How to Create a Successful Business Plan for Your New Aesthetic Practice

If you’re deciding to start your own new aesthetic practice or open a new location, congratulations! Starting a new aesthetic practice is an exciting venture and an amazing big step. However, with getting started, it’s important you take all of the proper and necessary steps for your long-term success and profitability. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), nearly 50% of businesses fail within the first 5 years. You don’t want to be a part of that statistic. Instead, you want your practice to prosper and thrive for the long haul.

Thus, to increase your chances of success, one of the most essential priorities is to have a clear understanding of how to create a successful business plan for your practice that outlines your vision, goals, plans and strategies. In this blog post, we’ll delve into why it’s significant to have a strong business plan and explain what the key components of a business plan are.

Creating a Successful Business Plan: Why Is It Important

A business plan is a written document that outlines how your business will achieve its goals from operational, administrative, marketing, and financial viewpoints. It covers everything, from the people involved to your location and equipment, as well as the money needed to fund your new business and how it will be generated and repaid.

Preparing a business plan is not only important for a new business but also for established ones that are expanding or moving to a new location. It serves as a tool for reviewing progress and ensuring that the business stays on track. The financial section of the plan is particularly important for investors or lenders, as they want to know how they will get their money back. As a result, a business plan should include detailed revenue and profitability projections, P&Ls for the next few years, and a repayment plan for any loans or investments.

Writing a business plan is essentially creating an autobiography of your business, explaining who you are, what you want to achieve, and how you plan to do it.

Sections of a Successful Business Plan

The creation and execution of a proper business plan consists of four major steps: forecast, plan, execution and review/re-review.

Forecast

The planning of an assumed or calculated idea toward your goal. This step involves research and insights about the economy, demographic study and analysis of your target market. It includes a proposed location, segmentation, needs, strategy, trends and growth. Likewise, it should have a feasibility study, an evaluation of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, financial projections, and more.

Plan

Consists of the actual steps involved to execute your operational, administrative and financial plans to run and grow your practice. This section typically includes outlines the company’s products or services, marketing strategy, organizational structure and financial projections. The end results of your practice’s success and profitability can be determined through this plan.

Execution

This is by far the hardest step. It requires multiple people and vendors to work together to realize the plan and you’ll need technology and equipment. The people you work with can include your accountant, your attorney, your website/marketing vendors, your consultants and your medical staff. Essentially all the people involved in the execution of your plan. Since you have multiple people working to execute, you have to depend on human resources. Human resources, by far is the most important resource because they will make and break any business. It’s also important to manage personalities as they can sometimes get in the way. Ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.

Review

The review process is crucial. The plan needs to be reviewed multiple times to ensure that it’s working and achieving the desired results. This includes monitoring costs, interest rates, inventory and supply chain management.

It’s important you review and re-review your business plan on a regular basis. In the beginning, it may be necessary to review the plan weekly, but eventually, quarterly reviews should suffice. It’s also important to have a forecast in place from the very beginning to guide the plan. This ensures that you’re on track to achieving your goals.

Business Plan Components: Marketing

Now that we understand the steps of a business plan, let’s discuss the important components that go into it. The first one of these is marketing. In marketing, there are four essential elements known as the four P’s of marketing.

The first P is product or service. This refers to the products or services that your practice will offer. If you start a cosmetic surgery practice, you may offer surgical procedures, laser treatments, dermal fillers, neuromodulators and skincare products.

The second P is price. This determines how much you will charge for your products and services. Take into consideration consumer needs, perceived value and production costs.

The third P is promotion. It refers to how you will raise awareness of your business and position your offerings in the industry. This includes advertising and public relations (PR) outreach.

Finally, the fourth P is place. This involves where and how your business will sell or promote your offerings. Location can be a critical factor in the success of a business. Careful consideration should be given to selecting the right place to operate or sell your services and products.

Business Plan Components: Operational & Administrative

The operational component of your business plan outlines the processes and procedures needed to acquire, retain and service patients in your business. This also includes adhering to federal, state and local laws, staying up-to-date on industry advancements through continuing medical education and selecting good vendors for supplies and equipment.

On the other hand, the administrative component of your business plan deals with the management and organizational structure of your practice. This includes your staff and team members, their salary/compensation and their unique roles in the practice. It’s important to consider necessary team members you’ll need to hire, budgeting and regulatory compliance to ensure that your business is operating efficiently and effectively.

Business Plan Components: Financial

The financial component of your business plan can be one of the most challenging and uncomfortable sections to write. However, it is crucial to include it in order to attract investors and lenders. The financial component should encompass a startup summary or past performance table, bank and tax statements, a personnel table with wages and salaries, cash flow statements, break-even analysis, balance sheet, and a feasibility study.

A startup summary or past performance table is important for analyzing the continuation of running your existing business or starting your brand new business. Your bank and tax statements provide information about the amounts and history of your company’s finances. This is important to lenders and investors. Your table of personnel, wages and salaries is critical for understanding the cost of human resources and ensuring that your company is adequately staffed. Cash flow statements, break-even analysis, balance sheet and feasibility study all provide insight into the financial health of your practice, including revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities.

Overall, the financial component of your business plan should provide a comprehensive overview of the company’s finances. This includes historical performance and future projections. It is essential to have a clear understanding of the financial aspects of the business in order to secure funding and ensure long-term profitability.

Conclusion

In conclusion, opening and maintaining a successful aesthetic practice requires careful planning and execution. A thorough business plan is necessary. It serves as a tool for reviewing progress and ensuring that the business stays on track. The four major steps of a business plan include forecast, plan, execution, and review/re-review. Each step plays a crucial role in the success of the business. The marketing, operational, administrative and financial components of the plan are essential for achieving the business’s goals. With a well-crafted business plan, attention to detail and constant review during its execution, your aesthetic practice can thrive and provide quality services to patients.

Schedule Free Consult & Learn More

If you want assistance and one-on-one coaching to successfully open your new aesthetic practice, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of experts! Schedule a free consult with our award-winning expert, Jay Shorr, to make sure that you’re on the right path to success!

To learn MORE about the specific steps you need to follow to successfully open and maintain your aesthetic practice, tune in to episode 85 of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast “How to Successfully Open & Maintain Your New Aesthetic Practice from A-Z ”!