How to Create Goals for Your Aesthetic Practice

Once you have determined these three pieces of critical information, you will be able to create goals to increase revenue by either 1) increasing your revenue per hour (either by developing a more comprehensive treatment plan to get more done in the room per hour or increasing your fees); or 2) increasing your productivity rate so you can see more people in less time. 

Understanding the Importance of Goal Setting

Here are ten questions to assess your goals. A goal is defined as “A result of achievement towards which effort is directed.”  I’d love for you to take a moment and reflect honestly on these questions:  

• Did you set goals for this year?
• Are you on track this year to achieve them?
• Are you very busy? (Busy is amazing, but keep in mind busy doesn't always mean profitable.)
• Are you profitable?
• Have you started planning your goals for the new year? And if so, where are those goals going to be directed? Is it toward training your team? Learning more about sales and converting patients, or getting more people in the door? Are you going to be focusing on your finances? Evaluating your marketing? Buying more equipment?
• Have you set goals, or do you plan on setting goals for the company as well as your individual providers?
• Have you looked recently at your P&L to see where you can make changes, reduce costs, or save money?
• How are you communicating those goals to your team?
• What tactics and strategies do you have in place to help you achieve those goals? What data and reports have you analyzed, or will you analyze this year to ensure that you're set up for success when you build your goals for the following year?
• How do you plan to execute your plan and hold your team accountable?
• How do you plan to execute your plan and hold your team accountable?

I know those are comprehensive questions to think about, but I promise you they are worth taking the time to answer. 

When we ask our clients what their goals are, they typically will say they would like to grow by 20% or make an extra million dollars. This is great, but when we ask how they came up with those numbers or how they are going to achieve them, we usually hear answers, such as “We just bumped them up from last year.” When in reality what you need to do is create specific, data-driven goals and an executable plan to achieve them.

Nine Reasons Why Goals Are Crucial for Your Practice

1. Goals drive performance and revenue in your business.
2. Goals set intentions that drive positive behavior within your company.
3. Once goals are in place, companies become more profitable, are able to see results and reach their potential faster.
4. Goals create an opportunity to provide feedback (both positive and constructive) to your team on performance.
5. Goals create transparency. For example, if a provider comes to you wanting a salary increase, you can refer to the revenue per hour goals you set so that everyone is on the same page as to the numbers they need to hit. 
6. Goals create accountability and force everyone on your team to know their numbers and be accountable for their own productivity. 
7. Having KPI data and benchmarks in place help put into perspective what goals your team and practice can realistically achieve.
8. Goals help challenge your team to reach their full potential and stretch their limits.
9. Goals produce results when they are measurable and have a concrete endpoint.

Effective Strategies for Creating and Communicating Goals

The pain point we hear over and over again from aesthetic practices is “We are not great at knowing our numbers.” This is one of the biggest reasons we developed the Clarity Practice Performance System. Our finance course walks you step-by-step through forecasting, budgeting, goal tracking and how to input your data into the built-in financial calculators so you can see where you are now vs. where you want to be. That way, you can set realistic goals and be able to achieve them. 

Here are the three most critical numbers you must know before you create any goals for your business. 

1. Revenue per Hour generated per provider, as well as company-wide.
2. Total amount of hours available to “sell” per month or specific period.
3. Current productivity percentage benchmark for rooms being used.

Example:  Let’s say your revenue per hour is $600 and you have 100 potential hours available to sell. If you are currently only selling 50 hours, then you are operating at 50% of your potential revenue. 

Once you have determined these three pieces of critical information, you will be able to create goals to increase revenue by either 1) increasing your revenue per hour (either by developing a more comprehensive treatment plan to get more done in the room per hour or increasing your fees); or 2) increasing your productivity rate so you can see more people in less time. 

You might be super busy and feel like you are at capacity, but are you busy doing the right procedures in those rooms that are the most profitable? This is where Clarity's Practice Performance System comes in. Our Profit per Treatment Calculator allows you to discover what procedures or services are the most profitable and what each generates per hour once you can see what's profitable and what isn’t. Once you see it in black and white and run reports, I promise it is going to be a lightbulb moment. You’ll discover what services/treatments/procedures you want to stop doing or how to reallocate your marketing dollars to promote the services/treatments/procedures that will give you the most potential for exponential growth. 

How to Communicate Your Goals

Once you know your numbers, communicating them to your team is key. When you show your providers what's possible, you gain a greater opportunity for buy-in, collaboration, and transparency.

Morning huddles are the perfect opportunity to coach your team and communicate and track your goals to see what's working well, what their challenges are, and more importantly, what opportunities you have with patients coming so you can re-evaluate the consultation process.

Nobody likes to be in the dark. Everybody wants feedback. So as an entrepreneur, as a leader, you have to go back and really create that team culture. Morning huddles are a fantastic way to get your team together—in person or virtually. I know it might seem hard. I know people still might be working from home, but 5-10 minutes a day is all it takes. I promise you it is very motivating and sets the tone for the day. Everyone gets on the same page and nobody can come back later and say I didn’t know that.

Ask simple questions in this morning huddle like:

• What is our goal for today?
• If it is x amount, what do we have on the books? 
• How many patients are scheduled? 
• How are we going to get to our goal with the appointments we have?
• What types of patients are coming in?
• What other treatments or products can we recommend by creating a treatment plan?
• Then, give a word or two of inspiration and move on with your day.

Inspect What You Expect 

When you really examine the data and see what is going on inside those rooms, and when you understand and know which reports to run, it truly is the key to financial freedom. You’ll be able to wrap your arms around your goals, tracking, and metrics. The Clarity Practice Performance System takes all the hard work out of it for you.

I know you chose your business because you want to take care of patients, and health and safety are first and foremost. However, we all are in business to make money and to be profitable. I want you to push your limits. I want you to stretch yourself. I want you to go into the next year feeling like you have a plan, and you know what to do to execute it.

If these are areas that you struggle with, I invite you to schedule a discovery call with our team. We are here to help you.

The secret to success is putting in 10 times more thinking, more effort, and more action than the normal person does. We can't be mediocre. We can't just do the same thing and expect different results. We have to take a leap of faith, think bigger, and take massive action. That’s my challenge for you!