How to Create Your Medical Spa Business Plan [+15 Key Elements]

By Luciana Dabit

Writing a business plan for your medical spa is one of the hardest tasks when opening up your clinic.

If you want to win over a business partner or secure funding, there are a ton of details you need to include.

And if you’re creating a business plan to strategize your own efforts, it’s still a massive undertaking.

In this guide, we offer tips for writing a business plan, 15 essential sections for medical spa business plans, and advice on how to best utilize your plan once complete.

How to write a medical spa business plan

Follow these smart tips across the essential stages of crafting your business plan.

1. Research – Research your local market, target client, existing competitors and their offerings, average regional pricing, and medical spa industry profitability targets and revenue expectations.
2. Write and design – Next, it’s time to craft all of the essential sections for your medical spa business template (see list of sections below). You can save a ton of time creating your document by using a template. Canva offers hundreds of free-to-use business plan templates making it easy to find a brand style and format that works for you.
3. Implement and adapt – The next step is to implement your business plan and make operations, marketing, and hiring decisions according to your strategy. Of course, you can and should adapt, but any changes made should include research and solid reasoning. (Keep reading for more tips on how to actually utilize your plan.)

15 essential sections to include in your medical spa business plan

When writing a business plan for a medical spa, make sure to include these essential sections.

1. Executive summary

Although this section comes first in the business plan, it’s easier if you write it last.

The executive summary highlights the key points of your business plan. Write a quick description of your company, target client, competitive advantages, and main services. Briefly describe your path to profitability and how many months it will take you to hit your break-even point.

2. Company overview

The company overview serves as a bio of your business.

Be sure to include your company name, niche, brand differentiator, mission, and values.

Think of this section as a way to communicate the essence of your business and what makes it special.

3. Management team

Include a photo, headline, and bio for each person on your management team, including all clinicians as well as the head administrator who will run business operations.

Make sure to clarify which person has the necessary medical license to open the medical spa (different regions require nursing, nurse practitioner, or physician’s licenses). In most cases, this person would be you, the business owner. But if you’re a non-medical entrepreneur, you can hire a clinician with the right credentials.

4. Market analysis

A market analysis section should detail:

• Existing competitors, their services, and average ratings across popular review sites
• Weaknesses of your top competitors
• The average prices of popular services
• The main opportunities in your local market (missing services, high prices, poor client experience, etc.)

Make your market analysis section visually appealing. Format key points in bold, colorful font alongside icons to call more attention to the opportunities presented by your local market.

5. Target client

Write a clear description of your target client(s). You might have two or three client personas. For example, one target client might be a 50-to-60-year-old female, while another might be a 20-to-30-year-old female. These target clients will have different problems and goals for treatment.

To keep your plan from being overly complex, have as few target clients as possible. Remember, you can always serve more clients as you grow, but don’t take on more problems than you can solve initially.

For each persona, jot down their age range, gender, concerns, goals, interests, income, and beauty budget.

6. Competitive advantages

How will you win more market share? It all comes down to your competitive advantages.

Create a section in your business plan where you list and describe your top three to five competitive advantages, such as a nicer location, lower pricing, or a more luxury client experience.

You might want to write this section after finalizing the remainder of your business plan so that you know what to highlight here. (But it is important to include it towards the beginning of your plan to hold readers’ attention.)

7. Medical spa location

Write your vetting criteria for your medical spa location, including size, neighborhood, budget, and other factors. If you already have your location picked out, include photos and the key features that make it great.

8. Medical spa services and pricing

List out the medical spa services you plan to offer during the first six months of your business and how much you will charge for each service.

You can also include phases and timelines for adding additional services based on your market research and competitive strategy.

9. Product offerings

Which brands and products will you offer upon launch? Products aren’t just an important source of revenue for medical spas, they also help clients get better results. Choose around five to fifteen products you want to carry initially, based on your inventory budget.

10. Branding

Next, describe the feel of your brand and what you want your brand to convey.

Include your colors, logos, and fonts—if you have them already—or a sampling of example brands you want to emulate.

11. Marketing plan

Map out your marketing strategy. Include your marketing channels, monthly budget, and any services or software you will use to implement this plan. Briefly describe why these particular marketing channels will help you win your target clients.

If you’re not sure what channels to choose as part of your initial path to success, make sure to read our guide on medical spa marketing.

12. Client experience

Add some details and bullet points on where you plan to excel when it comes to the client experience. For example, maybe you’ll offer a loyalty program to reward clients for continuing to book with you. And you might offer a custom branded mobile app where clients can book services, purchase products, meet with you virtually, watch care instruction videos, and track rewards in one place.

13. Operations plan

You need to have some critical business operations dialed in before launch.

Here are some important items to add to the operations section of your plan:

• The medical spa software you intend to use
• Compliance with HIPAA and other regulations
• Necessary equipment, supplies, and back bar inventory for your initial services
• Safe waste disposal

14. Funding

Describe your funding plan and where the money is coming from. If you’re self-funded, write down how much you can invest.

If you’re looking for funding, tally up your initial expenses to get the total amount you need to request.

15. Financial plan and projections

The financial planning section should cover these key details.

• Revenue projections – Include how much you estimate to earn in top-line revenue each year for the next five years.
• Expenses – Create a spreadsheet with one-time setup costs, monthly fixed expenses, service-related expenses, advertising and promotion costs, payroll expenses, product costs and retail expenses, and any other business expenses. Add a link from your plan to this spreadsheet.
• Break-even point – Based on your revenue projections and expenses, you’ll be able to calculate your break-even point, meaning how many months until your medical spa is profitable.
• Accounting plan – Describe who will do your bookkeeping and accounting and what systems they will use.

How to use your business plan

Now that you’ve created your business plan, how can you use it?

These are the most common ways to put your plan to good use.

Secure funding (if needed)

Share your business plan with potential working partners, silent partners, or investors. If you’re bootstrapping your business but don’t have all the liquid cash you need, a solid business plan can strengthen your applications for business loans with favorable rates.

Communicate with partners and stakeholders

Use your business plan as a way to document your strategy and communicate clearly with your partners and stakeholders. When issues or disagreements arise, come back to your plan as a way of resolving conflict and clarifying important decisions.

Keep efforts on track and work strategically

Without a business plan, you’re likely to chase whims. The minute you open a business, you become a target for coaches, course creators, consultants, and other gurus happy to sell you on the next big thing. A business plan can help you wrangle your impulses, which is doubly important if you have a partner.

Measure your progress

Your business plan is a document of your decisions, hopes, and dreams. As you move through the initial 12 to 24 months of your business, it can help you track your progress in terms of revenue projections, reaching your break-even point, and hitting certain milestones like adding certain services or marketing channels.

Adapt and document changes

Plans are meant to be changed, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to just color outside of the lines. If you need to make a change to your initial operations or marketing strategy, you should edit your business plan. This will force you to clarify the updates and write them down, keeping you accountable and minimizing the risks of constant pivoting or shiny object syndrome.

Want to kickstart your medical spa on the right foundation and set your business up for growth? Book a demo of WellnessLiving.