Your clinic requires a plan, here’s why

Your clinic requires a plan, here’s why

Last week Mack Horton won Olympic Gold for Australia in the pool! 4 years prior he didn’t even qualify for the final of the same event. I am sure there was extreme disappointment 4 years ago, but what has made him so successful just 4 years later? A very clear plan, and executing it seamlessly. This would have included a lot of hard work and sacrifices along the way, however without a plan, he would not have had direction and focus for his training.

Running a cosmetic clinic is very similar if you want to be successful. It of course requires a huge amount of dedication and hard work, but without a clear, focussed plan, this effort could be wasted or it will take you a lot longer to achieve your goals.

Mack works as part of a team, and whilst he is the person that we cheer on race day, he has a whole team behind him, who are also committed to the plan i.e. coach, dietician, physio, sport scientist etc. As a clinic owner, you also have a team that need to know what your plan is. If you cannot communicate this to your staff, you will have a group of people working hard and performing their roles as they see fit – however, are they aligned with the business plan, and will they help you achieve your business goals?

Having a really strong Business & Marketing Plan is the first step to building a business for success. It is an opportunity for you to outline your hopes and dreams for the future, plus presenting it in a way that other people can gain insight into your goals, to help you achieve them sooner and with less stress. A business & marketing plan is also not to be viewed as a static document that is written then filed away. It is really important to continually review that document i.e. quarterly, and ensure that it is still summarising the path that you want your business to take. If not, alter it and then work with your team to implement.

There are 6 clear benefits to having a business plan for your clinic:-

  1. Helps you think through and rationalise ideas – working through a business plan can really help you gain clarity around your thoughts, and help you stepwise plan how you will work towards your goals. It will also help you identify any challenges or hurdles along the way, so that you are prepared.
  2. Helps you communicate ideas and plans to your team – the benefit of a marketing plan in communication is that it takes the emotion out of the exchange, and provides facts and clarity around the main business issues. It is well thought through and clearly presents the essential information that is important for the team to be able to perform their jobs, aligned with your goals.
  3. Helps you plan budget and business structure – As many as 8 out of 10 business’ do not do this well and therefore find themselves running into major financial woes early on in the life of their business. It is really important to plan expenditure and revenue generation for at least the first 5 years. This would include equipment, staffing requirements, products etc to ensure that you will have enough income to cover the costs for running your business.
  4. Helps you gain a clear understanding of your market and your target client – running a business without having a solid understanding of the market can be very expensive and take up a lot of wasted time which you do not have as a business owner. The better you understand the market in which you play, the more focussed you can be with activities like marketing, so you do not spend in areas that will not generate revenue.
  5. Helps establish benchmarks and milestones – with every business, it’s crucial to know where you started and then measure how you’re tracking. Setting metrics for your business will help you measure success and should be reviewed regularly.
  6. Helps plan your team’s messaging – it is more important than ever that you have clear messaging for your team when you have a service-based business. From your social media presence, to your front desk and in clinic, all messaging around your offering and the business’ vision needs to be consistent and clear. This will enable clients to easily understand what your business stands for and how it is different to other clinics.

Is it worth taking the time to plan your business? How you will achieve your goals? It doesn’t need to be ‘War and Peace’, but it does need to capture the right information to make it worthwhile.

To help you get started go to our Contact page and request your free Business Plan Template.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: