whereas women look at it as more of a
luxury.”
Dr. Wong sees that trend growing
and is particularly excited about the
prospects for treating male-pattern
baldness. “If you catch the hair while
it is still beginning to thin out, you can
get some really good results. Once it has
been gone for a longer period, it’s much
harder to regain. It’s potentially a huge
industry.”
Building a medical spa business is a
serious investment of time, finances and
personnel, but as consumers increasingly
look beyond their doctor’s office and pharmaceuticals for quality of life improvements,
the medical spa industry is heading in a very
positive direction. With the industry wellsupported by the explosive growth in
medical device quality, injectibles variety
and public enthusiasm, the dark days of
2008 seem an awfully long time ago. n
BOND POIRE • Spa Director
Mandala Med-Spa & Yoga Shala • Sarasota, Florida
Bottom Line: Costs of Operating a Medical Spa
Just what are the costs to consider in running a medical spa?
Well-run medical spas can be a highly lucrative business, but they require significant investment if they
are to meet the ISPA definition and are to be successful. Regulations vary from state to state and country
to country, as do costs in local currency. However, the principle remains the same: the three major cost
differentiators between setting up and running a medical spa and setting up and running a traditional
spa are staff, equipment and insurance.
Staffing means hiring suitably-qualified and registered doctors (unless you
happen to be one yourself), at the very
least in a part-time capacity, physician’s assistants as well. None are
cheap. Qualified estheticians can be
hard to find, so many medical spas
offer on-the-job training that usually
takes three to four months, which
accounts to another set of expenses.
Equipment is the biggie, at least in
terms of initial investment. There are
not many medical spas that have much
less than half a million dollars’ worth of
equipment on-site, and most have substantially more. That initial investment
isn’t the end of equipment costs either.
Lasers and other machinery are constantly being updated and improved, so
the investment in machinery is
ongoing.
Liability insurance is one that could
impact revenue. Most spas, but particularly medical spas, use equipment
that, if used incorrectly, can result in a
serious injury to a customer. Medical
spas need adequate liability insurance,
something that gives staff and customers alike peace of mind and
financial cover in the event of an accident. It is a major cost, and one that
must be factored into any investment
into a medical spa.
July 2015
n
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