Buy Services That You Do Not Know

Cosmetic Medicine, yes, where does one begin? This is one of the most common questions I am asked as a Practice Management Consultant. Where does one begin? Do you start by integrating cosmetic services into your current medical practice or do you start from scratch in a free standing independent business, a medical spa ? The answer to this question depends on the focus of your business now and, quite honestly, the depth of your war chest.

If your current practice of medicine has a “bridge to aesthetic medicine” such as a vascular surgeon adding leg vein procedures, an obstetrician adding cosmetic services as part of your women’s service offerings or a family or an internal medicine practitioner whose practice affords the time and space to add these services, go for it! Integrate the cosmetic procedures under the same roof but treat it as a separate business, financially, with separate staffing and management. If a “bridge” is not readily evident, you may consider learning this industry by being a medical director of a medical spa or owning a free standing medical spa as an opportunity to diversify your business holdings.

Get some help from an accountant or an industry consultant with writing a business plan to project the overhead costs of equipment, staffing and marketing against the potential revenues that these services will bring into the practice. Be conservative and project the finances 5 years out. The best part of cosmetic medicine, besides of course the fact that these are cash revenue procedures, is that they are all a series of treatments. Patients return 3-6 times for one treatment to be completed over a three to six month per of time.

If you are going to build a medical spa, get some help. Hire a consultant to help you. There are many $100,000 mistakes that can be made along the way. The first step in small business management is “buy services that you do not know”. This advice always pays for itself!

Use the excellent resources of The IAPAM to offer financial advice, purchasing power and ongoing training.

Cindy Graf – Cindy Graf Consulting