Professional skin care in the 21st Century has never been so exciting, technical, scientific, profitable and yes, extremely competitive. Open up a fashion magazine today and you will find no less than 30+ non-professional skin care brands claiming to reduce lines and wrinkles, improve skin, restore elasticity, replace Botox tm and on and on and on.
These companies also promise simulated “professional peels” and “microdermabrasion” in do-it-yourself at home product kits. Think about it, if you are reading these ads, it’s inevitable your clients are reading them too!

Early in my career as a skin therapist, I had a colleague who was (and is) a wonderful aesthetician with a huge following. Let’s call her Madge. One day Madge was visited by a regular client for her routine age management treatment. Upon her arrival, the client told Madge that she had been to her dermatologist, and just had a biopsy on a lesion that she and Madge had been following for a year.
Truthfully, Madge had mentioned it to her on several occasions, and told her that she should have it checked out. The client had multiple problems with her skin (i.e. acne, pigment changes, photodamage) in which Madge was diligently supporting her with appropriate education, treatment, and products.

Theory of Corporate and Business Planning, Conflict Resolution, Human Resource Managers, verbal and written reprimands and warnings, OSHA, ADA, and ACLU are all important topics when it comes to owning a business. After pondering these topics for oh… 15 seconds, I came to realize that the main reason we became business owners is because we love the industry and are passionate about our work. The employees that we surround ourselves with at our place of business, although with many differences, are all practicing the same end philosophy, 100 percent customer care that is physical, social, and therapeutic.

Have you ever sat and wondered about your profession? Are you aware that you are in one of the best professions? Did you know that it offers an incredible number of opportunities?
Many of us, when we graduate from aesthetic school, cannot wait to find a job to do facials, whether that is in a salon or spa. All we do is think and think about doing a facial cleanse, tone, and moisturize. Who will be our first client? Will they rebook? Will they tip us? But, our license offers us so many other opportunities that the possibilities are truly staggering.

Spas come in all shapes and sizes from the mega resorts to the independent day spas; well so do clients and their needs. Are you prepared to meet the needs of all your clients? Young, mature, pre-teen, petite to large size clients are all looking to spas for waxing to massage but are you prepared. I know you are thinking YES… but while many spas are prepared for the average size clients many are not prepared for ALL. There are many things to consider including ADA requirements, equipment strength, and therapist etiquette.

Only a generation ago, children were to be seen and not heard. Now, young people who might have been dismissed as “kids” back in the 20th century are proving to be the most powerful segment of American society in terms of establishing and driving brand dominance in the consumer marketplace. Rather than viewing consumers under the age of 21 as simply future-tense buyers, the fact is that national purchasing trends across the board in fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle choices are shaped largely by teens and ‘tweens. Fierce brand loyalties to a specific label form younger and younger, as children are barraged with marketing messages from infancy, and often acquire personal income well before high school.

If I had to identify one large knowledge gap in the skin care industry, I think it’s in the area of retail sales. Yes, there is a wealth of product knowledge training available, but very little in the way of customer psychology and sales technique. Knowing what to recommend is not the same as knowing how to sell.
Aestheticians are in a tough bind because of this shortfall. On the one hand, it’s probable that no one has ever taught you how to sell products, and yet on the other hand there is an expectation that you’re supposed sell a lot—whatever that is.

It’s always been your dream and you know now is the right time to make it happen. You have researched and planned and prepared and at this point there is only one thing standing between you and the doors of your spa – money. You envision a waiting list of clients, a talented and attentive staff, and because of your success you will be profitable early on and be able to pay back your loans early! You are sure that because your business and marketing plans are so well designed, you will have multiple lenders ready to offer you the money you need to launch your spa into business.

At the onset of a design or re-design of your skin care facility you may want to assess or reassess your vulnerability to Mother Nature. It is a very real threat accompanied by the fear of loss of income, loss of wages, workplace disruptions, structural damage, and sometimes injuries and even death. What is a business owner to do? What is an employee to do? How do you plan for such disastrous scenarios?
Many spas and salons are caught off guard when destructive weather takes power lines down and damages their businesses to the point of not being able to work at all.

Some patient diseases – such as skin cancer or acne – are especially well-suited to co-management between a dermatologist and an aesthetician. The physician may see the patient, but typically it is for a shorter amount of time and the patient is usually referred to the aesthetician, who can educate the patient on medication use, make sure follow-up appointments are kept, and help the patient with the psychological aspect of the disease. Because aestheticians scrutinize the patient’s skin, they are also more likely than the nurse – or even the dermatologist – to notice and question potentially cancerous lesions.