Ways to Grow Your Aesthetics Business

There are more ways than one to skin a cat.

It’s a funny saying, but it applies to so many different things. From parenting, to exercising, to how you run and grow your business.

For some practitioners, the dream is a big, beautifully designed clinic, with many staff and multiple devices. Possibly in multiple locations. A chain of clinics built to your vision.

Others want their business to enable them to live a full life outside of work. To spend time with family and friends, or fund hobbies and interests.

Or it might be that they want to share their passion and knowledge with peers.

Obviously, there is no “right” pathway to growth, just the path that suits you, your strengths and your ambitions. But what pathways are there? And how do you choose the right one?

Here are a few different business models aesthetic practitioners have used to build beautiful, profitable businesses, each with their own, unique, pros and cons.

The Big Clinic 

This is probably the most obvious and common way aesthetic practitioners grow their businesses. But sometimes, this route happens accidentally, rather than intentionally!

The intentional way is where a practitioner decides that this is the route they want to go pretty early on in their entrepreneurial journey. They then intentionally build in systems, operations and efficiencies to ensure they can deliver that plan. They often have an exit strategy in mind before they’ve even set the plan into motion.

The accidental way is when a practitioner becomes successful as a solo clinician. They grasp the fundamentals of marketing and are able to reliably fill their diary. They soon increase their prices and offer more treatments. Revenue increases and they become profitable. They then pass the VAT threshold and immediately pocket 20% less than they were before. Next, an expensive machine is often purchased, to be able to offset some of the VAT liability. A therapist is hired to get the device “paying for itself” and before they know it, they need a larger clinic, to increase their marketing efforts, have more outgoings and more stress!

A beautiful clinic with multiple staff is a massive achievement. But it can also be a gilded cage of sorts, especially if you’ve ended up there accidentally. Running such a business can be logistically and mentally tiring, and often, practitioners take on debt to fuel growth. You must be comfortable with risk and stress to excel with this type of business model. If you get it right, the financial rewards can be significant.

The Portfolio Practitioner

This is the practitioner who doesn’t necessarily want a big clinic, but they aren’t completely fulfilled with injecting and treating. So they build a portfolio career around their interests.

They become educators. They organise and run events. They build communities. They become mentors. They create courses and sell them online.

Essentially, they diversify using skills they’ve acquired during their entrepreneurial journey and their time in the NHS. Rather than solving problems for patients, they often create solutions for peers.

This enables them to continue to progress professionally, keep delivering patient-facing care, whilst also being challenged. The ability to set up multiple businesses of different types can also be beneficial from a tax and VAT perspective, allowing for profitability to be maximised.

The Property Practitioner

One blocker for aesthetics, beauty and wellness professionals is finding a suitable place to work from.

Practitioners can grow their businesses by creating beautiful, welcoming clinical spaces that other practitioners can pay to use.

Not only does this business model enable practitioners to generate reliable, sustainable income, the “hub” they create helps alleviate the sense of isolation felt by many small business owners, whilst also being a great opportunity for cross-pollination by referrals and recommendations.

Practitioners who choose this model typically charge a flat monthly fee, a commission or a combination of both. Plus they benefit from the 2.5% - 4% typical annual capital growth for commercial properties. 

The Maximiser

Many practitioners LOVE treating patients and getting tangible results. They enjoy the clinical and patient side of the work they do, but they really don’t enjoy the business side of things.

The thought of adding in staff to manage and find bookings for or devices to arrange finance and ongoing maintenance for, fills them with dread. So, rather than expand in the usual way, they maximise.

They take actions that increase their revenue and decrease their costs.

These practitioners are ones who consistently deliver exceptional results and know their worth. They become increasingly picky with their patients, pruning their patient list to those patients who are able to commit to the investment needed to get the best results possible. 

As their clientele are more discerning and are paying a premium, the patient journey is elevated and polished. The patient is really the priority.

These practitioners know the value of great financial advice and accounting. They outsource, automate and optimise, to ensure that they can maximise patient contact and satisfaction.

Obviously, there is a ceiling to the number of patients a single practitioner can serve, which will mean that earnings from treatments will also have a limit. But this can be further maximised with skincare and supplement sales.

As you can see, there is more than one way to build a business that works for you. 

It’s important, as you move from a new practitioner, to an established business owner, you focus on building a business that serves you. Filter out the noise and the expectations of others regarding what you “should” do and devise a plan that works for you.

As the saying goes, “There are more ways than one to skin a cat”.