Aesthetics Business Management Ideas for Your Business Plan

Interested in starting your own medical aesthetics business? If so, you’re making a wise choice. Aesthetic procedures, such as laser treatments, hair removal, and dermal fillers, have risen rapidly in popularity over the past few years. 

Today, the medical aesthetics industry employs more than 70,000 people, and the average med spa pulls in nearly $2 million in revenue per year.

Before you open your doors, you need an ironclad medical aesthetics business plan to guide you along the way. Here’s what your medical aesthetics business plan should include.

Aspects of an Aesthetics Business Management Plan

If you’re wondering how to open a Botox clinic or other type of med spa, you simply can’t go without a medical aesthetics business plan. Failing to make a business plan is like flying an airplane without any instruments. You may cruise smoothly for a while, but sooner or later, you’re bound to hit turbulence that’ll knock you off course.

Below, you’ll learn about the most important aspects to include in your medical spa business plan.

Marketing

As a new business owner, it’s smart to consider how you’ll market your aesthetic services. Before you start throwing money at advertising, do some market research to figure out your ideal clients first.

For instance, you could target clients who are:

• Female
• College-educated
• High-income
• High achievers in their career field

Once you’ve nailed down your target market, think about the marketing strategy you’ll use to attract them. Ask yourself: Where does your ideal patient like to hang out online (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc.)? What are their hobbies? What type of advertising and marketing plan do they respond to?

Now that you know more about your target clients, you’re ready to spread the word about your medical aesthetics practice. Digital marketing and offline advertising options for your medical spa include:

• Buying PPC (pay-per-click) ads on Google and other search engines
• Running social media ad campaigns
• Email marketing
• Writing guest blog posts for high-traffic websites to drive some of that traffic to your own site via backlinks
• Placing ads in local newspapers and magazines
• Sending flyers to the mailboxes of prospective patients

If you’re unsure what to say in your advertising, try offering a discount on medical aesthetic treatments. Your call-to-action message could be something like “Get 10% off your first hair removal treatment.”

Human Resources

Your business plan should include a human resources plan even if your medical spa hasn’t hired a full team yet. This plan will guide your aesthetic practice when you start the hiring process, and it’s also a must-have for good investor relations. Investors will want to know about your corporate culture and payroll administration costs before they commit to your new company.

To make an HR plan, medical aesthetic practices can follow this general outline:

• Think about what your HR department will need.
• Decide how you’ll recruit talent.
• Write down your performance standards.
• Develop a training program for new employees.

In the HR section of your business plan, include aspects such as:

• Payscale: How much will you pay aesthetic clinic staff? You can look up average market salaries for different roles on sites such as Payscale and Salary.com.
• Insurance: Will you offer your employees health and dental insurance? Individual insurance is expensive, but some insurance companies may be willing to give you a bulk rate.
• Vacation time: How much vacation time will you give to employees? Vacation time can be an appealing benefit, so consider offering a generous number of vacation days to attract top-tier talent.
• Other benefits: What other benefits will you offer? Benefits employees look for include paid time off (PTO), floating holidays, a 401(k), and life insurance.

Finances

When making your business plan, include a five-year financial outlook that covers cash flow, balance sheets, and your income statement. For your first year of operation, you should break your financial statement down by month or quarter. You can use an annual statement for every year after that.

Your financial statement should include each of the following items.

Cash Flow

Cash flow statements help you figure out how much money you’ll need to start your business and keep it profitable. Consider:

• Start-up expenses, such as permits, licenses, and office supplies
• Business insurance
• Salaries for each nurse, medical professional, and aesthetic practitioner

Balance Sheets

Your balance sheet should document your assets and liabilities. Think of assets as investments that will generate profits for you in the future. Liabilities include money that you owe to other parties and have to pay back.

Income Statement

Also called a profit and loss statement, an income statement shows whether or not you turned a profit.

Small Business Aesthetic Equipment

What equipment will medical practitioners need at your aesthetics clinic? It’s tempting to go overboard and buy as much equipment as you can afford, but it may be smarter to only stick to the essentials at first.

A few essential pieces of equipment to purchase include:

• Sterilizing equipment: Tools you use in aesthetic medicine can infect a potential patient if you don’t sanitize them properly. That’s why you simply can’t go without sterilizing equipment at your medical aesthetics business.
• Injectable tools: Will your clinic offer dermal fillers, hair loss treatments, or Botox? If so, you’ll need to buy needles or cannulas (blunt-tipped injection devices). Ask your plastic surgeons and physician assistants which type to buy if you’re unsure.
• Laser equipment: Buying laser equipment allows your clinic to offer minimally invasive treatments such as tattoo removal, cellulite removal, acne treatment, and skin resurfacing.
• Office Equipment: On top of the Aesthetic specific tools and equipment, don’t forget any traditional office you might need for daily operations. Phones, scheduling software, texting, patient intake forms, etc. These basic tools are essential to the success of your business, but can be costly. Consider a bundled solution like Weave’s Aesthetics Phones and Software to not only save money but earn more money by attracting and retaining customers.
• Other equipment: This includes equipment such as massage tables, facial steamers, magnifying lamps, and microdermabrasion machines.

Compliance

Starting a medical aesthetics clinic can be lucrative and rewarding, but don’t forget about compliance. If you don’t include compliance in your plan, you run the risk of your medical practice breaking local and state laws.

Failure to adhere to compliance laws can subject you to consequences such as losing your good standing, paying penalties and fines, and losing limited liability protection, which means a court could order you to use your personal assets to pay off debts.

Laws, regulations, and business requirements vary greatly depending on where you’ve set up shop. In general, though, you’ll need to:

• Pay your employees on time
• Protect your computers and software from unauthorized access
• Keep accurate records
• File and pay taxes on time
• Handle sensitive data appropriately to avoid violating HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules

Client Journey & Experience

The client journey describes how potential patients interact with your brand at different stages. This journey has five stages you’ll need to plan for.

• Awareness: In this stage, potential clients realize they have a problem (such as acne scars or unsightly hair they’d like to remove).
• Consideration: Patients realize they need a service or product and begin to compare different businesses or brands.
• Decision: At the decision stage, patients have picked a solution and are ready to schedule service.
• Retention: Patients have spent money with you and decide to remain with your company rather than choose another.
• Loyalty: Patients actively promote your business to their family and friends.

You should have a plan to guide clients through each stage of their journey. Blog posts, how-to guides, and promotions are effective tools that can encourage new patients to buy from and stay loyal to your business.

To learn more about best practices for med spas, download our Med Spa Business Insights Report.

Aesthetics Business Plan Tips

Here are a few more tips to help you make a rock-solid medical aesthetics business plan.

Do Your Research

It’s critical to research your target audience before you open your doors for the first time. Failing to do this could mean you’ll waste time and money trying to attract the wrong clients.

You’ll need to choose a great location for your medical aesthetics practice too. Pick a location where people have enough disposable income to spend on your spa services.

Be Realistic

Many new business owners start off with stars in their eyes only to crash and burn later because their expectations simply weren’t realistic. You may have big dreams, but it’s best to keep your business plan grounded in reality.

Don’t overestimate how much you’ll profit or underestimate how much money it takes to keep your business running. If you fail to plan for unexpected costs, your business could shut down faster than you can blink.

According to Lending Tree, about 20% of businesses fail in the first year. Don’t let this happen to you!

Get Feedback

Feedback from clients can be invaluable to new businesses. After clients do business with you, ask questions like:

• Was the aesthetician friendly and professional?
• How long did you have to wait for your appointment?
• Was the waiting room and office clean?
• Is there anything we can do better?

Weave makes it easy for you to collect patient feedback. With Weave Reviews, you can automate review requests and get instant notifications when clients leave you feedback.

Update Your Plan Regularly

Think of your business plan as a living document. As your clinic grows, so should your business plan. Update your plan at least once per year or whenever your clinic goes through any big changes.

Get Your New Business Off to a Strong Start With Weave

Now that you’ve made your medical aesthetics business plan, we welcome you to give Weave a try! Our software allows your practice to schedule patients online, automatically send appointment reminders, request reviews, and stay on top of payments.

Call us at 833-572-2139 to learn more or book a demo today.