Medical spas are becoming more and more popular and can be highly lucrative as a business. However, like any other business, if it isn’t planned properly, it can end before it’s begun.
So, to ensure your medi spa clinic is successful, you’ll need to carefully consider its development. Here are a few tips on how to get things running smoothly.
1. Find Your Specialization
If you have experience in the medical spa industry, you may think you’re able to offer a variety of treatments to your clients without a problem. However, it’s often best to start small and then work your way up to more.
Find a handful of treatments you can specialize in and focus on while you build your business. Make sure that your clients remember you for your impeccable service instead of becoming a jack of all trades and master of none.
Similarly, it’s important to offer a good variety to your clients. Although you should focus on perfecting the treatments you offer, if you offer too little, it may not be enough to bring your audience in.
2. Work out Your Finances
Are you funding the venture yourself? Do you need investors? Perhaps you’re interested in small business grants in your area.
However you intend on funding the business, you need to work out your finances and write down a business plan.
The business plan is for everyone’s benefit. Not only can you set your own business goals so you have something to work towards, but you also have something to refer to whenever you need to answer questions.
From financial investors to builders and architects, your business plan should depict what you need in order to achieve your vision. Most importantly, your business plan should indicate where you expect the business to be financially over the next five years.
3. Forsee Problems
A medical spa is a combination of western medicine and alternative medicine. It has the ability to cover all angles for people who would otherwise have to seek out different practices and clinics.
For example, someone diagnosed with breast cancer may be able to attend a medical spa for a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and be fitted for a wig at the same time.
You wouldn’t want this patient to have to work her way around the building, in front of every other patient or visitor in order to try on wigs. It’s important that she can easily and comfortably be treated for all aspects of her recovery.
Foreseeing problems means hiring a development team that can put themselves in the shoes of your potential patients and solve problems before they occur.
4. Choose Your Location
When it comes to starting any business, location is key. It’s no different when you’re setting up a medical spa. There are several things to consider before deciding on a perfect location.
Firstly, what’s your demographic? You need to research your desired areas and find out whether you’ll have enough of your demographic there to make the business a success.
Is the building easily accessible? Is there adequate parking for patients and visitors? Visit other medical spas nearby and collect zoning data that you can present to zoning boards so you avoid any issues or hold-ups.
5. Liase to Create a Products Menu
Every aspect of a medical spa has to work in coordination for it to be a success. One of those aspects is selling products and services together. Work with your doctor to create a menu that complements the services and treatments you provide.
It’s important that the medical staff are able to effectively promote and recommend the products that are on offer. So, liase with your medical team to create a menu that appeals to everyone. It’s often safer to work with tried and tested skincare ranges.
6. Create Policies and Procedures
If your policies and procedures aren’t in place before your business starts, you’re likely to fail. Without rules, staff and patients are left up to their own devices and the result is usually chaos.
You need to put firm policies and procedures in place before your doors open. This creates an establishment that everyone will respect. The majority of complaints from patients in a spa setting has nothing to do with what happens in the spa rooms and everything to do with what happens outside of them.
Your staff should abide by rules that are clearly set out from the beginning in order to create a harmony that resounds throughout the whole business.
7. Merge Medical and Spa
It’s one thing to have a doctor and a spa in the same premises, but it’s quite another to merge them into one business. As medical spas are still a fairly new concept, it can be difficult for patients to even envision be treated for everything under one roof.
Someone who is visiting their doctor may not even think about the possibility of a Cryotherapy business being in the same place. So, how do you change the way people think?
It all starts off with small steps. For instance, patients who initially come to see the doctor for a medical problem may be surprised to find that they can get a full treatment program, including spa treatments.
8. Get Medical Insurance
Making sure your business is completely covered by insurance is vital. However, it couldn’t be more important when it comes to providing medical care for patients. There will be times when your team is taking lives into their own hands, so those hands need to be covered.
Although it’s possible to cover both aspects of your business separately, it’s often better to get an insurance agent to draw up a cover plan that is unique to your business.
Since medical spas are a new business venture, there’s no blueprint for medical cover when it comes to purchasing your insurance. Talking through all aspects of your business with an agent will ensure you, your business, and your staff are covered properly.
9. Hire the Best
Although the spa industry tends to have a high turnover of staff, the medical industry does not. So, what can you take from the medical industry to ensure your business has happy and lasting staff members?
Firstly, it’s always advised that you hire people with numerous qualifications and experience in the industry. It’s also important to keep these people challenged—whether it be by new responsibilities or additional training.
Be sure to always treat your staff fairly and respectfully. Encourage good working relationships among your staff members, and always be ready to listen if there’s a problem.
If you get a team that you can rely on to work with you to reach your vision and stay at the business for years to come, you can build something unbreakable together.
10. Don’t Forget to Market
A medical spa is totally different from a doctor’s office. The patients in a doctor’s office haven’t been enticed there—they attend because they have to. The doctor’s office that’s merged with your spa will need to rely on marketing in order to get the patients through the door.
You’ll need to create a marketing plan that appeals to your target demographic. If your doctor already has a patient list and you have existing customers, you already have what you need to get started.
Create a mailing list and communicate the business idea to your current patients. Always follow-up correspondence just in case you have stragglers who want to take up the offer but never got around to it.
You can offer discounts to existing patients who introduce friends to the medical spa or some form of loyalty system to keep them coming back.
Keep Clients at the Forefront of Your Plans
Medical spas are innovative and they should stay that way. You can continue to improve your vision and business by always striving to fill a gap in the market. Your patients will come to you because they want the convenience of everything in one place.
What more could you offer them? How can you help to improve their overall care?
Building Your First Medi Spa Clinic
It can be daunting building your first medi spa clinic because there aren’t many who have done it before. Do your research into medical spas that are running successfully and there should be no reason why yours doesn’t succeed.