Turning your vision into a detailed plan can help clarify it for you and communicate it to others

Having a vision is just the first step in building your brand, but it isn’t worth much if you can’t share it. Every beauty business entrepreneur needs a way to lay out what they’ve dreamt up, work through the potential challenges, and communicate the opportunity it presents to partners and investors. Good news: That’s exactly what an aesthetic business plan is for. Better news: We’re going to help you create one.

Beyond covering the fundamentals of business, your aesthetic clinic business plan should also address regulatory concerns specific to practicing medicine. Follow this guide to set yourself up for success on both fronts.

Key components of an aesthetic business plan

Market analysis

The niche your medspa will fill may be obvious to you, but not everyone can see it as clearly as you. You’ll need to demonstrate to investors that the need your medspa will fill is both real and untapped. Thorough market research is your best first step.

Start by collecting industry data and identifying trends. How big is the market? What are the typical client demographics? What services are most popular? Painting a picture of the market as a whole can demonstrate that you understand your place in it.

Don’t forget to go local. Head to similar businesses in the area and make note of how they do things. What services do they provide? What are they missing? What are they charging? Who are the clients walking in the door, and what kind of experience are they getting?

All of this data can inform the approach your business takes, showing you where to zag when your competitors zig. The more clearly you can articulate how your business fills a market gap, the stronger your aesthetic business plan will be.

Operations and services

Your business will need specific things from its location, and your business plan is a great place to describe those needs. You may want a certain square footage, for example, or to reside in a neighborhood densely populated by your target audience. Recording this info is just about creating a framework to judge the locations you’ll look at later, not about choosing one now, so don’t worry about nailing down every specific.

Where you should get specific (as much as you can) is in your list of services. Not only will this give you a chance to show what makes your business unique, but it’s also a great way to come up with a list of all the equipment, supplies, software, and other tools you’ll need. Microblading needles, disposable gloves, point of sale devices, medspa management software — put as much of it in your aesthetic business plan as you can.

Financial projections

The goal of any business is to make money, and you need to show your investors just how much they stand to make. That means gaming out your revenue and expenses.

To get your revenue projections, multiply your expected average total service price by your projected capacity. To help keep your projections realistic, bear in mind that the average revenue per medspa facility in 2023 was $1.9 million and the average profit margin was 20%-25% of net sales.

For expense projections, you’ll need to manually add up everything you’re going to pay for. That includes equipment, employees, waste management, inventory, insurance, marketing, and anything else you can think of. Organize these expenses into fixed and variable categories to keep them easy to manage.

Once you’ve got these projections, you can create three critical financial documents:

• Your income statement lets you compare your gross revenue against your expenses.

• Your cash flow statement shows how money moves in and out of your business and provides a measure of financial health.

• Your balance sheet provides a complete picture of all you own (assets) and all you owe (liabilities).

Marketing and sales strategy

You can have the best business in the world, but it won’t make a dime if no one knows it exists. No problem: Your aesthetic clinic business plan will include how you plan to get the word out. It’ll describe the tone and style of your brand, the channels you expect to target, and the why for both. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to execute once the business spins up.

Your sales strategy is closely tied to your marketing. Where the latter drums up interest, the former turns that interest into intent and, finally, into bookings. That’s the magic of the marketing funnel. Make that magic work for you by coming up with a plan for each stage of the funnel, nurturing interested parties until they become loyal clients.

Regulatory compliance and licensing

Aesthetic clinics practice medicine. That means they have to meet some very strict standards, some of which vary by state. Here are the big three to keep in mind:

• HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act demands that any protected health information (PHI) of your clients’ that you handle stays private at all times. Using a HIPAA checklist like this one from the HIPAA Journal can help you design, administer, and teach your employees processes that keep that data safe.

• Licensing: Many states employ a policy called the corporate practice of medicine. Basically, it means that any business that performs medical procedures must be owned by a licensed physician. If you’re not a licensed doctor, you’ll need to look into signing a Managed Service Agreement (MSA) with one before you can open up shop.

• OSHA: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards require that any business maintain a safe working environment. Those related to laser safety, record keeping, blood-borne pathogens, and hazard communication are the most relevant for aesthetic clinics.

Your business plan should include information about how you’ll jump through each of these regulatory hoops.

Organizational structure

Defining your internal hierarchy and keeping each role’s responsibilities clear are both critical steps in building out an aesthetic business plan. You may not follow this hierarchy to the letter once the rubber hits the road, but explaining the broad strokes shows you’re thinking deeply about your business.

This is also a good place to go into detail about your MSA if you have one, and to clarify how payroll will work. Medical law dictates nurses and support staff can't be paid in the same way, and there are gray areas around issues like tipping. It's best to head ambiguity off early wherever possible.

Executive summary

Once you’ve collected and organized all the critical information about your business, you need a way to put all the pieces together succinctly. This high-level summary may be the last on this list, but it should be the first section in your aesthetic business plan. It should touch on everything we’ve discussed here, highlighting your business’s mission, vision, and key objectives in a way that any potential reader would find compelling.

Trying to distill your entire business into a single, brief summary may be tricky. But if you can nail it, your business plan will have a powerful opening that helps it show everyone you are ready, willing, and able to run the best aesthetic clinic around.

Looking for more information about starting your aesthetics business? Check out "How to Start Your Own Aesthetics Business: The Complete Guide."