MONEY MATTERS
BY BRANDON ROBINSON
How to Really Calculate
ROI for Your Spa
The question people ask me the most is: “Iowa...why Iowa?”
IN 2014, I OPENED MY FIRST MEDICAL SPA, Skin Body
Soul, in West Des Moines, Iowa. This was followed by
additional locations in Ankeny, Iowa; Seattle, Washington;
Dallas, Texas; and Portland, Oregon. make you millions of dollars and grow your business.
Imagine that a sales rep tells you that a new piece of
equipment will only cost you US$608.44 per month to own,
and that you will make a profit on that equipment with only
Yet, I actually live in Sacramento, California. Prior to 2013,
I had never stepped foot in the state of Iowa. How did I do
it? How—and why—did I open a spa in a city that I had
never visited? The answer is simple: math.
What I loved most about Iowa was the math. I calculated
that the cost of goods would be the same in California as
they were in Iowa, but in Iowa, the fixed operating expenses
of a spa would be incredibly low.
I’ve written this article to tell you one thing: that math
should be at the forefront of all your purchasing behavior.
You should always be crunching numbers when deciding
what equipment to buy, when to purchase that equipment,
or where and when to add a new location to your business.
Let’s be clear: I don’t mean the “basic” math you see from
sales reps trying to sell you a device or service for your
clients. I’m talking about real math. The math that will four clients per month at a rate of US$199 per treatment. I’m
here to tell you that that number is likely not accurate be-
cause there is no way for the sales rep to know your operat-
ing costs. Without knowing that, you cannot accurately
calculate when something will be profitable. Don’t fall victim
to “basic” math without running the numbers yourself first.
The kind of math every spa operator should be doing is
what I like to call “baller” math—the kind of math that ex-
poses the real expenses of operating a new machine or add-
ing a new service. Once you’ve mastered “baller” math you
will no longer be running an ordinary business: you’ll be
running an extraordinary one.
Breaking down “baller” math isn’t even difficult. It takes
four steps. These are steps that any spa director or owner
can take to make proper decisions on what services they
should be adding or removing from their spa.
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MAY 2020