Separation Season
Separation Season: Close Summer Strong as You Prepare Your Team for a Great Fall
Summer should be viewed as a great opportunity to elevate your medical aesthetics practice. It should not be seen as the lazy hazy days of summer. Not too dissimilar to elite athletes, the most successful entrepreneurs push harder than their counterparts when everyone else is taking time off. They take extra at bats, shoot a few more foul shots, run an extra mile, and push for one more rep when they feel as if they have nothing more to give.
The elite do not separate themselves from the pack during the regular season. It is done in the off season. The extra reps and focused effort done in the dark show up under the lights of the big stage. The same is true in medical aesthetics. Those who do the work in the off season tend to find themselves reaping the benefits when it comes time to harvest. In the medical aesthetics industry, the off season tends to be summer and the first of each year. Vacations and recovery from the expense of the holiday season tend to slow things down in most businesses. However, it does not have to be that way. If anything, it should be viewed as a time to hone skills and prepare for the harvest.
While others are losing focus during the off season, the best are turning up the intensity and becoming laser like in their quest to capitalize on opportunities. If you want to make the most of the off season, here are a few ideas that you may find benefitting you during the harvest season. By attending to those things that will lead to reaping good fruit in the future, you will also find that the fruit you bear today will be much sweeter.
Resist Temptation - When business is slower than normal and everyone is taking time off to spend time with family and friends, there can be a tendency to relax. When this happens, things tend to slide. People get sloppy. Leads aren’t managed well. Follow up calls are dropped. The client experience changes. The culture shifts. Unhealthy habits form. A new normal takes hold. The business becomes something it was never intended to be. Do not let this happen. Maintain focus. Demand it. Lead it!
Refine and Define – Use the off season to refine skills. Observe behaviors and coach. Bring in trainers to teach your team new skills and perfect existing ones. Expand their knowledge base by forcing growth and development in key areas. Roleplay key operational processes. Prepare your team to perform at their best. Make excellence a habit for your team and yourself. Clean and refresh the physical environment. Get ready for the harvest to come.
Plan To Succeed – Map out your marketing strategy. Create a 90-day plan that is multifaceted. Go deep and expansive. Think beyond social media. Think about which services will perform best on Google (SEM) and which will be best for Facebook/IG. How will TikTok factor? What about Pinterest? What’s the local business partnership event calendar look like? Where are you placing ads locally? Prepare now so that when things get busy you can focus on the client experience and not marketing.
Know The Numbers - Set goals for the remainder of the off season and for the harvest season. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) in critical areas. Do not create KPIs just to have KPIs. Think about those things that truly tell you if the business is healthy and those things that drive results. The obvious is net profit. However, in most cases net profit is a trailing indicator. The data comes in after the fact. It will not afford you the chance to make real time decisions and potentially save yourself. Think about those things that happen daily and if done well will lead to great performance. Don’t just think financial. You also don’t want to only think practice wide. Think practice and people. The practice should have KPIs and so should each person. Again, focus is key. Impact is key. Understanding is key. Everyone must know, understand, and embrace the KPIs. They must also be held accountable for making them reality.
The Four Rules – Teach your team the four rules for moving beyond their current comfort zone. Most of us are not the type that find change to come easy. In fact, 70% of us would prefer to stay where we are. This is a problem that needs to be overcome if we hope to grow and learn. Add to that the fact that most of us fear confrontation and you have the makings for a very complacent environment. Therefore, to succeed we must force our teams, ever so gently, to grow. Teach your team the four rules, that if done right, lead to change and ultimately success. The leader’s job is to coach them and guide them!
If you do not go after what you want, you will never have it.
If you do not ask, the answer will always be NO.
If you do not step forward, you will remain in the same place.
Everything seems hard before it is easy.
Achieving great success is not easy, especially in medical aesthetics. Average and below is everywhere. However, it does not need to be that way. At least not in your practice. Make the effort now and we promise that you will reap the benefits of a fruitful harvest today and in the months to come!
💌 Are you ready to take on an investment partner to help you grow your medical aesthetics practice? If so, we are here to partner with you every step of the way. Fill out the contact form or send us an email at info@baraesthetics.com and we will schedule a call to discuss the possibilities.
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