How to Start a Med Spa Business: A Comprehensive Guide
Medical spas have exploded in popularity in recent years, and that may have you interested in starting a business of your own. Med spas are a combination of medical practices and traditional spas.
While there are certain services that may require a medical professional to carry out, others can be completed by a licensed aesthetician. Med spas stand out from traditional spas because they incorporate cosmetic procedures to provide clients with a full-service menu of treatments.
Understanding the Med Spa Market
Before you launch your med spa small business, analyse the market trends and the demand for your area. If the market is saturated, you may have to set up your business further afield, but it's important that you identify your target audience, how you will reach them, and what competition you have in the area.
What treatments are customers demanding? There's no point opening a spa med business if you can't deliver the most popular treatments, so familiarise yourself with what's working by taking a look at what your competition is doing. Are they serving your target audience, or are they catering to a different client?
You need to know where you fit in the puzzle. In the meantime, you can attend conferences, take courses to enhance your knowledge, tour local med spas, and use your knowledge to put together a full-service menu that speaks to your audience.
Services and Treatments
There is a wide range of common medical spa services, but cosmetic procedures lead the way because this is what sets these businesses apart from traditional spas.
Injectables like Botox, lip flips, and fillers are some of the most commonly sought out med spa treatments. However, many med spas offer treatments like body contouring, skincare, facials, and laser treatments.
Of course, you have to tick the boxes of the traditional day spa by providing a range of massage services, and you can take a massage course to expand your skills. Hot stone, full-body, upper body, sports, pregnancy, Swedish, and even music therapy massage will help you attract new clients.
There's a lot of money to be made in the wellness and medical aesthetics industry, so it's an excellent field to enter with a well-defined startup business. However, understanding profitability and which treatments will bring in the most revenue is key to establishing a solid healthcare business.
Legal and Regulatory Requirements
There are legal and regulatory requirements for every industry, but it's so important that you understand what regulations and licensing you are under in your area. Failure to do so might not just put your operation out of business before it has a chance to get started, but you could face fines of up to $100,000 for defiance.
In addition to the licensing, you will need to ensure you train your staff properly around regulations, patient privacy, and the safe use of medical devices. In many cases, it’s also necessary or recommended to appoint a medical director, who is a qualified doctor, to oversee clinical procedures and ensure regulatory compliance. Training records are a must to show auditors that you have completed all the legal steps to operate safely and legally. Your best bet is to enlist a qualified lawyer to help you set up the legal side of things.
Staffing and Operations
The type of staff you need will depend on the menu of treatments you decide to offer. However, staffing and operations are key to business management, so customer service skills are a must. Registered medical practitioners can carry out cosmetic injectables in Australia, and that includes doctors, nurses, and dentists, and that is something to think about as you build a team that works.
There is no national standard when it comes to laser treatment, so check with your state regulations to ensure you stay on the right side of the law. Places like Western Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania require operators to hold a license for laser treatment.
Marketing and Business Management
Marketing and business management are key to successful entrepreneurship, but start with developing your marketing strategy. Think about your brand identity, the colour scheme, the logo, the name of your business, and the message this sends.
There's no point pouring money into marketing unless you know who you're targeting, where they spend their time, and how to reach them specifically with your business offering. Social media is a great place to place targeted ads, be ruthless in the specificity of who your ads are for, otherwise you'll be paying for someone seven hours away to see your ad.
Word of mouth is a big piece of the marketing puzzle, so deliver the highest level of treatment and customer service to build your business.
Essential Equipment and Supplies
The equipment and supplies you need will depend on the treatments you decide to offer, but essentials include medical-grade gloves, disinfectants, gowns, numbing creams, bandages, comfortable chairs for treatments, drapes for privacy if you don't have individual rooms, needles, and injectables.
Final Thoughts
While there are many steps to getting your med spa up and running, the first step is to figure out what regulations control the industry so you know you're equipped with the necessary training. If you're not, you can either pursue further training or ensure you hire someone who ticks the right legal boxes to get your business off the ground. Ultimately, it all comes down to thorough planning and careful preparation.