Medspa a good financial investment?

[AR]

I

Zaphod wrote:

AR wrote:

I think the majority of people who seek to be a part of this sort of venture have to be OK with the fact that they are providing patients with mediocre care.  Learning how to do botox, fillers, some basic laser procedures, etc. is not exactly rocket science.  But the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of people who are formally trained in these procedures who just have a much deeper understanding of them (especially with respect to managing unexpected complications) and are just better at them. In a perfect world, I don’t think I’d have a real problem if each patient who went to such a place had a full understanding of the level of expertise they were receiving relative to what is widely available.  Most patients would still accept inferior care for significant cost savings.  The problem is that plenty of patients think they are receiving the same level of care at lower cost.  The main contributor to that problem is the fact that most of the docs that are involved in running these places wrongly believe that too. I’m absolutely not saying that a family practitioner, for example, couldn’t become highly proficient at these procedures.  It certainly is possible.  But I think doing so requires a lot more cost and effort in educating themselves than most of them actually do.  

Click to expand…

Too easy to skate by on mediocre results, which is sadly true for augs as well. Issue with anything like this that is the thresholds. “okay” results come at very minimal experience/knowledge, excellent and awesome results as well as managing issues is much much harder. Most docs dont like it and are having their nursing staff do most of these anyways so even more so. Some are absolutely amazing, some are scary.

Click to expand...

I agree it's easy to be successful with mediocre results.  The point was it takes a certain lack of professionalism to provide those mediocre results even at a profit.  That's not a problem for many people but I would imagine it is for some. 

 

.

 

Here's an analogy that most people here could relate to.  Take whatever type of medicine you practice and imagine that there would be a way to get paid more but to do that you would have to provide care that you know is worse.  It's not bad enough to significantly increase your risk of a lawsuit (and assume you would be more than compensated for the risk), but *you* know it's worse.  Also assume that, for the most part, not even your patients can tell the difference.  Would you do it?  I'm pretty sure a lot of people wouldn't, even if they would successfully make more money. 

[Zaphod]

AR wrote:

I think the majority of people who seek to be a part of this sort of venture have to be OK with the fact that they are providing patients with mediocre care.  Learning how to do botox, fillers, some basic laser procedures, etc. is not exactly rocket science.  But the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of people who are formally trained in these procedures who just have a much deeper understanding of them (especially with respect to managing unexpected complications) and are just better at them. In a perfect world, I don’t think I’d have a real problem if each patient who went to such a place had a full understanding of the level of expertise they were receiving relative to what is widely available.  Most patients would still accept inferior care for significant cost savings.  The problem is that plenty of patients think they are receiving the same level of care at lower cost.  The main contributor to that problem is the fact that most of the docs that are involved in running these places wrongly believe that too. I’m absolutely not saying that a family practitioner, for example, couldn’t become highly proficient at these procedures.  It certainly is possible.  But I think doing so requires a lot more cost and effort in educating themselves than most of them actually do.

Click to expand...

Too easy to skate by on mediocre results, which is sadly true for augs as well. Issue with anything like this that is the thresholds. "okay" results come at very minimal experience/knowledge, excellent and awesome results as well as managing issues is much much harder. Most docs dont like it and are having their nursing staff do most of these anyways so even more so. Some are absolutely amazing, some are scary.

[AR]

I think the majority of people who seek to be a part of this sort of venture have to be OK with the fact that they are providing patients with mediocre care.  Learning how to do botox, fillers, some basic laser procedures, etc. is not exactly rocket science.  But the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of people who are formally trained in these procedures who just have a much deeper understanding of them (especially with respect to managing unexpected complications) and are just better at them.

In a perfect world, I don't think I'd have a real problem if each patient who went to such a place had a full understanding of the level of expertise they were receiving relative to what is widely available.  Most patients would still accept inferior care for significant cost savings.  The problem is that plenty of patients think they are receiving the same level of care at lower cost.  The main contributor to that problem is the fact that most of the docs that are involved in running these places wrongly believe that too.

I'm absolutely not saying that a family practitioner, for example, couldn't become highly proficient at these procedures.  It certainly is possible.  But I think doing so requires a lot more cost and effort in educating themselves than most of them actually do.

[startupdoc]

do not underestimate the low barriers to entry resulting in a high amount of competition both from the medical and non-medical world

[G]

Wait, I thought you were going to be a podiatrist?

[The White Coat Investor]

newgal9813 wrote:

Just curious if anyone is knowledgeable or have experience of owning a med spa clinic. I have seen a number of these spas that offer botox, cool sculpting, chemical peels, etc..  I am curious to know the business and financial aspects of it. I currently have a family member who are an aesthetician and I feel that it would be a great opportunity to turn the business into a medspa in the future.

I have seen a number of medspa around my area with a supervising physicians in a different specialties such as family medicine partaking in these businesses. I have also seen pa/np who is the founder/owner of the business who have a supervising MD for their business while they run the business and perform most of the procedures. This is just an idea and I am still years away, but just wanted to see if this would be a good financial investment to pursue in the future.

Click to expand...

Not sure I'd do it if you're still years away. I think there are a lot of docs jumping into this market and I would expect that it would be very saturated a few years from now. But who knows. Maybe it'll be huge. Certainly the barrier to entry isn't very high for someone who is already a physician.

[Zaphod]

Your problem is competition. Anyone can get this stuff and while margins are high so is your competition. A good point made above about location/RE/overhead. Great locations bring in foot traffic but are expensive, lower cost ones give a lower hurdle but less traffic without marketing. Theres a sweet spot somewhere.

These businesses are almost 100% marketing based initially and price competitive, reputation after. Dont spend too much thinking someone will fall in love with you and only use you forever. The minute they get a special for 5% off from someone else theyre gone.

[ifonlyFI]

I have no personal experience but would be curious to hear others.  I know two people who ran a clinic

 

The first was a FP who opened a boxtox/injectable clinic in a lower socioeconomic area of orange co, calif.  He hired a bilingual RN who ran the program.  low cost cash procedures in an inexpensive storefront.  They made a killing.  It was ~ 10 years ago.

 

The second doc opened up in Newport Beach which is the high socioeconomic area of orange co.  It closed after a few months.  This business was within the last 5 years.

[Dreamgiver]

It is like any business out there, some are good investments some are bad. It is all about knowing what you are doing. What is your strategy? Market research? Talent acquisition and retention? Financial plan? There is no free lunch. Plus, does it make you happy? I'd get bored out of my mind doing that.

[wideopenspaces]

I dont know any more about it. I've just had one brief chat with him about it. I am super not business savvy so I plan to talk to him more about how this whole PP thing works. In his other practice he has NP's and LCSW's doing most of the work. Seems to be a pretty sweet gig.

[newgal9813]

Are you familiar with the legalities with pa/np owned med spa clinics? I know that in certain states you need a supervising physician, but how does that work exactly?

[wideopenspaces]

I have a friend who is FP who just opened one with his wife. He is the medical director and took a weekend course in some laser procedure. He has aestaticians who do everything else. He's quite business savvy and already owns his own practice doing in home insurance and other health exams and is pretty successful. So I imagine he'll do pretty well with the medspa too.

[newgal9813]

Just curious if anyone is knowledgeable or have experience of owning a med spa clinic. I have seen a number of these spas that offer botox, cool sculpting, chemical peels, etc..  I am curious to know the business and financial aspects of it. I currently have a family member who are an aesthetician and I feel that it would be a great opportunity to turn the business into a medspa in the future.

I have seen a number of medspa around my area with a supervising physicians in a different specialties such as family medicine partaking in these businesses. I have also seen pa/np who is the founder/owner of the business who have a supervising MD for their business while they run the business and perform most of the procedures. This is just an idea and I am still years away, but just wanted to see if this would be a good financial investment to pursue in the future.