As a medical aesthetics provider, there are plenty of paths open to you during your career development depending on how you want to practice. If opening a medical aesthetics office of your own is on your list of career goals, you’re going to need to prepare your office and yourself for the best chance at success. Here are the top five tips you need to know to ensure you’re well positioned before opening your first aesthetics practice.

Your Practice Won’t Succeed Without a Defined Brand

A well-defined brand conveys what patients can expect the moment they enter your new aesthetics practice, so be sure to spend some time evaluating the needs and expectations of your ideal client. Once you’ve defined them, create a brand message that appeals to those needs and expectations while remaining on point across all of your marketing efforts, including your space and services. In other words, branding is about more than a practice name, logo, or slogan—a successful branding strategy also includes consistent typefaces, strategic word choices (think “exclusive” for luxury clients vs “affordable” for more budget-conscious millennials), a defined color scheme, a well-chosen office location, thoughtful decor, a customized waiting room design, and much more. If you’re unsure of your plans, call in an expert to look over everything prior to taking your first concrete step towards opening your first medical aesthetics practice. They can ensure you’re hitting the mark from the get-go and flag any potentially costly mistakes before they cost you much more than the expert’s fee.

Know that Your Prices Convey More Than Income

Determining your prices can be one of the most challenging aspects of any business. Knowing your ideal client is key to setting prices, as well as understanding how pricing can help distinguish your new practice from your competition, maintain good customer relations, and help the business stay afloat, all while ensuring the work is given the proper value. While prices may equate to income for you, to prospective patients, they signal the value they can expect to receive from your services. For this reason, it’s important to price services as investments for more high-end clients or consider smaller, more affordable service packages if you’re targeting more budget-minded clients. Offering lower prices doesn’t have to mean undercutting the value of your services. Instead, it may be as simple as offering payment plans or altering your pricing model to per-treatment rather than a set rate for a boutique treatment plan to allow for better customizability based on a client’s budget. While there are a number of strategies you can use to determine prices, smart pricing strategies begin with setting a base price that is in line with your practice’s marketing strategy based on factors such as the cost of equipment, space, staff time, overheads, and margins.

Your Target Client Should Always Be Top of Mind

Your marketing efforts will likely take up a lot of your time, but they’re well worth it when you’re first establishing a reputation for your new medical aesthetics clinic. Even social media marketing should be well planned and in line with your defined brand, always! Don’t waver between messages in the hopes of picking up a little traffic from a trending hashtag if it’s not in line with your marketing strategy. Shifting between luxe and affordable, for example, can be confusing and appear inauthentic to prospective patients. Instead, approach every single piece of marketing material—from in-office brochures to advertisements, tweets to press releases—with intention. Know your message and stick to it always. It may take time for your ideal clients to follow, but as you stick like glue to your marketing strategy, you’ll earn their trust and with that comes increased business, a fuller schedule, valued and loyal clientele, and less time spent on marketing efforts once patient recommendations and online reviews start to boost conversions.

Hiring a High-Performing Team Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought

When it comes to hiring the right staff for your first medical aesthetics practice, begin with a solid hiring strategy. The first step should be to determine the number and character of each role your practice will need to succeed. This may include (or exclude, depending on your clinic’s size and services to start) aestheticians, injectors, treatment providers, patient care coordinators, receptionists, marketing associates, medical assistants, and a medical director if you’re unable to fill that role yourself. Pare down this list to what will be essential to launch your business and create a plan for further hiring based on business goals and growth down the line. When interviewing prospective employees, always look for skills and values that align with your clinic’s marketing strategy and seek out individuals who are eager to learn and grow with your clinic. When it comes time to make an offer, start with strong fundamentals like fair wages and realistic benefits before all else. Be consistent and equitable, and cover your bases in terms of fair pay and proper labor practices from day one.

The Right Medical Aesthetic Devices Can Make All the Difference

Procuring the right equipment may be one of the most time-consuming tasks. You’ll want to research technologies, warranties, and service agreements, as well as pricing and marketing support. Further still, it’s important to make a well-thought-out choice between what may be the best value based on the services you’re hoping to offer to your target clients. A versatile multi-application platform that can perform the most popular, non-invasive medical aesthetic treatments can be well worth the investment to broaden the potential number of clients your clinic can serve, as well as offering customized treatment plans based on an individual’s aesthetic goals. In comparison, investing in a specialized state-of-the-art aesthetics system may be better suited to a clinic with a branding strategy that focuses on fewer, more specific services or those who are targeting clients with darker skin tones. As well, in addition to the technical aspects, consider your return on investment, whether a device can grow with your business, and any payment options for acquiring the system. These devices will become the backbone of your medical aesthetics practice, so be sure to take the time to do your research and speak to the experts.Written by: Venus Concept