Leaving healthcare for full-time aesthetics: building a strategy

Some of you might be wondering how to approach the situation where you want to leave your role in the NHS to pursue a full-time career in aesthetic practice but are simply terrified.

In this blog, Dr Tim Pearce discusses the strategic thinking required to get ahead, your risk appetite, how to focus on your output and not your potential, common mistakes to avoid.

What’s the first step when considering leaving the NHS to work full-time in aesthetic practice?

It is a big leap to leave the NHS for a career in aesthetic medicine. You might not know how to get started, or how to develop a strategy because you have been working in an environment that has not required you to think strategically or have a business mind. The whole notion leaves you feeling overwhelmed and wondering what your first step should be in developing your strategy for how to move out of the NHS and into medical aesthetics. You might also be worrying about leaving the NHS to go into aesthetics and dealing with judgement and guilt.

Dr Tim explains that it can be helpful to find somebody who has already done it and ask them about their experience.

There are lots of ways to do it, but also lots of ways to get it wrong, hence, you must use a certain amount of due diligence in finding someone who is like yourself and has been down the path that you want to follow when seeking a source of advice. This is why being part of his like-minded community can help.

They should be similar to you in terms of resources and mindset – think about your risk appetite, for example – do you mind taking a loan or would you rather do it without? Find someone who has made their step into business using the route you favour. Of course, you can still listen to others because you may learn something from their different approach, but this does not mean you have to follow that path if their resources and mindset do not match with yours.

Should I borrow money to start my aesthetic clinic?

In certain circumstances, Dr Tim agrees that taking a big business loan might be appropriate, for a land grab in a new area, for example, somewhere where there is no clinic, but people are ready for one. By borrowing money, you can own a ‘pole position’ in the marketplace; but it is risky. You could lose it all if you have not learned the right lessons.

The prospect itself can feel overwhelming, going to your bank to ask for a business loan whereupon they will ask you for business plans – this will force you to be a bit more strategic in your thinking, notes Dr Tim. They will want to know the return on investment, basically, how much money are you going to get back for the money you put in?

This question can be one of the biggest obstacles for clinicians; it can take a long time to change your mindset to that way of thinking. He recalls worrying only about, how can I get more patients. You want the experience, you want to improve your clinical skills, and you want training, but you are probably not thinking, “If I spend £X, how much money am I going to get back in the next six months to make that worth doing?”

Slowly, this will change as you begin to think more about buying products and your profit, but it can take a while to realise that you must focus more on the return on investment and your output.

Learn to focus on your output, not your potential

Too often clinicians think about the potential rather than the output, warns Dr Tim. If you are not careful, you can fall into that trap with sales reps. Consider this example:

If you are considering buying a device or machine for £50,000 and the recommended charge for each procedure is £2,000, they will tell you that you only need to do 25 procedures, and you will be in profit. Wow, you think, that is a lot of potential, because after that at £2,000 per procedure, if I do 300 a year, I will be rolling it in! This is when you buy the device.

So, now you have the potential, but you do not have a system in place to produce the output, you are nowhere near that and are just hoping it will happen somehow. This is why a lot of machines sit in the corner of a clinic room collecting dust.

The same is true with training, the knowledge may sit at the back of your mind but may never get used because you do not have the discipline or plans in place to offer it to your patients. Emotionally, it is also a lower risk to ‘buy the machine’ or ‘do the training’ than offering the service to your patients because you could create a feeling of rejection, which many of us fear greatly.

You may train to perform cheek treatments, for example, but patients may not request it, and you do not want to be rejected, so you do not mention it, even though it may be the best solution for them, and instead, you treat their nasolabial fold because that is what they asked for and avoid any rejection. This is a common scenario that Dr Tim encounters with training delegates.

However, if you have a focus on output, you will understand that you must actively inform relevant patients about cheek treatments to ensure you can recoup your training costs, creating output, rather than potential. Mastering patient consultations and expert injection planning will help you achieve it as you adopt a focus on output.

What are the common strategic mistakes made by those going full-time in aesthetic practice?

Copying prices

One big mistake is copying local clinicians who you think are like you without realising that they are struggling (and likely will not be practising in a few years), rather than creating a proper business plan to determine your own throughput and profits, or emulating successful practitioners who are where you want to be in the future; this often leads to adopting and copying a failing business model. Learn how to charge for your aesthetic services.

Not understanding real aesthetic medicine

Initially, it is easy to focus solely on treating wrinkles in isolation, but patients are often seeking a deeper transformation of their appearance to address their insecurities and fears. By operating at this level, you can provide higher-value treatments and set yourself apart from competitors who focus only on chasing wrinkles by offering full face rejuvenation, a transformative result.

Being a vending machine

If you are not careful, you can become a vending machine. With a ‘vending machine’ approach, you offer procedures based on demand, advertising specific treatments on social media, for example, and attracting patients just for those services; you become focused solely on price and become a commodity.

In contrast, a proper consultation will focus on uncovering deeper patient needs and finding better and more personalised treatment solutions that address those underlying needs. At that point, you are moving beyond just selling procedures from a vending machine.

Trying to appeal to everyone and being generic

Work towards a personal brand, making yourself the product and the reason why people seek you out for treatment. Do not try to appeal to everyone, like a cardboard cut-out of an aesthetic clinician who is trying to look successful; be you and be authentic so you become known and trusted in your area and attract the people who fit with you. It is not about being procedure-focused or copying the latest must-do technique, people seek authenticity when looking for a practitioner and will be loyal as you build trust.

Check out the mistakes clinicians make when starting an aesthetic business.

You can get more business insight from Dr Tim by reading some recent blogs on

• How to get started in medical aesthetics
• The clinical path to being a successful medical aesthetic practitioner
• Chasing profit could be the biggest mistake when building your clinic

If you have any business questions, ideas for future podcasts or community discussions, you can also find Dr Tim Pearce on Instagram.

Dr Tim Pearce eLearning

Dr Tim Pearce MBChB BSc (Hons) MRCGP founded his eLearning concept in 2016 in order to provide readily accessible BOTOX® and dermal filler online courses for fellow Medical Aesthetics practitioners. His objective was to raise standards within the industry – a principle which remains just as relevant today.

Our exclusive video-led courses are designed to build confidence, knowledge and technique at every stage, working from foundation level to advanced treatments and management of complications.

Thousands of delegates have benefited from the courses and we’re highly rated on Trustpilot. For more information or to discuss which course is right for you, please get in touch with our friendly team.