Latest / Beyond the Needle: The Aesthetics Business Podcast / How to Build a Sellable Aesthetic Clinic with Sarah Louise

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How to Build a Sellable Aesthetic Clinic with Sarah Louise · Beyond the Needle: The Aesthetics Business Podcast

0:12
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Be on the Needle, the Aesthetics Business Podcast.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Each week, I'm here to share real, actionable strategies and bring on expert guests to help you level up, attract more patients, and build a standout brand.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: Let's turn your passion into a thriving business together.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Beyond the Needle podcast.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: In this week's episode, I'm delighted to be joined by the amazing Sarah Louise, founder of SLA Medical and the Business Injection, for one of the most honest and commercially valuable conversations we've probably had so far on the podcast.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Sarah's journey is a really powerful one.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: She trained in Australia and mentored within the world of plastic surgery before later moving to the UK as a mum, where she built her clinic from the ground up with no investors or financial backing, navigated single parenthood and divorce, and went on to create a business with real longevity, structure, and value.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: But this episode isn't just about building a successful clinic, it's about building a business that can actually function beyond you because this is the goal of almost every single aesthetic practitioner who starts their own clinic.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: So in this episode, we get into the difference between having a personal following and building a real brand, why so many clinics are unknowingly creating jobs rather than assets, and what actually gives an aesthetics business value if you ever want to scale, step back, or sell.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: We also dive into what buyers are really looking for in an aesthetics clinic, how to separate your identity from your clinic without losing trust, building brand equity, positioning, and consistency over time, white-in culture and patient experience matter more than aesthetic clinics realize, the shift from marketing yourself to marketing a business, the biggest things that destroy the saleability of a clinic business, and the practical steps practitioners should start taking now if they want more freedom in the future.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: This conversation is packed with the kind of insight most clinic owners don't hear until they're already overwhelmed, stuck, or trying to untangle years of reactive growth.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to build something that lasts, scales, and has value beyond your treatment room, this episode is essential listening.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's get into it.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Hi Sarah Louise, thank you so much for joining me this morning.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: It's great to have you on the podcast.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: For anyone who hasn't come across you before, give us the overview.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
2:35
SPEAKER_01: What do you do, and where are you at at the moment in business?
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'm Nurse Sarah Louise.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: I am the CEO and founder of SLA Medical, SLA Academy, and the Business Injection.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: I am an aesthetic nurse prescriber, and I'm also a mother to three lovely children and a wife.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: So talking about where I am now, I have had a really big transition in my personal life and also my career.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: But four years ago, I had a vision to move away from the UK, and I wanted to keep my clinic, and I'll go into that in a moment, uh, because I wanted to keep my legacy living on.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: But right now, uh, in answer to your question, I live in Dubai.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: I exited my clinic uh on the day-to-day three years ago.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: It still operates, and now I teach the systems and strategies that enabled me to do that to other aesthetic business owners.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: You've had quite the journey.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: So take us back to the start when you first kind of got into aesthetics.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: How did that happen?
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I got into aesthetics the normal conventional route.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: I went through a nursing degree in Australia, I studied in Australia, and then I, funny story, I actually failed my new graduate program as a nurse.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Everything comes down to this one interview.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: And I remember sitting in a panel of there, there was like eight people in front of me.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And I really fumbled.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: It was something, although now I speak very easy on camera and in large audiences, I'm absolutely fine with public speaking.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: But back then, I think the weight and the pressure of everything at such a young age.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: I was uh 21 when I finished university.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: So I started university quite young for my cohort.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: And when I'd finished, I really didn't have that level of probably maturity to go through that type of examination at the end.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: And so I failed.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: And I picked up a job as an agency nurse in the emergency sector.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: So I got really vast experience.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: You get thrown in.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there is no supernumery, there is no training.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And then from there, I was really intrigued about cosmetic plastic surgery.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: And that was basically because I was met with a lot of Burns victims, and seeing that plastic surgery uh reconstructive transformation really inspired me.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And then I went straight into private work.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: So I went straight into private with two leading plastic surgeons.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: I went with Daryl Hodgkinson, who was trained in America, and then I went to one of his understudies who's a very incredible plastic surgeon in Australia, Dr.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Kurosh Tavacoli.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And I had an amazing exposure to what lies beneath the skin, to doing drip strains, dressings.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: I was working from the operating theater to back into the clinic.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: So I got a really broad understanding as well as anatomical experience, which I believe today, you know, that is what definitely led me to being more of an expert in the industry.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: So having such a really fine understanding of anatomy, but also working with patients in the private sector.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: So my care, the way that I delivered myself, the way that we constructed consultations was always different from the public sector.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And I definitely have to say now that that mentorship, it completely set the bar for the way that I've carried that into my future practice now.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: And what in what way would you say that it's influenced you and how you practice?
5:58
SPEAKER_00: So definitely when you work in a small business, you are working between all different arms.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And what I found was my ability to communicate was really strong.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: My ability to multitask and time management, to think outside the box just from a clinical world and start to think more about the business aspect because you are at the forefront of booking appointments.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: You are doing drip strains, dressings, but then you are jumping straight back into recommending treatment plans and assisting the surgeon.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: So you get a very high level of autonomy, but along with that, you get a lot of flexibility.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: I would say the one thing that we sometimes forget about as aesthetic practitioners is that training sets the benchmark for safety.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: It sets the benchmark for premium care.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: And it definitely set my benchmark for luxury branding because I was working for such a great plastic surgeon.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: And I think once you see that as a practitioner, you can't unsee it.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's something that you take forever into your career.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: So you're working in plastic surgery in Australia at this point.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: Presumably you're still relatively young in your kind of early to mid-20s.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: How did you then get all the way over to Manchester and set up your own practice?
7:13
SPEAKER_00: I know.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: What a journey, right?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: So I went from Sydney, moved to the UK, a part of my ex-husband's job.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: So we moved over for him as he was an athlete.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And it was very meant to be one year.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: So one year coming over, I actually had to leave my job in Sydney that I loved.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And that was a big challenge for me to go into something that was so rewarding and something that I found so passionate.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Relocating over to England was a struggle for me.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: I had a two-year-old and I was very isolated.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I had no friendship groups.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: It was a very testing time for me.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, now the resilience that it's created is great.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: But definitely at that point, I didn't feel it was an easy transition.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: I then went and worked for a plastic surgeon in Manchester.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: And I actually was still so interested in aesthetics because that's what I was doing in Australia, that I approached a doctor, which this is quite a funny story, and it will lead into a little bit that I talk about in a moment.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: I approached a doctor that I'd seen all over Instagram, and he quite inspired me to work for him.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to open my own clinic then.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna be in the UK for one year.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: So for me, it wasn't worth, you know, opening up my own business.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: And so I went and sat down with him and I booked an appointment.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: So I am a real cheeky person in the sense that if there's always a way around to everything.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to work for him.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have any job vacancies open.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: So I booked an appointment and I pretended to be a patient.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: And I turned up to his clinic and he I sat down and he's like, okay, so how can I help you?
8:37
SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, I've actually relocated from Australia.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: This is my background.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: I would love the opportunity to work for you.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, that's gonna be really challenging because all my patients love me and I don't think they're gonna book with you.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's not gonna work for my business model.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: And I was so deflated, and I was like, why do you have such an ego?
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Number one.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And number two, I was like, I didn't truly understand the meaning and the restriction of what that was at that point until I do now.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: But that then set me on a bit more, I guess, of a vision than to conquer something.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: I think me, I'm someone that it's not, I don't like being, you know, told no, it's just I didn't really like the way that that was delivered.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: So I worked for a plastic surgeon and just done the normal drip strains dressings, steered away from the aesthetics for a year while I got my NMC, because you got to transfer your license over from Australia, which also honestly was a nightmare because that year they decided to digitalize everything.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: So they lost my application.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: And luckily, I was working uh as a nurse, but I was being paid as a nurse assistant because I didn't have a pin.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: So I chose to work for 13 pounds an hour and to get the exposure.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: At that point, you know, we were financially viable.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: So I had the opportunity, luckily, to be able to just do it for the passion and the exposure.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Once I did that, we then found out that he was signing another year, my ex-husband, and another year and another year.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And it turned into, okay, now we need to set up a bit of a base.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: My son got into professional football, and I thought, well, this is the time now that I really need to execute my dream.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: And at that point is when I opened my own back garden clinic.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I started to build my own brand.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
10:26
SPEAKER_01: And then presumably you grew that over a number of years, and then you moved into the space that the clinic is in today.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: So tell me a little bit about the journey of that, how you started to then grow your kind of and especially in a in an area that you were relatively new to.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Like you say, when you first moved there, you didn't know anybody, you didn't have any friendship groups, no one knew who you were.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: So, how did you then kind of immerse yourself into that area and become one of the go-to clinics?
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I, and I think you you mentioned something earlier when we spoke about, you know, at what point did you decide to do that as well?
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Because in a situation that I was in, that was really not the cliche-settled situation, right?
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And I think at that point I knew that I wanted to do something.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the finances to build a big clinic.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the resources.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: I was restricted with, I just had another baby.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I had a nine-month-old baby that I remember kitting out this back clinic.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have much money to do that.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And the way that I did it, I had her, there's a picture actually of her laying on a cardboard box outside because she couldn't roll at that point.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: And in I was painting the walls just to try and get this set up.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: It was a gym, turned it into a studded wall.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: So I had a waiting room and a treatment room.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And I remember even since then, everything I do has purpose.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: It has intent.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Because even though I was a back garden clinic, I wanted to present myself as the perception that I was a big clinic.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: And I did that very well online.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: I did a perception where people would call me in the street and go, Sarah, you know what?
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm in the middle of houses.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing here?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, you're in exactly the right spot.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: So my online presence I'd created was good enough that I always pretended I was Coca-Cola in this mini back garden clinic.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I grew quickly.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And I concentrated on were the basics.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Having, I didn't have enough funds to have an receptionist.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: I also didn't have the space.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: So it didn't make sense for me.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: So I made sure that I digitalized and automated everything at that point.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: And I created a Holly.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you ever you hear me talk, I will talk about Holly.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: She was my non-existent, what you would call now a VA.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And Holly wrote back to all my patients.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Holly set appointments.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: She did things that I didn't want to have those conversations about with my patients.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: So I separated this uh professionalism from clinical to operational world very quickly.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: And I grew within six months, I needed to get a new space.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: So it was word of mouth.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have any money.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: We didn't run ads back then.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't have the facility, I didn't do SEO, I worked off my social media, I showed people me.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I was organic, I was transparent, I was showing them how I was building, sitting in my car, the struggles that I had, and people related to that then.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: And by six months later, I was getting the keys to, you know, a space that I'd only ever dreamed about.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: And that was what is now the HQ of SLA in Manchester.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: Going back to the Holly for a second, presumably this was you, but you would just sign off the emails as Holly, you know, receptionists.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Holly was me.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Everyone now knows my secret.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: So if Holly ever pops up, she doesn't.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: We have people now behind those.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: But it was it was just about trying to separate myself.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: I had to challenge of talking about financial things as well.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, I would let people leave, which is ridiculous.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: And I say to people now, please don't do this.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: If they hadn't paid, because I built this relationship with people that was so close, they were coming to my house, and I didn't think commercially at the very beginning.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And I would have Holly chasing them up for their payment, and I felt uncomfortable doing that, so I made Holly do that.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: I think that's yeah, such a great idea.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: So genius.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: And it yeah, it also, I think in people's minds, they'll take you more seriously as a business, right?
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Because they think you've got this team, you're not doing everything yourself, even though you are at that point.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And that's the perception element and that I spoke about.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: It's about branding, and I'll get into that later about why everything matters from the moment before they even step inside your business.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: It is how do you appear online?
14:31
SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
14:32
SPEAKER_00: What is your messaging?
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And all of that I always said, you know, I want to look like I am mini Coca-Cola.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: When they go on my website, I want it to be user-friendly, I want them to have lots of information.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: I want my branding to correlate to what my message is.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: I never wanted to be the biggest then, but I wanted to be the best.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And that was the messaging that I always kept in the back of my mind.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like social media played a big role in how you grew.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: You know, like you say, you weren't putting a lot of time and energy into your website or or your SEO ads.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't really a thing back then.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm guessing this was relatively early days of like Instagram, by the sounds of it.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: It was so early.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were all still using Facebook predominantly back then, before we switched over to Instagram.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: So I was just putting up basic before and afters.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Stories weren't even really a big thing back then, but just being relevant.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And I think that never it never changed.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: And I think that messaging now is really important that we get so caught up in trying to be someone or something.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And we think too much about the purpose, the content we need to put out needs to be so strategic that we lose the personal side of it, we lose the personality.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole reason that people are attracted to us.
15:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: And like you say, you were showing a lot of yourself, you know, in those vulnerable moments, you know, sat in your car chatting to camera, showing the behind the scenes of trying to grow this business and doing all of these things and being a mum, which obviously people relate to, right?
15:55
SPEAKER_01: So it humanises you and makes them buy into you.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: So what did that look like?
16:00
SPEAKER_01: And how did you then take that from your face being on social media predominantly and you showing up and you know it being just you to then growing a team and being able to actually step back and it not just and it not being really you at all anymore because you're not there, you're not present in the clear, but it's still running.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: So that is a transition in itself, and you do have to have a strategy behind what you do with that.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Because for me, I had a, you know, an exit plan to go to Dubai.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And this is an exit plan that usually takes three to five years.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: I did it in one year.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: So I knew that what I needed to do needed to be aggressive.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: And that meant that not only just the social media side and projecting my staff as the face of the brand, but you know, delegating those training days, making sure I was mentoring everybody, implementing policies and protocols.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And I developed something called the SLA way.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: And I trademarked this.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: It's the way that we do things inside SLA, whether that be an operational process versus whether that be a protocol from what we choose for a concern of a patient to the way that we talk, the way that we walk, the way that we dress, the way that we speak.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: This is all so important.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: And I think as practitioners and business owners more so, we normally get people in, like new staff members, and we say, okay, shadow us for a day.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Show we're gonna show you what to do.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: This is how you need to inject, this is what you need to the consent form, this is the photo you need to take.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: And then we go, bye, good luck.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in a week's time.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, and that doesn't work because that level of expectation or assumption that they will be like you is incorrect.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I quickly learn I've made some horror mistakes in my time with that level of expectation and me not giving the support and the processes.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: So the way that I was able to build the brand was first solidify the way that we do things by the SLA way, and that is through my staff and the way that we conduct ourselves to patients.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Beyond that, it was about positioning my staff as the faces.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: So putting them on social media, making them speak.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: If they weren't comfortable doing face cam, making them just do pointing to little things on the screen, and we could put up like this or do that.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: I had a staff member, she hated social media.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: So we just made use with what we had.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: But I said to her, like, it's important that your face is there so that they're recognizing they're you're a part of the team and making sure that when people are booking, your name is at the tip of their tongue.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: The other great way to do that actually is Google reviews.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Because if you have Google reviews with a name in it, if you keep seeing, you know, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, you're gonna want Sarah, right?
18:36
SPEAKER_00: It's uh you're already built this trust.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: You know that 300 people have spoken great about Sarah, therefore, you know, she should do very well with me, essentially.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: So positioning the brand in-house, what you do, but also externally projecting that online and dropping your ego.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you have to separating yourself from the company might be really challenging.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And I had to go through a divorce essentially with my own business.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: It was really strange.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: I considered myself Sarah Louise from SLA.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: That was my identity.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And when I first moved, I really struggled with that.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: I struggled with the building something for so long to work and run without me, to now it operates without me and it doesn't need me.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: That's a transition in itself.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: So I think having that awareness at the very beginning that that is going to happen, dropping the ego so that you can allow other people to stand in front of you and you push them over yourself, but never losing your voice throughout the company.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Because I always say if you're building a brand that doesn't rely on you, you want it so that when patients walk in, they still feel you're there.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was probably the biggest transitioning point for me.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: I think that was a big challenge.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: But also putting the staff in front of me was never a challenge.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: I always back my staff 100% and that trust.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: You have to put the trust in them.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And another thing is people say, I'm too scared.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to them to run away with my patients.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to teach them everything and then they're gone.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: There is always a risk with scaling.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: There is always a risk with delegating.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: But the reason people have fear is because they're unprepared.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't learn that.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: When I brought people into the business, I did have people run away with my IP.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: I did have people run away with patients because I didn't protect everything that I should have in the right way that I should have.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: And putting simple contracts in place that, you know, might have a non-compete involved.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: That, no, you can't go and open up on the doorstep of me in one year's time, please.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Like that will affect my company.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: You can't go and treat my patients if you leave within the first year.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Just putting these types of basic stipulations in can really help you.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Because if you've built that business and you've drawn those patients to your company based off your own marketing efforts and your own brand awareness, then you need to protect that.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: How involved are you in the day-to-day running of the business now?
20:56
SPEAKER_00: So I am not involved at all in the day-to-day.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate dream.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: I check in with my staff once a week and then once a month.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: So they will chat to me.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: They're really good.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: We have a great relationship outside of work.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: But just on a side note, SLA had no real manager for three years.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: So it's only now I've just stepped up my uh patient coordinator into a team leader role.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: And she has only just now taken on more of the KPIs, more of using the systems, because I had developed systems and processes that I can manage from here in Dubai.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I can input the data.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: I can get my receptionists to drop and drag information.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: It's that easy that if it turns, I've created these algorithms.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: So if it turns green or red, if it's green, I know that, you know, I'll do a quick snapshot of my clinic over the week.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: They're all green, our KPIs.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to make a phone call.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: If there's some reds, then, you know, normally Helena's getting in contact with me straight away, going, okay, yeah, this is a little bit low, but then we can identify exactly how to correct it.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: So the pivotal moment of it being able to run without me is definitely the implementation of systems, 100%.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: Now tell me a little bit more about those systems and processes, because I feel like that's a lot of stuff that goes over the top of clinic owners' heads, and it feels almost too overwhelming to even think about systems and processes, let alone actually implement them.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: So what are some key ones that you've kind of built?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so where it all started was having a platform that I could build for my own selfish needs of SLA.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: So putting together all of my IP in my head, because we do things great as practitioners, but we do them all in our head.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And when we try and all of a sudden delegate that, it becomes very difficult just to automate and to become standardized because everyone does things a little bit differently.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: So basic systems, protocols that are in place on how to deliver a consultation, a framework that my practitioners follow every single time, no matter how experienced they are, no matter how many times they've seen that patient.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: So standardizing that framework.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: The consultation is a big one, retention, definitely retention, making sure that we have processes in place to follow up patients and to call patients that we may have lost, to follow up patients that didn't re-book, to reactivate patients that potentially we haven't spoken to in over 12 months, because we all have great databases, but no one really taps into those.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the biggest things I see in aesthetics.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: We're always chasing the new patient.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: So we're always on the new patient acquisition trail.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: We're spending a lot of money in marketing, but then we're not actually looking at our attention and looking after the ones we already have, which is five times cheaper to do anyway.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: So it would seem, you know, it would seem very normal or logical that we would do that, but we actually haven't been taught how, as practitioners, a lot of the time.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: The other ones are KPIs.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: So not revenue KPI.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Something that we all get so stuck on is how much money we make.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: And because we have bills to pay, right?
23:55
SPEAKER_00: We have responsibility.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: So we need to drive a certain amount of revenue.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: The number one thing I find is people don't have good visibility and awareness of their company in the beginning.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: So they're tracking their numbers by the bank balance each month.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: That's really common.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I've got a bit of extra money in there, oh wow, I've done good this month.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Or if I'm running a bit low, oh, what's actually happened?
24:15
SPEAKER_00: But nothing gets done beyond that.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: So financial awareness I put in place very quickly, having that visibility of what my PL looks like versus what targets I can develop based off my PL.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Your targets are not based off other clinics' performance or the industry standard.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: It's based off what you need and where you want to be.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, something that I always love to do as an exercise with any of my private consulting clients is okay, what are we achieving right now?
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Where do we need to be?
24:47
SPEAKER_00: And what is it that we're getting there for?
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Because it's all good and well to grow, but why are we doing that?
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing it to buy a new device?
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing it to bring on a new staff member?
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing it so you can reduce your hours?
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing it so that you can exit one day?
24:59
SPEAKER_00: And so having the vision in place is equally as important as everything that we build as a foundation to get there.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: Because again, it gets very hard when some days you're not meeting targets, you're not meeting KPIs, that vision becomes very blurry.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a strong vision to get there, that is what will muddy the waters on the way there.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: The basic KPIs that I look at is utilization rate.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: I look at rebooking rates to see how we're rebooking patients.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: I do that on an overall versus new and existing patients.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: I have a revenue target, obviously, is the higher one.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: I then look at average patient spend.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't look at average spend per hour.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: This is a good learning tool, actually, because a lot of places do have spend per hour.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: But that could be argued from a practitioner because what if they're not busy?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: What if their utilization is lower?
25:51
SPEAKER_00: So they could say, well, I didn't have the opportunity to get that target because I didn't have a patient in my chair.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: So if we do it based on every patient they see rather than how busy they were, it becomes more accurate and it becomes more attainable by the staff members.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: And so then you're driving them on something that's within their control.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And then I also benchmark reviews.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: So that is also one of our main driving KPIs.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: And I say if KPIs you can do correctly, then you will reach your revenue target because revenue is just the byproduct of the success of your KPIs.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, it makes more sense that you would be able to hit those revenue targets if you're looking at all of those different elements that you just outlined, rather than burying your head in the sand about things and just hoping for the best, right?
26:39
SPEAKER_01: But I do think that these are areas that people probably don't look at enough in their business.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so so important.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: I am going to move on in a moment to what you're doing now and kind of, you know, your work with other practitioners.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that I just have to ask you, because this is literally something that I hear like, you know, almost daily when I speak to practitioners, is about how you manage to move away as the main injector from your business.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, when a lot of clinics start, right, it's just them, they're the aesthetic nurse the aesthetic doctor that's doing all of the injecting, then they grow and they bring on new injectors, but then they really struggle to move their patients over to those new injectors or even get new patients to want to book in with those new injectors because all they've seen is that, you know, the business owner, like in the marketing on the website.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: That's what they've heard about from friends and family.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: How did you do that so that people want to come in and see your other aesthetic injectors and not necessarily just you?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's really important.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think it starts at the hiring process, definitely.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: I learned very quickly that I needed to hire based on values first, and I trained the skills second.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And that for me was paramount because some values, well, often values can't be trained.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: It's embedded in a person's personality in that individual.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: And skills, I can always upskill someone.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: I can always give them the means to learn more.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And the person that you bring on, they essentially become the reflection of your brand.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: So in saying that, you can't train someone to smile, you can't train someone to be warm, to be friendly, to be caring.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's an element that we sometimes miss that we still are, if we're healthcare practitioners or if we're not healthcare practitioners, there is an element of care there that we need to deliver.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing beyond the train, the hiring is the training.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: So it's not a one-off induction, you know, it's ongoing.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: And as you standardize and you bring up those competency standards, you make very confident practitioners.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: And so you suddenly don't make them just competent, you make them confident in their ability.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And patients feel that because when it's now start time for you to transfer your patients over to somebody else, they need to feel that they have the same level of confidence to execute.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: And the way that I was able to blueprint that was actually delivering quarterly competency standard training.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: So I do that still.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I go back to the UK, I will actually have all of the staff there, make sure we're practicing the same, we're talking the same, we're delivering the same.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: And just to make sure that, you know, we're all dressing the same.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Like I have uniform policies.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: I have policies that exist because, again, every time that we bring a new staff member in, we just brought in two new doctors three weeks ago.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: And it was about that level of expectation.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: When you come into the brand, we want our patients to be able to come to the brand and to know that when they're choosing anybody in the clinic, they will have the same care, the same delivery of service, and the same result.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, I think it's very important to note, and this has been very well studied, that there is a statistic and there's a study, uh, the Price Cooper Waterhouse study, and I can send you this so people can actually have a look at it.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: It was in 2023 on a very large cohort of patients, and it studied a lot around the psychology and the emotional experience in aesthetics.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: And it said that 73% of people rate their experience as paramount and the reason they stay over price, reputation, and result.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: That for me is huge.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: That means that when we go somewhere, if you want your brand to represent a certain voice, a certain element, that we need to induce this into all of our staff.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: And that needs to be completely the we call that the brand tone of voice.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's something that I'm more passionate about in creating that in all of the staff members that come on board and setting that expectation.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I have to be very clear.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: I set this expectation in the interview stage.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: This is the way we do things.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't work with you, then you are not a fit for our brand.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that you're not a great injector.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that you won't flourish and be successful.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: It just means that this is the way we do things and we do it for a certain reason because we do things with intent.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's a question I ask at the very beginning.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And that eradicates a lot of time wasters.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people that just want to be connected to your brand, put it on their CV, a lot of people that may just want to see how you operate because you're successful and they want to take what you have and leave.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: I also implemented trial days now, so that anyone that comes for a job, I pull them on a trial day.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: So for both sides, you know, do you enjoy being with us as much as we enjoy having you?
31:32
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, people are very great in interviews.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'm doing them by Zoom.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Before now, my obviously my manager will then secondary interview.
31:41
SPEAKER_00: But we now do a trial day.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Body language.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: Do they turn up on time?
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Punctuality.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Are they on their phone all the time?
31:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've had trial days where they're on their Apple Watches like this, and I'm like, come on, this is your one time to put your best foot forward.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Have we forgotten about that level of expectation?
31:58
SPEAKER_00: So those things that we are strict on, but we don't compromise.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: I will never compromise on those types of standards to make sure that I can translate patients from me to existing practitioners, which is like I did.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: Another really good trick that people can do if they're trying to move patients from themselves to somebody else is put all their reviews with pay with their staff members.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: So something like an anti-wrinkle injection treatment, I would then put all of my reviews over to my other staff so that then they had an ability or a chance to learn them to be with them.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Documentation, you need to be watertight.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: You need to have good photos.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Because now what's happening is when that next practitioner picks up that file, they need to know what was done, how it was done, where it was done, and why.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Because then if they have that level of understanding, they can go to the patient with a lot of ammo and they can go with a story, they can go with the full picture.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more frustrating.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: I used to get told in the hospital system, don't call the doctor unless you've got every single bit of information before you pick up that phone.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: And it just traumatized me.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I had the neurosurgeon and he yelled at me on the phone.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, that's my fault.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: I didn't come prepared.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: I can't answer all the questions, and he needs to give me an answer and direct me.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: And so imagine picking up that file of a patient.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: You don't have the full story, you don't know what's happened.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: The patient could be saying it didn't work out the way they expected, or potentially the dosage was incorrect.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: And if you have no proof, no evidence, it puts you in a really challenging situation.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And then it makes you look incompetent as a practitioner.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: It makes the brand look incompetent.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: So this needs to be very fluid across the board.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: The other thing is mentor shadow days.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: So I bring my staff in with me and they shadow me all day and they watch and they listen and I integrate them.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: So during the treatment, I will say, Hey Mary, is it okay that I have Jade with me today?
33:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be talking over you, but essentially I'm going to be telling her what we do, what your past is.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: I've had you for seven years.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'd really love Jade to understand your history.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Just that alone is so successful because by the time I'm not available, Mary goes, you know what?
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Jade listened to everything Sarah says.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: She knows my history.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: She knows my dosages.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: So now I feel comfortable.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: So opening up that door and sharing is definitely the key to being not relied on in your company every single day.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: Those are some really, really good pieces of advice.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: And I think it just goes to show as well that it's not going to be an overnight process, you know.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: This, these are things that you're doing and implementing over time, you know, possibly years when you were working in your clinic, hiring the right finding the right people, bringing them into those, into your treatments, you know, and all of those other things that you've spoken about.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it just goes to show that practitioners who are listening, if this is something that you are thinking about doing, you need to start sooner rather than later, right?
34:56
SPEAKER_01: And not, you know, wait until to start now.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Like now, you know, there is a saying in business that any type of exit is going to take between like three to five years normally, because you need to work out number one, is your business sustainable?
35:13
SPEAKER_00: And then if it's sustainable, is it scalable?
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Because no matter what you want to do, whether you want to sell it, whether you want to exit your time, maybe decrease your time and only work one day a week, you need to make sure that that business will be sustainable financially and it will live on at the same capacity.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I took a huge financial hit when I left.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to act like it was easy and it was all rosy.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: I knew that leaving in one year and setting that benchmark for myself, financially, I was going to take quite a substantial decline in revenue.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: And if we look at 2018, I got approached by SKN.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: They came in to value my company.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, they were buying a lot of, they were acquiring a lot of boutique clinics and bringing them under their portfolio.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was so excited.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I was like, just bear in mind I'd had my clinic one year.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: So this is like premature days.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Me so blindly was so excited, went into the meeting.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: They are aggressive.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: They want to buy you for the lowest amount they possibly can.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: They want to keep you on, and there's a lot of restrictions.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, okay, so what percentage of the income are you?
36:20
SPEAKER_00: I was like, 80%.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: He's like, and I was so proud, right?
36:24
SPEAKER_00: I was so proud.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: I was earning good money, all by myself, working six days a week, 80% of the income.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: And I'd built something from nothing to literally working up to nearly seven figures.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Like it wasn't for me, that wasn't the challenging part working on my own and doing that.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, Well, you know that your company is almost worth nothing.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, because if we take you out, what do we have?
36:48
SPEAKER_00: We have 20% of your income that you're talking about.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: You have no processes in place, you have no standardizing, you have no automation, you have nothing.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: You don't even really have a brand.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Because right now you are the brand.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: That was eye-opening.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: That was so eye-opening for me to go, okay, actually, if I need to protect this brand moving forward, if I want a legacy, if I ever want to take a holiday, this means that I now need to start putting things in place that I can step away and have the freedom.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: So, so, so important.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of what set the ball rolling for you then to get everything in place that allowed you to step away eventually.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that because it really upset me.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing, I was buying a house in the UK in 2020, the back end.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: And after COVID.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: And COVID was very scary for a lot of people because we suddenly realized that with doors closed, we couldn't operate.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for most brands?
37:44
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't have a sustainable, solid brand, that opening those doors back up was going to be challenging.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: In actual fact, it boomed our industry.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: We're very lucky and very fortunate.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: However, my accountant asked me a question, and I talk about this a lot in the business injection.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: He said to me, Sarah, what happens if you die tomorrow?
38:00
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Well, that's a bit extreme.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm young, I'm healthy.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, because now you're getting a mortgage.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: We need life insurance.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, actually, that's correct.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, when you get a mortgage, you've got to have this life insurance to protect the debt.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, So what happens with your business?
38:16
SPEAKER_00: What happens with all the girls' jobs?
38:18
SPEAKER_00: What happens with you?
38:19
SPEAKER_00: What happens with the family?
38:19
SPEAKER_00: What happens with the brand?
38:21
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, it would die with me, literally.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: And at that moment, that was the real moment in 2020 that I said, something has to change.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: Because if it doesn't, it's not just about me exiting.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: Because at that point, I didn't want to exit my business, right?
38:36
SPEAKER_00: This is 2020.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: 2021 was when I started thinking about that.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: So 2020, I was still, I'm here, I'm available, I love working, I love my job.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna work harder the week before I go away on holiday to make sure I've got extra money when I get when I go away.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: But I really didn't think of the ramifications that how heavily the business relied on me.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's when you realize that you haven't created a brand or a business.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: You've just built a clinic.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: And now you mentioned it a second ago, you've got the business injection, where you're teaching other practitioners, you know, what you did basically, and how to kind of build a brand that, you know, doesn't heavily rely on them and that they can walk away from at some point.
39:19
SPEAKER_01: Tell me a bit about that, how that came about and what the business injection actually is.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that came about not by chance really.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: It came about partly because I needed to build the infrastructure for SLA to give myself the freedom.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, all my IP that was suddenly in my head needed to be on paper.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: It needed to be somewhere where we could access it.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: And I built up this incredible Google Drive.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, I have some fabulous things in here.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: I have some great tools, I have some good protocols, some good policies.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: And pair that with my experience and everything that I've done wrong, all the money I've lost, all the time that I've encountered.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: I said, I've got something really great here.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: And now I probably need to share this.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: The defining moment for that was in actual fact, I reserved the domain of the business injection in 2021.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't know what it was going to be, but I knew I loved that name.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: And I actually thought it was going to be something clinical.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: So I ran SLA Academy, which is where we trained individuals to on foundation courses, masterclasses, and advanced to it's just basic clinical skill.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: But the gap that I realized that a lot of practitioners don't have is beyond the clinical skill.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's kudos to your to the name of beyond the needle, because actually, this is where majority of the success of any business comes from.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: And off the basis of that, moving to Dubai, I can't inject here.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: So you can only inject in aesthetics if you are a doctor, meaning you are a GP with prescribing five years of cosmetic history.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: You're a dermatologist or plastic surgeon.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: So the doors were closed for me to continue my uh actual injecting pathway.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: And actually, I've done it for 15 years.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: So I was at the point where I wanted to venture into something more.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: I always crave growth.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: And then the BI came about and I started to document everything.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: So I started to write all of my policies down.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: I started to standardize them in a way that didn't talk about SLA.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it started to talk to the masses.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: And when I started to build this, you know, I was sitting with my husband and he's like, you have something so incredible that not even a business consultant can give because the point of difference is that you have done it.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: And that all of your life experience, all of the emotion, all of it has been my money.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: I haven't used investors' money.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: I have cried my own tears.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: I've had to fire my own people.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: I've had to hire my own people.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: And bringing that into building a business for me was such a more powerful way of building this business out of need and necessity rather than building it out of glamour and what we normally see on social media of like events and celebration and building these events.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: No, normally businesses get built from a need, from being in survival mode.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, what was I SLA runs, it's got, it builds profit, it's great, but what next?
42:25
SPEAKER_00: You know?
42:25
SPEAKER_00: And once I separated myself from Sarah from SLA, which remember I said was quite a difficult transition for me.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: I started to realize that no, I am Nurse Sarah Louise, and she has SLA Medical.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: She has got the business injection, and she has got lots of different future ventures that she wants to venture into.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: And that for me was building that personal brand in 2022 to gear up to separate myself from the clinic, but still be the face of the clinic, was really the success of building the BI.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: And when you start working with a practitioner or clinic owner, you know, through the business injection, what's one of the first things that you look at or that you or that you see that people are doing wrong commonly?
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so straight away, awareness.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: Practitioners just really have lack of awareness of their businesses.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: They're so busy that they are working back to back.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: I see this a lot where practitioners go into clinic, and I did it.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, I only want to work three days, so I'm gonna jam-pack my three days.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna work from nine till eight.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna have a lunch break, and I am going to work back to back, half an hour appointments, one-hour appointments, whatever that may look like.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: And I see this become burnout very quickly, number one.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: But the main mistakes that they're making is the lack of visibility that they have in their business.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: They really haven't stood back to look at how well the business is functioning.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: They actually don't understand how well it's functioning because they think that busy equals profitable.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: But you very quickly learn that.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: That you're almost working like a busy fool.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: And this, you only get to that point when you're burnt out.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: And you think, wow, or I want to go on a holiday, or I want to go to my child's nativity play in the morning and I can't go.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Because now, if I sacrifice that money, I can't afford X, Y, Z.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: Or I've built up a certain level of income that I can't drop that now because my outgoings are so high.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: And so that awareness of their company, what does well, what doesn't do great, just a basic exercise of, you know, what treatments are we doing that actually are not delivering any benefit to the company at all?
44:35
SPEAKER_00: Where can we start to become niche?
44:37
SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of clinics become too generalized.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: They want to be a jack of all trades, master of none.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: They have every device, they want to deliver every treatment.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, they're diluted.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: They're competing with the masses, they're running ads aggressive on social media or on Google, and they're just competing now with the race to the bottom.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: They're reducing their vision, they don't even have core values.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: This was a big eye-opener for me because that's something I created at the very beginning.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: That if I ever want to grow and scale, even just having patience, that when they come in, what do they want to know about my brand?
45:16
SPEAKER_00: When they talk about me to somebody else, what do they say besides the fact that I give them a good treatment?
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Besides the fact we have good coffee.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: What else can they say?
45:26
SPEAKER_00: If they were doing a word-of-mouth referral, what would they say?
45:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay, besides the basics of being safe and ethical, you know, they're the basics that people always talk about.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm a premium brand.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: I care.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, I actually listen.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: I advocate for the patient, I give loyalty to the patient, I give back.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: So, what are these types of things?
45:47
SPEAKER_00: So, core values, definitely the vision of the business.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
45:51
SPEAKER_00: What are you aiming towards?
45:52
SPEAKER_00: Because as human beings, we all need vision.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: And this is where the days get tough, they get tight, they get hard.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: The industry now is saturated, I agree.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: But actually, it means that there is a nice demand for this industry, which is fabulous.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: And but when those days are challenging, if you don't have that vision and pair that with your passion, it's very challenging to get to.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
46:17
SPEAKER_01: For anyone who's listening who's like in those early days of building their clinic, or maybe they're relatively established, but they're kind of thinking what's next, how can I grow?
46:27
SPEAKER_01: What you know, I maybe I want to hire someone, maybe I want to invest in a new device.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give people to, or what things do you think are really important that they put in place now before they spend any more money or do anything else?
46:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think if you're starting from scratch, don't be so focused on the things like the logos and you know the look of the brand.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: I think that's really important, but you need to start with the positioning of where you're at.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: Who are you talking to?
46:58
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know who your buyer is going to be, how are you going to represent your own brand?
47:06
SPEAKER_00: And this is something that at the very beginning, even if you're established, go back and do this exercise.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, have a look at the vision, the core values, set that tone of voice.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: Who is the person that you want to attract?
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Who would what do you want them to get from you?
47:22
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, with that perfect patient, this exercise is done very often in marketing.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: They call it your persona buyer, right?
47:29
SPEAKER_00: So it's like you've got to map out who you would want to get to to be able to make your marketing effect.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: That positioning statement is very, very important before you do anything.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: So making sure that you are attracting the right people before you even create a logo that those people won't even buy from.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: So you need to get the people first before you can even have the people to buy.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: Brand work, I think, is really uncomfortable for most people because it requires such specificity, right?
47:56
SPEAKER_00: It's the fact that you need to go deep.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: You need to sit there and understand what is it about your brand that attracts people to you.
48:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, why would we say no to some patients?
48:08
SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of practitioners aren't ready for that exercise because you're may you're actually diversifying, you're making sure that when you're narrowing down, actually you're being so specific that now you have to say no to other people.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: Now you can't appeal to the masses.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's quite a frightening, uh, a frightening exercise for people, especially if, you know, obviously that's where growth comes from, but more so because they think they're restricting themselves, because they're not available to everybody.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: Because now suddenly they're not going to come for me from A to Z.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think that for me is going to be one of the most important things.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I think is really important is you can't be the best option for everyone.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: And don't be scared to say no, and don't be scared that people won't come to you.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, clinics that try end up being an obvious choice for everyone, it you end up becoming a choice for no one.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: And this for me is so important that you are going to appeal to only a certain demographic.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: And that is your competitive advantage.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: Because once you know that, your targeted marketing can be better.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: You also have a strength that you can niche right down and really value those people and optimize that category.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's all about positioning at the very beginning.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: Before you even look at devices, what services you provide, work out first who you're talking to, because that will then naturally evolve to what devices you choose.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: You may not, you know, someone said to me, Where am I at now?
49:36
SPEAKER_00: What device should I introduce?
49:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, who is your patient demographic?
49:41
SPEAKER_00: If you're not, if you're treating skin, why would you go and bring in a vaginal tightening machine?
49:48
SPEAKER_00: This was the conversation.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, because I just want to add more depth.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: I said, But right now, where's the demand?
49:54
SPEAKER_00: Have you tested the demand?
49:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that these patients are interested in that first?
49:59
SPEAKER_00: So before you go and make a decision to bring in a device that is quite expensive and has got a new overhead, and you have no strategy built into that yet, maybe just look at what the demand is in your business and build the rest moving forward.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: I think that's so, so important.
50:13
SPEAKER_01: And again, you know, something I see a lot is people scared to niche down, scared to speak to one particular person because they don't want to, you know, leave behind other potential people, like patient potential patients that could come to them.
50:26
SPEAKER_01: What worked for you in those initial days when you were trying to kind of learn your niche and learn the kind of target audience that you wanted to attract?
50:36
SPEAKER_00: I think for me, it was always about value.
50:40
SPEAKER_00: So, what value could I provide, which then attracted a certain demographic.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: For me, I always price position myself for what I needed as a company.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: I didn't actually do market research about what everyone else charged around me.
50:54
SPEAKER_00: I positioned myself where I felt I belonged.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: And I use an acronym and I teach this a lot, and it's called RED.
51:00
SPEAKER_00: So reputation first, education and experience and demand.
51:05
SPEAKER_00: And based off that acronym, it's actually a Tony and Guy hairdressing acronym.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: And what sparked that for me was when I walk into a hairdresser's, why do I pay more for a creative director than I do a junior stylist?
51:19
SPEAKER_00: So why couldn't I do that in my business?
51:21
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, actually, it makes total sense.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: So for me at the very beginning, it was about positioning myself where I felt I was valuable and doing that reflective practice on me.
51:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is where we make a mistake.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: We all look at who's around us, we all benchmark ourselves based off everyone else.
51:39
SPEAKER_00: And that is the first mistake you make because you're now succumbed to the masses.
51:44
SPEAKER_00: You now don't have a POD.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: You're now just trying to market yourself within them.
51:48
SPEAKER_00: So for me, it was about standing out, making sure that the care I provided was paramount.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: I focused on retention, making sure that every patient I seen, and let me tell you, I didn't see a lot at the beginning.
52:00
SPEAKER_00: I we don't have that.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, you I was doing no marketing.
52:03
SPEAKER_00: So it built slowly.
52:05
SPEAKER_00: And so all I wanted to make sure was every patient that got through my doors, that before they booked, it was seamless.
52:11
SPEAKER_00: So it made it easy.
52:12
SPEAKER_00: It was convenient.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: Online booking's convenient for them.
52:14
SPEAKER_00: They can bob in.
52:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know people like to say that Botox nowadays, it shouldn't be as readily available as a coffee, but let's be real, it is.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: And it's on people's lists now where it's like their nails.
52:26
SPEAKER_00: So it's become a necessity for people.
52:29
SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, you want to make it convenient for them to book it because sometimes people might wake up and they go, Oh, suddenly I need my Botox.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe they've lived overseas.
52:36
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you've got a good retention in process so that you don't need to do that when they wake up and want their Botox, but making it convenient for them to book.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: The next thing was price positioning so that when they looked at me, they didn't say, Oh, she's very expensive or she's very cheap.
52:50
SPEAKER_00: I sat in a very ambiguous level, making sure I provided value to back myself up.
52:55
SPEAKER_00: You can't charge a certain amount of money if you do want to be a premium clinic and you don't deliver premium.
53:02
SPEAKER_00: So every bit of contact that that patient had when they walked in, the smile, the greeting, the conversation, the ambience in the clinic.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: I am a really firm believer of sweat the small stuff.
53:12
SPEAKER_00: What does it smell like in your business?
53:14
SPEAKER_00: What is the music that's playing?
53:17
SPEAKER_00: How loud is that music?
53:18
SPEAKER_00: Is there swear words in that music?
53:21
SPEAKER_00: Where, what do you want the people to feel when they come in?
53:24
SPEAKER_00: How do you want them to remember you?
53:25
SPEAKER_00: So my patients will say, oh my gosh, that SLA smell.
53:28
SPEAKER_00: We have a smell in the clinic.
53:29
SPEAKER_00: It's a neon diffuser, and it's called Make You Happy.
53:33
SPEAKER_00: I've had that since the moment we built SLA, and I think it's infused into the wood.
53:39
SPEAKER_00: Like literally, nine years of this.
53:42
SPEAKER_00: It's got a really interesting smell because you can imagine the fermented smell of nine years ago is not the smell of now.
53:47
SPEAKER_00: And the patients recognize that.
53:50
SPEAKER_00: That's awareness, right?
53:51
SPEAKER_00: That's brand recognition, that's sensory branding.
53:54
SPEAKER_00: So now it's about making sure that every time that patient comes, they remember me.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: I leave a mark.
53:59
SPEAKER_00: And every consultation I had, I wanted to wow them.
54:04
SPEAKER_00: I made it my little goal that every patient would say to me, I've never had a consultation like that.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: No one's ever spoken to me like that.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: No one's ever educated me like that.
54:14
SPEAKER_00: And that for me was so rewarding.
54:17
SPEAKER_00: And that was definitely my POD at the beginning.
54:21
SPEAKER_00: That I may not have been the biggest clinic.
54:23
SPEAKER_00: I may not have been the biggest, goldest, brightest, five-star business.
54:28
SPEAKER_00: But once the patient came, they had an experience that was so unforgettable that the rest became irrelevant.
54:35
SPEAKER_01: What did that consultation process look like?
54:37
SPEAKER_01: Like what did you prioritize doing in that consultation to make yourself stand out from other people?
54:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think what really lacked, and this is why I really wanted to build a clinic and a business in the UK, because it's a very different landscape to the US and Australia.
54:52
SPEAKER_00: So from what I'm used to, it's very medically led and it's very different in the way we operate.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: So the standards are a lot higher.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: I have to point that out very, very early.
55:00
SPEAKER_00: Now it's getting better, which is fabulous.
55:02
SPEAKER_00: However, the things that I wanted to always have in my consultation was number one, education.
55:07
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to educate patients about why they were coming to me.
55:13
SPEAKER_00: So pointing out that they pointed out a concern, they'd come to me with that concern, and I need to find a solution.
55:18
SPEAKER_00: So I became a solutions finder and a problem solver.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I teach practitioners.
55:23
SPEAKER_00: You are not there to sell.
55:24
SPEAKER_00: You are not there to convince them to buy your product.
55:28
SPEAKER_00: They need to convince you to treat them.
55:30
SPEAKER_00: You are there because you need to find a solution.
55:33
SPEAKER_00: And if it's within your scope to deliver that solution, then this should be a flawless execution.
55:40
SPEAKER_00: So when we're identifying the concern, why is that happening?
55:44
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of patients don't realize that they go, Oh, I want a brow lift, and they're all of a sudden they've been getting three areas of Botox for how long?
55:50
SPEAKER_00: And they're suddenly wondering why their eyelids feel like they're nearly touching their lips.
55:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like they complain of this.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: They say, I have no eyelid.
55:58
SPEAKER_00: I can't even put my eyeshadow on.
55:59
SPEAKER_00: Or my mascara hits up here, you know, that that those common complaints.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: I say, has anyone actually taught you about the anatomy?
56:06
SPEAKER_00: What's happening with these muscles?
56:09
SPEAKER_00: Where they're pulling, where they're going.
56:11
SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people said to me, Why are you not treating my forehead?
56:14
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Because that's going against what we're trying to achieve right now.
56:17
SPEAKER_00: Right now, we're trying to give you a little bit of lift, correct?
56:19
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to make you feel more awake, more open.
56:21
SPEAKER_00: It's an anti-aging treatment.
56:23
SPEAKER_00: If I continue to take away the action of an elevator, the chances are you're going to feel quite depressed in that area.
56:32
SPEAKER_00: That is the mechanical function of the muscle.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: So just being basic with the education, giving evidence, supporting it with literature, supporting it with not just what I made up.
56:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't make up anecdotal information to say the reason I do it is because I found that's the most effective.
56:49
SPEAKER_00: No, over the years of my, you know, experience of 15 years, yes, I've found ways of doing things, but everything for me has intent and everything for me is based on evidence.
56:59
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we don't do it is X, Y, Z.
57:01
SPEAKER_00: I would then give them an option.
57:03
SPEAKER_00: In all of our consultations, we always have an option for people.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: So, and that option is to make sure that patients don't feel pressured.
57:11
SPEAKER_00: But if you have answered the solution to their concern, you've done your job.
57:18
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing that I am very passionate about is linking everything emotionally.
57:24
SPEAKER_00: Why does it affect them?
57:26
SPEAKER_00: Why now?
57:26
SPEAKER_00: Why does that frown line?
57:28
SPEAKER_00: Why is it a problem?
57:30
SPEAKER_00: Why, how much does it mean to you to correct it, to fix it, to remove it, to improve it?
57:36
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, I'm always using, you need to convince me to treat you.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: And you need to tell me how much that's going to improve your life.
57:45
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not going to treat you if it's just something that's going to make a minor difference, or if it's something that's not going to impact you, because actually that might not be the right solution.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: And so these I focus on called the precise framework that I use in my consultation training.
58:00
SPEAKER_00: And I start from, you know, the P, which is pre-arrival, to the E, which is evolution and aftercare, that complete process.
58:08
SPEAKER_00: But integrating the patients, you know, to be able to make autonomous decisions with you and increase that patient practitioner relationship is really important to me.
58:18
SPEAKER_00: And it's very important to my staff.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: But there's one thing you need to stop doing.
58:24
SPEAKER_00: And that is thinking that building relationships with your patients where you just talk about their life and their personal situation and their children and their holidays is going to keep your patient.
58:35
SPEAKER_00: Because I can tell you right now that I made that big mistake and you will lose them because the ultimate reason they came to you in the first place was for their aesthetic journey and their aesthetic goals.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere along the line, you forgot about that.
58:49
SPEAKER_00: Three years in, you started to build a rapport with them and you thought that the rapport building was more important than providing the solution and evolving with your patient and recommending new treatments with new literature and new evidence.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: This is where you need to change as a practitioner and still maintain your authority and credibility moving forward.
59:10
SPEAKER_01: That's so important, actually.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: And something that I've never heard anyone speak about before.
59:14
SPEAKER_01: We all talk about, you know, the importance of building rapport, you know, with patients and how that's going to keep them coming back.
59:21
SPEAKER_01: But like you say, if if you let other things slide because you've got a bit too comfortable, eventually they will go as well.
59:29
SPEAKER_01: These are hundreds and potentially thousands of pounds that people are spending when they come to see you.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: And I remember, like, you know, I remember thinking to myself, Jenny, where is Jenny gone?
59:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jenny's been with me since my house.
59:41
SPEAKER_00: I would call her a loyal patient.
59:43
SPEAKER_00: She brought her mum, she bought her friends, she brought a lot of patients to me.
59:47
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, Jenny's not been.
59:49
SPEAKER_00: I was like, yeah, you know, when you think back, where is she gone?
59:51
SPEAKER_00: And I think Jenny didn't leave me because she didn't like me.
59:55
SPEAKER_00: She didn't leave me because I didn't do a good job.
59:57
SPEAKER_00: She didn't leave me because I was too expensive.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_00: She left me because I stopped caring about her aesthetic goals.
1:00:04
SPEAKER_00: She left me because suddenly her friend went and got a treatment elsewhere.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_00: She liked the results of her friend's treatment and she went to her friend's practitioner.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_00: And that's the difference.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_00: Although experience is paramount in what you deliver, yes, and we know that 73% of that is very important.
1:00:20
SPEAKER_00: But do not forget about the primary reason they came to you in the first place.
1:00:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so, so, so important.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_01: As we kind of wind down the episode, I'm going to ask you kind of some quickfire areas to expand more on or share your thoughts on.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_01: Devices.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_01: We have touched on that, you know, slightly.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_01: But if someone is thinking about purchasing a new device, what kind of advice would you give them?
1:00:46
SPEAKER_01: When do you think is a good time?
1:00:47
SPEAKER_01: And what should people be doing before they invest that money?
1:00:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you need to max out your current services that you're doing.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_00: So you're literally getting to a point where you have given all of the solutions to the patient and still they need more.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_00: So that might mean that you've been doing your injectables, you've been doing your basic skin treatments, microneedling, dermalux, chemical peels, and you finally think, okay, I now need to expand it to something else.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_00: First of all, look at the demographic that you have.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_00: So if it's predominantly skin, we know that we're moving into a new world of skin health.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_00: And that is going to be the paramount of any type of injectable or aesthetic longevity anyway.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: So if that's the case, you need to, when you implement this device, you need to understand the demand.
1:01:27
SPEAKER_00: So you need to put the feelers out first, develop a newsletter, do a survey monkey, understand what your demographic wants in the business versus what you know will be a direct need in the business.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, as I spoke about vaginal therapy versus doing a laser for skin, two completely different things.
1:01:46
SPEAKER_00: Now, once you've maxed out what you're doing, that would show you that to give you the continuity of care, you may need to introduce a laser.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I brought in one of our lasers, basically because we were hitting a wall with results.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_00: So as much as we possibly could, but then we were referring them on for IPO.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_00: We're referring them on for, you know, 1064 lasers.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_00: So resurfacing lasers.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_00: And this was frustrating.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_00: As a clinic owner and as a practitioner, we're always looking to be able to give the best to our patients.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_00: And that meant then that this was ready for the next phase.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_00: Financially, make sure that you have got the investment there to do that and that it is comfortable.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, you need to build a marketing plan to launch it.
1:02:27
SPEAKER_00: Do not think that when you get a device, that you can rely on your current cohort to make the success of that device because that is incorrect.
1:02:36
SPEAKER_00: We all stay to the fact that we get a free event off the company.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_00: They come in, they promise this event, they'll put on bubbles for you, and then they're see you later, good luck.
1:02:47
SPEAKER_00: So don't rely on the companies to feed you everything and the ongoing success of that machine.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_00: You need to make sure that you have a marketing campaign built into that in two funnels that you can attack your current demographic versus any new open demographic.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_00: So new acquisition and new people that suddenly have been getting laser elsewhere or have these skin conditions or something that you're bringing in, and you're now attracting that whole new demographic.
1:03:11
SPEAKER_00: So always keep that open on two levels.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_00: I would always say choose a device that works with your morals, your ethos of your company.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_00: Don't buy a device just because everyone has it.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, I don't speak negatively about any companies, but I think just as an example is one that I can think of is Morpheus A.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_00: It really hit the press.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of practitioners felt like I need to get this because, you know, the hype of that device created a desire to want and have, and then a desire to give.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_00: And then once we learned about, you know, certain patient selection, which is with every device, mind you, that it might not work correctly and maybe the indications were incorrect.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_00: Just make sure that when you're seeking a device, it's not based on trend.
1:03:55
SPEAKER_00: It's based on the underpinning bread and butter of what you're going to do moving forward.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_00: That this isn't going to be here today and tomorrow you've lost the demand.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_00: So choosing a device that doesn't compete with something else in your business.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_00: So something that's going to align and run parallel with what you do.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't contradict what you do.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_00: It works with the demographic that you have.
1:04:18
SPEAKER_00: And equally, the company aligns their ethos with you.
1:04:23
SPEAKER_00: Because let me tell you, they are the ones that you need to draw as much resources out of as possible.
1:04:29
SPEAKER_00: Because these companies, they get great budget, they get a lot of opportunities that you need to seize when you get that machine.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: They need us more than we need them.
1:04:38
SPEAKER_00: So for that reason, when you pay yourself, don't get wined and dined, don't get taken out to dinner or sent to a conference and flown in by a helicopter.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is not, if if device companies have to do that, that means that their machine is not worthy enough because they're trying to compensate and justify why people need to buy their machines.
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: Just like saying you need to convince a patient to have a treatment.
1:04:59
SPEAKER_00: It goes on both ends.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_00: So when you're choosing these types of companies, be strategic, stay true to who you are, and don't choose based on trend.
1:05:08
SPEAKER_01: So, so important.
1:05:10
SPEAKER_01: So, so important.
1:05:11
SPEAKER_01: And you know, trends don't last.
1:05:14
SPEAKER_01: I think that's another good thing to remember.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_01: I do remember when Morpheus 8, you know, it was like, I think it was Judy Murray.
1:05:19
SPEAKER_01: I think it was like just after COVID, it was like the Judy Murray picture, and everyone wants Morpheus 8 device.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a good thing.
1:05:24
SPEAKER_00: But like that was the baji, right?
1:05:25
SPEAKER_00: That was the newderm system.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the results, it was that the new derm system, yeah, which had created the color change and the tone and texture change, which proved how important skin is in the journey of aging or in the aging process.
1:05:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think that was a remarkable learning curve for so many practitioners that just by improving the skin quality, you can actually reverse the signs of aging.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_00: And in a really incredible way.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_01: But so many people bought into that before and after pressure and didn't want to see.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_01: Skincare side of it.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_01: They just wanted to think, wow, can we do this with a device?
1:06:03
SPEAKER_01: This is the answer to all of my problems.
1:06:05
SPEAKER_01: All my patients are going to be lining up for this.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of practitioners get FOMO more than they probably realize.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, like you say, doing that research into what your patients actually want, does it align with what I'm already offering?
1:06:19
SPEAKER_01: Is it going against what I'm already offering?
1:06:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, asking all of those questions is so, so important before you invest that money.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_00: And price, like I have to talk about price because look, we are in a commercial world and it's aesthetics is transactional at the end of the day.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: But also, the most expensive is sometimes not the best.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_00: I have to really point that out because there are some amazing devices that have great modalities that can really produce.
1:06:45
SPEAKER_00: And the actual technology that is underpinning these devices is incredible.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_00: And if they are marketed at a more competitive rate, don't diss the product just based on price.
1:06:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so, so important.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_01: And like a lot of brands have huge marketing budgets that that's where they're, you know, putting their money not necessarily into the technology behind the product itself.
1:07:10
SPEAKER_01: So that's always important to bear in mind.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_01: Next thing I want to ask you about is hiring.
1:07:14
SPEAKER_01: What are the top three hiring mistakes that you see practitioners make when it comes to, you know, recruiting more staff members, in particular, injectors?
1:07:22
SPEAKER_00: Hiring out of desperation.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_00: So usually they're growing at a rapid rate and they didn't accommodate for that.
1:07:28
SPEAKER_00: So they hire the wrong person.
1:07:31
SPEAKER_00: They hire based on me, I hired on friend at the beginning.
1:07:36
SPEAKER_00: Who did I want to be around to grow a business?
1:07:39
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, as people start to unfold my story, which I'll talk about more on my YouTube coming, which is I was very lonely.
1:07:46
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to hire people that I wanted to be around and people that I thought were interesting.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_00: That is the biggest mistake.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_00: You need to be transparent and set expectations early.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_00: Because if you let people continue without goals, without KPIs, and without expectations, it'll work for so long.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_00: But what will happen is there'll be a level of frustration on both sides.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_00: So you need to make sure that when you're setting out those expectations, when you're hiring, ask them in the interview process.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_00: Also, hiring off referral.
1:08:20
SPEAKER_00: This for me is really key.
1:08:23
SPEAKER_00: If someone in the industry has recommended a person, I would always take that over an external indie job advert.
1:08:30
SPEAKER_00: And this is paramount.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_00: I always say seek industry reps, product specialists, people that are in the game, they're on the floor, they're walking around seeing a lot of clinics, they might see someone unhappy in their job, they might see that it might be time for someone to move on.
1:08:45
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're seeking more, maybe they want a career progression.
1:08:48
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't poach someone.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's my ethical boundary, is I will not go and approach someone that's working in another business and say, hey, I've got a job advert there.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_00: Because if they can leave them, they can leave you too.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_00: Because the reason if they're coming and you're offering more money, they you can always offer more money somewhere.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_00: So don't be fooled by using the poaching element.
1:09:10
SPEAKER_00: And I see this a lot.
1:09:12
SPEAKER_00: I see people poaching a lot of staff.
1:09:14
SPEAKER_00: It's not sustainable long term.
1:09:17
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, the transparency key is really important.
1:09:19
SPEAKER_00: Setting out those standards, the e-learning, keep them motivated.
1:09:24
SPEAKER_00: We as business owners make a big mistake.
1:09:28
SPEAKER_00: We want someone independent, someone forward-thinking, someone with initiative, someone that's loyal, someone that's trustworthy, someone that wants to grow, someone that can sell.
1:09:36
SPEAKER_00: I always hear this.
1:09:38
SPEAKER_00: But yet, do you know what we don't do?
1:09:39
SPEAKER_00: We don't give them e-learning guidelines.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_00: We don't log them on to make sure that we have competency standards.
1:09:44
SPEAKER_00: We don't drive them towards KPIs, we don't incentivize them.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_00: We don't send them on conferences, we don't share with them, we don't put them on a pedestal, we don't reward them and we don't incentivize them.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_00: Do you know this is where I get really frustrated is that we want, want, want, want, want as business owners, but we don't give.
1:10:01
SPEAKER_00: And if you want a person with those qualities, let me tell you, you need to produce those qualities yourself to keep them.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_00: Because they will quickly evolve and they will move on, because they will be understimulated, they'll feel unrewarded, and they'll also feel not valued.
1:10:17
SPEAKER_00: And that is key to the long-term sustainability of staff retention.
1:10:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so, so true.
1:10:24
SPEAKER_01: And something that you're right, a lot of people overlook, normally because they're too busy, but I think you have to invest that time yourself.
1:10:30
SPEAKER_01: You will get it, you know, you will get it back, whatever you put in with anything in business.
1:10:36
SPEAKER_00: A little fact, I'll give them as well, which I introduced really early.
1:10:40
SPEAKER_00: And if you're in your business and you have time, I would think this is a great contract option.
1:10:45
SPEAKER_00: So we did uh mentorship contracts.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_00: You can call them fellowship, mentorship if you're in medical, non-medical.
1:10:51
SPEAKER_00: And this was about bringing someone on that had less skill or potentially was just foundation trained if they'd been somewhere else, invested the time and money.
1:10:59
SPEAKER_00: I always took people that were at least foundation trained because that meant they'd already invested their own money to go down this avenue.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_00: So for me, that means that they've got intent.
1:11:09
SPEAKER_00: And then I would put them on a contract, which meant that I will train you, I will mentor you, I will give you access to everything.
1:11:15
SPEAKER_00: I will send you on all the training days that I get with my commercial policies.
1:11:19
SPEAKER_00: I will send you to cadaver days, I will have competency days with myself, I will do model days with you, consistent model days to make sure you're upskilling.
1:11:29
SPEAKER_00: But I put you on a mentorship contract, meaning that all of that I would expect two years in service.
1:11:35
SPEAKER_00: And for that, is I will invest everything I have into you to create you into such a great practitioner.
1:11:43
SPEAKER_00: Not to just stay with me, you can move on, you can grow, you can evolve.
1:11:47
SPEAKER_00: But I would like two years back in service.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_00: Because for me, that was enough time to reap the rewards back of what I have created, but equally put them into a confident practitioner.
1:11:58
SPEAKER_00: Because when someone says they're an advanced aesthetic practitioner and they've been injecting for one or two years, I'm like, come on, you know, it's about quantity and these people only work part-time.
1:12:07
SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's about developing those skills, supporting the people, having them on a mentorship contract.
1:12:12
SPEAKER_00: And the thing that goes into a mentorship contract that is different is if they leave within that time frame, that's okay.
1:12:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm I don't shackle anyone to the business.
1:12:21
SPEAKER_00: But if you do, there'll be a sliding scale of what would be paid back for the training within those time frames.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_00: So if they left within naught to six months, for example, they would owe 75% back of what we've invested to them in that time frame.
1:12:35
SPEAKER_00: And that would go down incrementally.
1:12:38
SPEAKER_00: That worked very well for my company, but it only works when you're there to guide and provide.
1:12:45
SPEAKER_00: Now I can't do that because I am not there.
1:12:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't have the time to invest into that.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's unfair for me to expect that back.
1:12:53
SPEAKER_01: But you've already put the work in to create those practitioners before you kind of step back and left anyway, I'm assuming.
1:13:00
SPEAKER_00: And now we take very experienced practitioners now.
1:13:03
SPEAKER_00: And also when you're in a better financial position, you can.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:13:07
SPEAKER_00: Again, you may not have the money to spend at the very beginning.
1:13:10
SPEAKER_00: So that's why a mentorship contract is great.
1:13:12
SPEAKER_00: You are a lower hourly rate, but you can incentivize them higher on commission.
1:13:17
SPEAKER_00: But that just gives you that buffering because they're getting a job where they're getting all the learning and they're getting paid.
1:13:23
SPEAKER_01: And you're literally creating the practitioner that you want that's going to do things exactly the same way that you do, you know, that's going to live and breathe the brand in the way you want them to.
1:13:33
SPEAKER_01: So it's like the best of both worlds, really, isn't it?
1:13:36
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
1:13:36
SPEAKER_01: It's a great way to do it.
1:13:37
SPEAKER_01: Love that.
1:13:38
SPEAKER_01: Last question I'm going to ask you is you've described the ultimate goal as freedom.
1:13:44
SPEAKER_01: For anyone who's listening who's kind of five years away from wanting that, maybe, whether that's stepping back, selling, or just not being needed every single day, you know, like you say, being able to have a holiday and not be looking at your phone every five minutes.
1:13:55
SPEAKER_01: What are the three things that they need to start doing now?
1:13:57
SPEAKER_00: So, number one, you need to document everything, every system, every process, every patient journey and start today.
1:14:05
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's imperfect, allocate one hour per week to do this type of procedure.
1:14:09
SPEAKER_00: Number two, hire one person to learn and delegate properly.
1:14:15
SPEAKER_00: So freedom is skill because without delegation, you can't step away.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_00: Start developing them now.
1:14:20
SPEAKER_00: So having these people lined up in process, ready to go for you.
1:14:24
SPEAKER_00: And number three, separate your identity from the business.
1:14:29
SPEAKER_00: So in your own head first, you can do this so that you start to come up with the narrative that the business is not you and that you are bigger than the business essentially, but you overarch your company, and everything in that is created by you.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_00: So drop your ego, remove yourself away from the company, have everything influenced by you, but it doesn't require you to be there every single day.
1:14:54
SPEAKER_00: And stop being a micromanager.
1:14:57
SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, you implement systems because then you don't have to micromanage.
1:15:01
SPEAKER_00: So they're the top three things I would do.
1:15:03
SPEAKER_00: Once you've started to do that, then it's about putting the systems in place and really making sure that you can have awareness, you can audit, and you can evaluate and continue to improve.
1:15:13
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
1:15:14
SPEAKER_01: You have given so much value.
1:15:16
SPEAKER_01: I think you're like definitely in my top favourite guest who have ever come on here.
1:15:21
SPEAKER_01: I could think I could sit and talk to you all day.
1:15:23
SPEAKER_01: You're just like, you know, your brain is just brimming with knowledge and information.
1:15:28
SPEAKER_01: I've loved having you on.
1:15:29
SPEAKER_01: Love chatting to you.
1:15:30
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
1:15:31
SPEAKER_01: Before you go, please tell people where they can go and find you and find out more about the business injection because I just think that, you know, what you've created is amazing and is what so many practitioners need.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so guys, you can head over into a few ways.
1:15:45
SPEAKER_00: So obviously, social media is where we all head first.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_00: On Instagram, it is the business injection.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_00: And also my own page is nurse.sara Louise.
1:15:55
SPEAKER_00: On the business injection, there is actually a link, and I do a weekly webinar that is free at 7 p.m.
1:16:01
SPEAKER_00: every Wednesday.
1:16:02
SPEAKER_00: So you're more than welcome to register through the link on the uh Instagram.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_00: Alternatively, you can go to the business injection.com.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_00: That will also take you to a landing page where you can sign up.
1:16:13
SPEAKER_00: And I give free value on this webinar.
1:16:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's all about, you know, the top four pillars that you can introduce into your company today to get results without spending money.
1:16:22
SPEAKER_00: I also have my YouTube relaunching.
1:16:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited because my old YouTube was very much based on skin and skin reviews and being funny and kind of a whole different nurse, Sarah Louise.
1:16:33
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going right down the funnel of sharing my journey, my story, the relatability of all the challenges I've met with being a mum, being divorced, moved to different countries, having no money, coming into money, building sustainable businesses versus the business side.
1:16:48
SPEAKER_00: Pure strategy that they can get every single week from me.
1:16:51
SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of different ways you can target me, but jump online and uh it'll be great to see people at the webinar as well.
1:16:57
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
1:16:58
SPEAKER_01: Do go and check that out, everyone.
1:16:59
SPEAKER_01: And I will put all of the details of all of those things that you've mentioned in the show notes as well.
1:17:02
SPEAKER_01: So people can go and easily find you.
1:17:04
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, thank you so much for coming on.
1:17:06
SPEAKER_01: It's been such a pleasure having you.
1:17:08
SPEAKER_01: You are very welcome, and thanks guys for listening.
1:17:10
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, there is a two-point.
1:17:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, I would love that.
1:17:15
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.