For information only. Not meant as advice in any form. Please consult your medical professional or lawyer.
The medical spa industry is one of the most lucrative businesses today, providing you with a steady flow of profit due to the continuous nature of several cosmetic treatments. Like many ventures, opening up a medical spa isn’t for the faint of heart. This is especially when medical spas have the nuance from others, where a med spa owner must ensure the legal and clinical aspects of the establishment, aside from it being a business.
So how do you open a medical spa? You must ensure to integrate the specifics of starting up a clinical practice into a business, complete with strict legal requirements. Create a business plan and concept, get funding and insurance, and secure legal certifications and permits. You must also come up with safety protocols, policies, patient forms, and consent. Hire qualified accountants and practitioners.
Opening A Medical Spa
The medical spa business may come with different hurdles because it’s similar to medical practice and a traditional spa. On top of ensuring your license as a business and day spa, you must also secure certifications as a clinic because you’d also be performing medical services. Settle the business and clinical aspects of your medical spa services, and consult legal advice to secure the proper certifications and license.
1. Define and Implement Your Business Plan
Med spas are combinations of salon and spa services and a medical clinic. Your establishment will perform several aesthetic treatments based on medicine, like Botox, dermal fillers, laser treatment, and more.
This means it involves using solutions and equipment to incur biological changes in patients. You’ll invest your assets in ensuring the proper licenses, equipment, certifications, and other requirements to establish a solid medical spa. To manage it smoothly and ensure stable returns, you also need to be sharp in running it like a business.
Define and implement your med spa’s business plan by developing a concept, defining your business plan, securing funding, and seeking legal advice. You must also declare your business, hire an accountant, develop a compensation plan, set up your online presence, choose a location, and get insurance.
a. Develop a Concept
Every business starts with a concept — this is where most of the brainstorming about how to establish your medical spa business happens. You’ll discuss your vision as a brand, your strengths, and how your clinic is different from others in the industry. You should define your:
- Services – you must decide on the medical spa services to provide clients. You may also focus on a cosmetic procedure as your specialty to establish easier brand retention and trust, depending on the capacity of your clinic as a start-up. You may also choose more aesthetic treatments as your specialty if your management service can handle it.
- Overall atmosphere – there’s more to medical spa services than your usual medical clinic or traditional day spa — a med spa owner must put themselves in the client or patient’s perspective to know what attracts them, aside from your services. You must create an environment that will make them return to your medical spa business.
- Business size – decide on a workable size your medical spa can start with. This concerns your establishment’s space, the clients you can accommodate, and the number of staff and medical personnel you’ll have on board to run your operations.
b. Define Your Business Plan
Research your market and define your business plan. This gauges the feasibility of your medical spa business and gives you insights on the best methods to start it up. Here’s what you need to prepare:
- Cashflow
- Compensation
- Expenses
- Income
- Operating costs
- Organizational structure
The financial data you’ve crunched up from your market research will define the funding you’ll need. This will also help your management service, architect, marketing assistant, and other teams in creating campaigns and designs for your spa.
c. Secure Funding
Once you’ve defined the costs for starting a medical spa business, the next thing you’ll need is to secure funding to set it in motion. You may look for investors or financial institutions who will support your business and approve the funding.
d. Consult a Lawyer
All businesses are governed by local, state, and federal laws. You might find the medical spa industry with more regulations than others because it involves aesthetic treatments that may pose health risks to patients. Seek legal advice first to know the needed certifications and licenses and the impositions affecting your start-up.
e. Declare Your Business
You must enlist your medical spa business in the state, legalizing operations and defining the taxes to be imposed on it. You may declare it a partnership, sole-proprietorship, C-corp, or S-corp. You’ll also receive your tax employer identification number or EIN.
f. Hire a Reliable Accountant
Hire a reliable accounting firm or accountant who will balance statements and report insights based on these numbers to help you come up with informed decisions. You might want to hire an accountant with background knowledge on aesthetic medicine, your financial statements, and tax impositions.
g. Set Up Your Online Presence
Building your online presence where you can showcase your brand is the most cost-efficient option for marketing your medical spa, especially if you’re a start-up. It allows you to reach your target audiences and establish your credibility in medical aesthetics for more affordable rates than traditional marketing. That’s why you might not want to miss setting up your brand online for content marketing.
h. Choose a Location
You may choose a location based on the ideas from your business plan and concept. You would also consider your customers and the environment where you’ll open up your medical spa. Consider the following factors when determining your location:
- Accessibility
- Competition
- Parking
- Zoning
i. Get an Insurance
Getting insurance allows you to protect your business, aestheticians, and clients. Your medical personnel should have personal liability insurance. Here are some of the types of insurance you need to obtain:
- General liability insurance
- Professional liability insurance
- Workers’ compensation insurance
2. Fulfill Legal Requirements
Aside from being a business entity, your medical spa must also fulfill legal requirements because it delivers medical services that may put patients at risk. These legal certifications might be stricter, but it protects not only your potential clients but also your business. For your legal requirements, you must obtain appropriate certifications, establish protocols, create patient forms and consent, and define policies.
a. Obtain Certifications
Review your state regulations with your legal counsel to know the certifications you need for opening your medical spa. Most states require med spa owners to also have a medical license, similar to the permits you would need for opening a medical facility. You should also secure HIPAA certification and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA forms.
b. Establish Your Spa’s Protocols
The protocols your medical spa should follow are also based on the regulations imposed by the federal and state government. This offers a standard of the medical spa services you need to deliver. Each cosmetic procedure comes with appropriate protocols to ensure a safe treatment.
c. Create Patient Forms and Consent
Every client must have patient forms, and every cosmetic procedure must come with informed consent. Similar to medical practice, these forms ensure the safety and liability of every patient. These forms certify that they’re well-informed about the procedure they’re about to receive.
d. Define Policies
Your medical spa should have the right policies as it operates. This will keep your patient, medical personnel, and business protected from security breaches, accidents, and other anomalies. These policies include:
- Biohazards
- Disinfection and sanitation
- Equipment operation
- Hygiene
- Incident report
- Patient privacy
- Risk management
- Storage and handling of medication
These policies are requirements for the operation of your medical spa according to the state and federal laws governing your business. You may learn more about this once you’ve discussed it with your legal adviser.
3. Establish Your Clinical Medical Spa
The medical spa industry may be similar to a traditional spa, but it relies heavily on health and medicine. Because of this, your business would also have operations similar to medical practice.
You should hire a medical director and healthcare professionals. A nurse practitioner and physician assistant may also be qualified for performing cosmetic treatments. Invest in the right equipment and hold training sessions.
a. Hire an Experienced Medical Director
The medical license of your director provides your business with certifications to perform treatments on patients. Seek a medical director or licensed physician with experience in aesthetic medicine and other treatments your medical spa offers.
b. Hire Qualified Professionals with Regular Training
Hire qualified practitioners who will perform your medical spa services. Review the laws governing your state to know which cosmetic procedure requires only a medical professional to conduct.
But most regulations today allow even non-medical professional practitioners to perform injectable treatments like Botox and dermal fillers, as long as they’ve undergone training. Because of this, you also need to invest in holding training sessions to keep your practice and staff updated with the trends and discoveries in medical aesthetics.
c. Invest in the Right Equipment
The success and credibility of your practice also rely on the tools you use. You should invest in the best tools to provide patients with satisfactory and efficient procedures. This will not only protect your business but would also give you satisfied clients returning for more procedures.
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Those are some of the most important steps to open a med spa. Remember to ensure the business, legal, and clinical aspect of your med spa. You’ll rely heavily on your legal counsel, market research, and medical director for insights.
Your medical spa would hardly be complete without high-quality beauty and medical supplies, from cannulas and syringes to high-performing equipment. For these advanced tools, you may browse our catalog at FACE Med Store, one of the most trusted suppliers in many medical practices. Get in touch with us today.
