Starting Your Aesthetics Business - Part Three - Know Your Numbers

You need to make money and you need to recoup the cost of your aesthetics training. Otherwise, you have a very expensive hobby!

Most aesthetic practitioners, when they first start out, have a rather random approach to pricing Botox and fillers. Typically, they lean on instinct and what other clinicians around them are charging to decide what they will charge.

Whilst this approach is common, it’s not ideal. 

There are a variety of tried-and-tested pricing strategies available to small service-based businesses, like aesthetic clinics, which help attract the kind of clients you’re looking to attract AND help maximise profitability. All of them involve considering things like: 

• Your costs

• Your location

• Your competition

• Your value proposition

• Your reputation

• Your time

• Your profit margin

…but before you even think about the different pricing strategies, you have to know your basic costs. Both direct costs - the costs associated with actually delivering the treatment - the product, the needles, the gloves. And the indirect costs - insurance, rates, marketing and subscriptions.

Only then, can you figure out how to make a profit.

Ideally, you’ll set up a spreadsheet with all your direct and indirect costs at the start of your aesthetics business journey and set aside time each quarter to revisit your pricing, as invariably your value proposition will increase and your fixed costs will increase. But in the meantime, here are two articles, with easy peasy calculators, which can help you get a handle on your numbers.

How to Calculate your Indirect Costs

How to Calculate your Direct Costs

A few things to note about pricing your services:

• You need to price your services so you make a profit.

• Pricing isn't permanent.

• People aren't as sensitive to pricing as you think.

• You probably have issues around asking for money.

• Don’t start treating people until you’ve figured out a path to profitability.

Ensure you have identified any mindset issues you have around money, and address these sooner rather than later.