We know starting a new aesthetics practice or medspa can be scary, especially if you’re new to the field!
That’s why we’ve put together this helpful guide to take you through some of the important points of starting your new practice.
By referencing these field-tested tips and suggestions, you’ll be well on your way to starting a profitable and successful practice that you love!
When you’re starting up a new practice, an important aspect of helping you get your first patients is understanding their journey from their first search for a provider to their initial inquiry through to the consultation and finally their first appointment.
In order to have a successful aesthetic practice, you need to have effective advertising to attract people to your business.
This includes spending those marketing dollars effectively and having a team of staff that are well informed.
When you’re starting up a new practice, an important aspect of helping you get your first patients is understanding their journey from their first search for a provider to their initial inquiry through to the consultation and finally their first appointment.
When you’re starting up a new practice, an important aspect of helping you get your first patients is understanding their journey from their first search for a provider to their initial inquiry through to the consultation and finally their first appointment.
Here are 5 strategies to help you retain happy patients and ensure you aren’t losing them to another practice!
Every practice and every business needs to market themselves. But it’s easy for marketing to become a big black hole that consumes all of your hard earned profits!
Knowing your goals and having a solid marketing plan to support them is vital to creating a successful and profitable aesthetics practice or medspa.
It can be hard to know where to start when you’re trying to price out your treatments. Your job isn’t to be cheapest option. Your job is to communicate the value of what you’re offering and ensure you’re getting paid what your service is worth.
In order to run a successful and profitable aesthetic medicine practice, you need to be able to track different parts of your practice to ensure you’re on track to meet your targets.
The IAPAM recommends you contact the manufacturers directly to order any neurotoxins or fillers for your new practice.
Xeomin, Boletero
www.MerzAesthetics.com
Dysport®, Restylane®, Perlane®
www.GaldermaUSA.com
Botox®, Juvederm
www.Allergan.com
Thorne Supplements
Contact: Morgan Seidel
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 843-408-6857
www.thorne.com/u/IAPAM
Cartessa Aesthetics
Charles Chapman
P: (720) 891-3541
E: [email protected]
www.cartessaaesthetics.com
PCA Skin
Kelly Wehnert, 480-281-5379
[email protected]
www.pcaskin.com
Audrey Neff
(407) 793-9254
[email protected]
www.patientnow.com
Lorraine Whitney
(415) 475-4300
[email protected]
www.ppibcorp.com
Cohen Healthcare Group
(310) 844-3173
Website: cohenhealthcarelaw.com
PatientPop/Tebra
[email protected]
www.iapam.com/patientpop
Authentic Marketing Solutions
John David Jessome
(877) 490-7772
[email protected]
www.iapam.com/AMSagency
Constant Contact
www.iapam.com/constantcontact
Bankers Healthcare Group
Scott Brennan, 315-256-9748
[email protected]
Website: iapam.bhgchoice.com
To some, this may seem like an unnecessary and costly expense. But it will be well worth it in the long run.
The right consultant can bring experience, knowledge and advice to your operation.
Opening a medical practice is like opening a small business. You need to have the proper tools in place to ensure that you succeed.
A consultant can help you align these factors. They can help you identify your goals.
You will develop a solid business plan to ensure your success. They will also help you align your priorities:
You don’t have to hire a consultant. You can choose to go the DIY (Do It Yourself) route alone.
Or combine both DIY with medical spa consulting.
Consider attending a comprehensive physician education program like the Aesthetic Medicine Symposium. You will learn the clinical skills needed to inject cosmetic injectables.
And you will also learn how to start and operate a profitable practice.
A consultant can assist you with choosing your location this by providing research. It’s vital to understand the importance and value of selecting a location for your practice. You want a location that is right for you and your clients.
Try to do your research by investigating the area you’re looking to locate in. Ask questions such as:
You want your reception area to make a positive first impression.
Upon walking in, have soft music playing. Ensure that design pallets are calm and serene. You want your patients to feel this way while they are waiting.
Avoid aggressive colors, such as oranges and reds. These can induce anxiety levels.
Next, ensure that there is ample seating. Design your seating plan with function and privacy in mind. It’s a nice touch to surround the seating with greenery, such as plants or grasses (real or artificial). Fresh cut flowers on the reception desk are a nice touch.
All of these design factors can help you to enrich the customer’s impression of your practice. Your one-time patients and your returning patients will each appreciate your welcoming decor!
A poor design setup can contribute to your patient’s sense of anxiety. This will impact their impression of the level of care that they are about to receive and decision about whether to come back or not.
In an aesthetic practice, you need to appeal to your niche audience. It is likely that the patron visiting your practice is concerned about health and beauty. They will be interested in such topics.
Have ample information and literature around the office to help to sell your services.
If you are performing a weight loss treatment such as the Clean Start Weight Loss Program®, advertise a cross-sell treatment such as laser hair removal.
Or advertise your skincare services, if applicable.
Have pamphlets, magazines and even a cycling TV ad system that informs and educates the patrons of the options and benefits of your services.
In aesthetic practices, your patient is being treated on an intimate level. It is very important that they feel the environment in which they are being treated is clean and sanitary.
Make sure that the exterior and interior of the building is clean and free of debris. Carpets should be clean and stain free.
Chairs should be made of materials that are not stained absorbing. And the waiting area should be neutral smelling but fresh.
If you have windows and there are no cool drafts, it’s a nice touch to have one ajar so to let in some fresh air.
This is an often overlooked aspect of the physical design qualities of your practice, but so incredibly important.
The receptionist is the first point of contact in your practice with your patrons. Hire a pleasant receptionist with a warm disposition. It can impact your patrons in a positive way.
Having a positive experience with your reception can make or break their opinion of your practice and the services you offer. It can be the difference between a returning or non-returning patient.
A warm smile and word of kindness will help any patrons nervous about their treatments. They will feel more at ease.
It’s important to set yourself apart from your competitors. Independently operated medical practices are seeing rapid grwoth in urban areas. They’re seen as a commodity. In order to differentiate yourself, you don’t want to be considered a commodity.
The best way to do this is to ensure that you have a comprehensive and strategic practice marketing plan.
Much like what the IAPAM teaches in its Secrets to a Successful Practice workhop. This includes on-line media channels, television, print, and exceptional customer service.
Consider hiring a marketing firm to help you achieve your marketing goals.
A marketing firm will help you address your strategic goals for your business. They will get you set up in the various marketing channels that will help to advertise your business.
Once you have done so, you should examine your approach to your marketing channels.
In a medical practice, how you treat your customers will ultimately dictate your success. It’s the same in any service-oriented service.
It won’t matter how great your TV commercial is, how in-depth your website works, or how many flyers you print: if you don’t have good customer relations, you won’t see the success you’re hoping for.
On the other hand, if a client has an exceptional experience, their personal review of your business to their friends and family will be the best marketing that you could hope for.
This is especially true in the medical aesthetic business. You are being trusted to perform personal and often intimate procedures on people. Your abilities and ethics will be under examination by your patients.
So far, in your journey to open your Medical Practice, you’ve established your location, your marketing, your client target market and your design elements. These are all important factors to the success and longevity of your practice.
The final and most important step to establishing a successful practice is:
Hiring and forming a solid employee base.
To run a successful practice you need to have keen and knowledgeable staff on board. Before you hire anyone, you should make a list of some key attributes that you are looking for. For example:
Once you have determined the key attributes you’re looking for in a potential hire, it’s time to reach out to these people.
There are a lot of helpful resources on the internet that will help you get ready for posting jobs and the process from interviewing to signing a contract.
The first step will be to write out a job positing that clearly defines what you are offering and what you are looking for.
Utilize word of mouth, local ads, and professional job search websites to advertise your job posting.
When it comes to interviewing your potentials, make sure that you go into this process well prepared.
From evaluating resumes to structuring phone and in-person interviews, to making reference calls – it is essential that you get it right.
You don’t want to miss out on a great potential hire because you were not prepared for your part of the hiring process.
Consider contacting an HR consultant to assist you if needed.
Finally, when making your final decision in the hiring process, try to hire the best person that will be with you in the long term.
Your patients will want to see familiar faces when they come for return visits. Plus you certainly don’t want to train new staff over and over instead of focusing on your patients and growing your aesthetic practice.
You need to have somebody on board that is experienced enough to run their part of the practice and understand the realities of a start-up.
This is especially important when you’re starting up! You only have one chance to make a great first impression!
Make sure that you give your staff access to information and literature about the products and services that you are offering.
They should also have about advances in the medical field that are pertinent to your practice.
By keeping them informed and providing them with quality, consistent training, they will provide great customer service and assist in the selling aspect of your medical spa.
Ongoing feedback to your staff and continuing training and development will ensure that you will be able to retain your staff for the long haul.
Having long-term staff to work with at your practice will make your patients happy. It will also make it easier for you to run your medical spa.
Having someone around you that is knowledgeable, competent, and supportive makes for a great work environment!
It will be a tremendous asset when it comes to hiring and training more staff once your practice is ready to expand. And will be motivating for you as well!
By hiring and training the right individuals, your practice will run smoothly. You will be able to provide the customer service standards that will keep your clients coming back again and again.
And your clients will refer your practice to their social network!
First impressions are lasting. The décor of a front window, the bright colors of an awning or the ease and availability of a website can ultimately determine whether or not that prospective patient chooses you.
The same goes for the positioning of your medical practice. Physical location, client accessibility, ease of on-line navigation and availability are all factors that can make or break your medical practice.
The first and most important factor in determining the right location for your practice is to do your research. Get out there and get to know the area that you are looking to open in. Questions to ask yourself about this location may include:
Once you have covered all these bases while choosing the location for your medical practice, it’s important to pay attention to some other physical aspects that will attract your practice to potential patients. This can include:
Use Google and Bing SEO to bring in patients. People use search engines to look up everything.
A clinic’s potential patients are also Google and Bing Users. To get their attention you need SEO marketing. SEO helps generate traffic and offers a high rate of conversion.
People who open your website by looking up SEO keywords are those who actually need your services.
A practice can significantly benefit from using keywords targeted at the local audience and attract more patients to their clinic.
Once you have brought your patient in the door, help ease their worries of long waits and potential ailments by providing a calm and serene environment inside.
Soothing music, soft lighting, and a warm greeting from a friendly receptionist can do wonders and make a wonderful first impression.
Always ensure that the waiting room is tidy, smells clean and has new and well-kept literature (magazines, etc.) for the customers to read.
Provide comfortable and practical furniture and lots of space for people to sit. If you are catering to families, it’s a very nice touch to have a children’s play area where the little ones can be entertained.
There are many factors and criteria to study when deciding on a location for your medical practice.
Take the time to research the area and all the factors listed above to make the best choice for your physical location.
Your practice is viewed as a commodity that is offering a competitive service. Physical location will most definitely impact how people perceive you.
Now that you’ve decided on the perfect location for your medical practice, you need to decide how to appeal to your patrons once they walk in your door.
You’ve managed to identify the importance of a high traffic location. You’ve considered ease of access to transit, ample parking, in a well-lit area and in a reputable clean neighborhood.
Next, you must consider what will impact your patrons in the most positive way once they enter your establishment. Marketing your medical practice takes careful preparation.
Consider these 3 important factors when it comes to the interior of your medical practice:
Reception areas, or waiting areas, are just as important for making a good impression as the exterior of the practice. Sometimes, medical offices can be a place that invokes stress and anxiety for patients.
It is important to provide a waiting area that is calm and serene, so that your patients feel this way while they are waiting.
Ways to achieve this include a relaxing paint and design palette of muted colors such as greens, blues and off-whites.
Steer clear of aggressive colors, such as oranges and reds, which can often aggravate anxiety levels. Provide a musical soundtrack of relaxing spa or nature sounds to ease your patients’ tension.
Provide ample and comfortable seating areas. Make sure the area is clean, smells fresh and doesn’t look cluttered.
Include greenery like plants or grasses (real or artificial) around the office. Or even fresh cut flowers on the reception desk. All of these design qualities can really enhance the overall impression of your practice.
Your patients may spend a lot of time in this waiting area. If it is not designed properly (cluttered, too loud, too colorful), it can increase unease and reduce the patient’s sense of security.
This can impact their impression of the level of care that they are about to receive.
Waiting to see a doctor while you’re unwell or even waiting for an elective procedure that you’ve scheduled can be very hard.
You’re uncomfortable, likely tired and hoping to get this over with as soon as possible. How can you make this easier for your patients?
Simply put: communicate with them.
Provide some informational signage that gets personal with your patients. Speak to your patients’ concerns with signage. Don’t hesitate to display a small biography of the doctor, as well as any other useful information about the doctor.
It’s important to give your patients something useful to do while they’re waiting. If you can provide free Wi-Fi so that people can be connected while they’re waiting, you should.
Have a wide selection of new condition magazines on a variety of subjects (ensure that the magazines are not tattered and in disrepair, as it can contribute to an overall sense of disarray in the office).
Provide a play area for children so that they can be entertained while waiting. Equip your practice with a few televisions so people can have something to watch.
Subscribe to a program that loops information about health and wellness. Or shows nature scenes and facts, so to invoke a feeling of calm and distraction while your patients are waiting.
Don’t forget that men are also part of a profitable cosmetic practice.
There are many factors and criteria to study when deciding on a location for your medical practice.
Take the time to research the area and all the factors listed above to ensure you are making the best choice for your physical location.
To your success!
Since 2006, we have helped more than 10,000 licensed medical providers earn more and work less with our training programs.
We are the only Aesthetic Medicine training program available that has three board certified cosmetic dermatologists on their teaching faculty (and we actually list them on our website!).
Ensuring you learn from true experts of the skin.
We cover 4 aesthetic medicine practice areas: cosmetic injectables, laser/light, skin care (cosmeceuticals & chemical peels), along with the required business skills.
Without knowledge of all 4 areas, you will not make any significant money in the aesthetic medicine industry.
We provide both enduring and on-going practice support.
It is very important that you have continuing support in order to be successful.
Scottsdale, Arizona
Talk with a program advisor to discuss your hands-on or online training options for Botox®, Aesthetic Medicine and Medical Weight Management (GLP-1 inhibitors, semaglutide, tirzepatide and more).
The IAPAM has been helping physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants make more & work less with CME accredited certification& training in Botox®, Aesthetic Medicine and Medical Weight Management since 2006.
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