The Aesthetic Practice Linchpin is a Unicorn’s Horn

No matter how you choose to look at it, an aesthetics practice is as much a business as your favorite restaurant or department store. The difference is that aesthetics practice must make decisions in the best interest of the client and operate within regulations. However, if you stop to think about it, don’t all businesses worth patronizing operate that way?

As with any business, for an aesthetics practice to withstand the test of time it must be profitable. To be profitable it must manage expenses, acquire clients, employ great talent, deliver results, operate within the regulations, and provide a great experience. These are the same fundamental business practices that every successful restaurant, sporting goods retailer, and department store operates under. Every business or medical practice must incorporate operational best practices if they hope to be around for the long haul.

The challenge is successfully incorporating operational best practices. Doing such a thing requires operational leadership. Operational leadership requires a strong manager. A strong manager is someone who can create and sustain a culture of excellence, execution, and accountability. Three values that are hard to create and even more difficult to maintain.

Most people believe that business failure is the result of leadership, which is fundamentally true. However, you can employ a great leader and the practice or business can still fail. Failure being defined as failing to achieve purpose or vision. Let’s be clear, limping along by making enough profit to keep the doors open is not success. It is failure. This is because you are not achieving the original vision for the practice or business, which is to make a profit so you can deliver on the purpose and achieve the vision. That’s unless the vision was to have a business that can just barely survive. If so, then the vision was incorrect from the start. The vision wasn’t for a successful practice or business. It was to build a hobby. If that’s the case, stop reading.

Great practices and businesses employ great leaders that are also great managers. These individuals understand the importance of each and the difference between the two. Great managers pay attention to the details and are experts when it comes to making sure systems are consistently implemented and everyone is held accountable for such. These unicorns are capable of being both a great leader and a great manager.

They understand that great LEADERS:

• Clearly articulate the vision

• Develop a winning team

• Motivate the team to achieve their best

• Lead by example

• Reward and recognize

• Communicate effectively

• Inject positive energy

• Etc.

They understand that great MANAGERS:

• Create a culture of excellence, execution, and accountability

• Consistently hold everyone accountable for process execution

• Effectively manage the P&L

• Coach and develop by connecting purpose to practice

• Give responsibility and authority

• Create a safe environment for offering feedback

• Know what motivates each team member

• Give time in an individualized and meaningful manner

• Etc.

For aesthetic practice to reach its true potential the first and most important hire is not the aesthetic injector or cosmetic surgeon, it is the person who will run the practice and lead the team. That person will make or break the practice. They will hire the operations team, assist in the hiring of the medical team, hold everyone accountable for process execution, develop the culture, motivate the team, articulate the vision and purpose so that all understand and embrace it, develop relationships with clients, drive marketing efforts, ensure expenses are managed, and the list goes on. The next best hire would be a great aesthetic injector or cosmetic surgeon (who is likely the medical director anyway).

Let’s also be clear about one other failure point. This is a practice owner who thinks they can lead and manage the practice while performing services. You can do this. However, unless you've been sprinkled with a lot of fairy dust you can also expect to hit a ceiling. That’s because, as Michael Gerber wrote in The EMyth, you cannot work in the business while trying to successfully work on the business. You may experience success at the start but as the business grows and more time is demanded of you, you will smack your head on the ceiling hard. That’s usually also when growth stops, and things start fall apart.

As you can see, great practice managers are unicorns. They can lead and they can manage. They can motivate and excite a team while holding them accountable for doing things that seem to matter little but make a big difference. These individuals are hard to find but they are out there. Sometimes you must look hard and long before you find them. You just need to be clear about what it is you are looking for. You must also be willing to do what it takes to make them a part of your winning team. This may include paying them their weight in candy corn, which I would argue is a worthwhile investment.

Randy Stepp is a Principal with Renaissance Leadership Group, a full-service aesthetic practice and business development firm.

Visit Renaissance Leadership Group at www.renaissanceleadershipgroup.com.