Review and provide marketing strategies
- Assist with staff structuring, hiring, employment agreements, job descriptions
- Selection of proper devices based on the demographic, skill set of current or hired staff
- Assistance with device acquisition and negotiation of pricing
- Training protocols for devices and other treatments
- Assist with creating a pricing menu, logo, website, etc.
If you’re ready to get started opening your med spa, contact us today and let us help you create the perfect business based on your vision.
Image Credit: iStock / Getty Images
