What Makes a Medical Spa Successful?

By: Alex Thiersch

When a medical spa succeeds, it’s likely because its owners and operators pay attention to every detail that impacts the business. Here are 10 reasons medical spas thrive.

1. They are treated as their own separate businesses. A medical spa cannot be treated as an extension of a doctor’s office or a plastic surgery practice. It must be run as a separate business with its own business plan, profit-and-loss statements, and manager. It is a different type of business, and it must be run in a different way.

2. Their operators must accept that they are more akin to retail stores. Medical spa offerings are purely elective, and do not deal with insurance providers. As such, they have more in common with day spas than more traditional medical practices. Conscientious owners and operators realize this and make efforts to fit into the retail market as much—if not more—than the medical market.

3. They employ traditional business techniques. They create business plans, make budgets, create goals, and monitor the day-to-day operations in ways that reflect the retail market, which is where a large part of the business exists.

4. They track sales and marketing metrics. Along those same lines, those who have begun working with medical spas are compiling as much data as they can in order to determine what’s working and what isn’t. They track and measure everything and then tailor projections and goals accordingly.

5. They find a niche and market to it…hard. They concentrate on one particular treatment—such as CoolSculpting, laser hair removal, or injectables—and market themselves as experts. It also lowers overhead, because there’s no need for a practice that specializes in CoolSculpting to have a ton of injectables around, for example.

6. They employ sales techniques. In traditional medical settings, salesmanship is considered gauche. However, as has already been established, medical spas are different. The medical spa that sells itself and its services most effectively will be the one that succeeds.

7. They invest in good people. Medical spa employees should be knowledgeable people who are good at selling, who understand the business, and who believe in the products and treatments they’re offering. Successful medical spas simply do not employ inefficient people who are not making them money.

8. They invest in processes. Profitable medical aesthetics practices have processes in place to convert customer interest into sales. They tend to have initial interactions with prospective clients laid out, scripted, and rehearsed so the staff knows exactly what to say and do when somebody expresses interest. 

9. They are compliant. Medical spa owners and operators must understand and follow the rules and regulations of the state in which they conduct business. Consult with a local healthcare attorney if you haven’t already.

10. They have fun. The best medical spa staffs understand that this is a fun business. They don’t try to be something they’re not, and they enjoy coming into work every day.

Learn more about how you can build a profitable and successful med spa at the next AmSpa Med Spa Boot Camp. 

This article was originally published in American Spa Magazine. 

Discover more industry articles under our AmSpa News section. 

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