Here’s a brief dose of brutal reality.

It was easy before now and you didn’t have to try very hard to fill up your office with cash-paying patients.

Consumers were spending like drunken sailors. Credit was available for everyone for whatever they wanted. TV shows like Extreme Makeover made it possible for everyday people to have a new life of love, wealth and health with cosmetic enhancement.

The demand was high, the patients were showing up for their appointments and the money was flowing.

But not anymore….The party is over.

Many of your patients have lost their jobs or are afraid they would lose their jobs soon so they stopped spending on aesthetics.

Others had their credit dry up and couldn’t afford aesthetics anymore.

Many of your patients who once considered  aesthetic services a necessity now viewed them a luxury to be put off until things are better.

The media pours on doomsday stories about stocks sliding, businesses closing and the world coming to an end.  Let’s face it – it makes for a good story!

There’s been a shift in wealth. The wealth is still there – it’s just in different hands now.

As a service provider, you now have to work at it to get the same results that used to come to you effortlessly.

That’s the difference and that’s why only the strategic will survive.

Remember those sayings:

There’s a silver lining in every cloud or when one door closes, another one opens?

The current state of the economy is doomsday for some and opportunity for others – so which group do you fall into?

Do not let highly publicized pessimism stop you from being excited and enthusiastic about your future in aesthetic medicine.

The good news is that with the right mind set and strategies, there is much you can do to survive and even flourish during this shaky time.

Rather than sit back and wait for things to get better, those who proactively “do something” will fare much better.

“Don’t you see – all is not over.  It’s just different.”

You Are in an Enviable Position

You cater to a very hungry market – the patient who wants to look and feel better and will invest their time, money and effort to do so

These aesthetic patients want to feel better.  That is not a one-time feeling.  This is an ongoing, innate desire for an ever-growing, aging population.

Think about it. This patient has a built-in need now and for years to come because if they care today how they look, they are really going to care as the aging process takes an even bigger toll.

So, spending effort up front now to attract that aesthetic patient to your practice and nurturing that relationship, will prompt them to return again and again for procedures, treatments and products that help them look and feel good.

The point is, this is not a one-time transaction.  The first transaction should always lead to another and another.

It can cost a small fortune to acquire a new patient – but it costs next to nothing to keep them.  The financial beauty of this relationship-based practice is that your costs will dramatically decrease if you simply maintain your patient database you spent time, money and effort to get in the first place.

Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Please watch my free videos by filling out the form to the right, now.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.

Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing