How to Make an Esthetician Business Plan | 11 Best Steps

A business plan provides a quick summary of your esthetician business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It’s essentially a comprehensive document detailing the financial, management, and marketing strategies for operating an esthetician business. It encompasses aspects such as financing, start-up costs, market research, and competitive strategy. Key components include an executive summary, business description, promotional roadmap, target market analysis, customer analysis, and more(more on that later). 

Why You Need a Business Plan for an Esthetician

If you’re looking to start or grow any kind of business, you’re going to need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, and plan out the growth of your esthetician business which is crucial to improve your chances of success. Mind you that it’s not just a one-time thing; regular review and adjustments are needed to effectively manage the esthetician business, make informed decisions, and achieve success.

Who is the Business Plan Targeted to 

If you’re starting a new esthetician business then you’re gonna need funds to start and successfully maintain it, and your business plan comes into play here as the main audience of the business plan is the financiers of your esthetician business e.g. Bank, Angel investors, etc.

 However, this may not apply to many of you as you’re planning self-financing for your esthetician business. Even in that case, a business plan is crucial as it helps attract potential customers as well. 

Sources of Funding for Esthetician Businesses

The main sources of funding for an esthetician business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will need to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay them accordingly. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, and they will also require a professional plan as well. So a proper business plan will give them the confidence that you’re capable of operating a successful business. 

How to Write a Business Plan for an Esthetician Business

It goes without saying that if you want to start an esthetician business or expand your current one, you’ll need a business plan.

 Here’s what you need to have in your esthetician business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but as the name suggests it is a summary so it’s usually the last segment you write highlighting each key section of the plan. 

The idea is to catch the reader’s eye with simple yet effective statements that properly explain your esthetician business like your operating status, the type of service you provide, etc.

Next try providing an outline of each of the subsequent sections that make up your business plan like, what type of esthetician services are you providing, your targeted customers, a quick rundown of your marketing plan, key members that make up your esthetician business, your staff’s credentials, training, etc. 

Company Analysis

In this segment of the business plan, you put in the details explaining your esthetician business e.g. the type of esthetician business you run, the maximum capacity of the establishment, the number of clients you’re able to manage at a time, etc.

Here are a few  types of esthetician businesses you may be offering:

Spa:  This type of esthetician business mostly focuses on relaxation and pampering such as steam baths, nontherapeutic massage, facials, body scrubs, etc.  

 Salon: This kind of esthetician establishment mostly offers hair and nail care e.g. hair cut, hair treatment, hair coloring, manicure, pedicure, nail and hair extensions etc.

Nail Salon: They’re pretty much the same as salons but these estheticians solely focus on nails.  

Medical: These types of esthetician businesses are a little different than the other ones on the list as they provide more advanced and intensive treatments. Usually, they’re located in dermatology clinics, plastic surgery offices, or cancer treatment centers. Services offered by them are usually microdermabrasion, microneedling, and dermaplaning.

In this section, you’ll need to add a few more details regarding the background of your esthetician company, two of the most important being, the goal of this business, and legal structure. You can add in a few more details as you please like milestones.   

In addition to explaining the type of esthetician business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Industry Analysis

Unlike the previous sections, this part of the business plan usually gives an overview of the esthetician industry as a whole and where you stand at it.

Although at a 1st glance, it seems unnecessary it serves multiple purposes.

• It gives you the proper understanding of the esthetician market that you’re involved with, thus contributing to better market research resulting in an overall better market strategy.
• If done properly it will attract readers’ eyes and will showcase your expertise in the field.

You’ll know that you’ve done a good job at this segment if you can find the following information in it,

• Industry size and growth(try adding some kind of chart as it helps to compress the information and minimizes readers’ effort.)
• Key competitors and suppliers in the market
• Trends and other aspects that heavily influence the market
• What other markets are influenced by this industry
• Potential growth throughout 5 to 10 years and the positive changes it may bear

Customer Analysis

This is the most important segment of the whole business plan as this part explains the expected customer base of the esthetician business.

In an esthetician business, the customer base is usually huge because it is male/female with ages ranging from toddlers to elderly and from all walks of life with all of them needing a wide range of services.

On top of that esthetician business’ success usually depended on loyal customers, word of mouth, and anticipating events like weddings, and birthday parties. So having a proper customer analysis is crucial 

Competitive Analysis

This part identifies your direct and indirect competitors in the esthetician industry and you’re planning on dealing with it.

It goes without saying that the direct competitors are of course other estheticians around you.

However, you as an esthetician have an impact on other businesses around you and vice versa. For instance, If your business is located in a busy area where there’s a lot of foot traffic, you will get many more customers compared to other areas of the town. Similarly, the kind of product you’ll use in your services will also affect the nearby stores as well. 

Make sure you address these questions properly regarding your direct competitors in this section of your esthetician business plan for it to stand out 

• What services do they provide?
• What are the similarities you have and how are you countering it?
• Are you able to offer better pricing than them while maintaining profit? If not, how are you standing out amongst them?
• What are their specialties? Are you able to offer something similar or equally demanding?
• What are they lacking that you can provide as a competing esthetician?

Marketing Plan

There are four P’s when it comes to marketing strategies. They’re Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. As an esthetician business owner, a marketing plan should perfectly cover all of it. Are you providing sufficient products/services that align with the current requirements of the customers, are offering a fair price to the services so that a wide range of customers may have them, is your esthetician business situated in such a location where you’ll get enough foot traffic and potential customers and finally are you promoting your business with better offers, fliers, posters or social media.

Operations Plan

This section is where you explain how the previous segments will be executed. Here you explain the everyday tasks of an esthetician business like inventory, scheduling appointments to serve the customer, advertisement, maintaining hygiene, etc. As well as the long-term goals like reaching a targeted amount of revenue, serving a certain number of customers, opening a new branch, etc.

Management Team

Including estheticians, any business needs highly skilled staff for it to properly function and succeed.  A group of highly skilled people is also required to keep the staff in check and guide them in times of need. So to prove your esthetician business’ worth and its potential to succeed showcasing the background whilst emphasizing the skill set of the core members of your business is essential to earn the reader’s trust in your business. In the unlikely scenario where there’s no one with much experience in the esthetician field try getting an advisory board that will be able to provide guidance. 

Financial Plan

If your business plan is a party then this segment is the showstopper. The primary goal of the business plan is to get funding for the esthetician or any kind of business or to receive some sort of investment for improvement and growth. So for them to have trust in your business you need to show how responsible you are with your finances.

One way to achieve that is to include a  5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. This should also include income and cash flow statements and balance sheets.

Here’s what they mean;

Income Statement: an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not. You must add assumptions.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. 

Balance Sheets: Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While they can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $” X” on starting out your esthetician business, this does not ensure immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate revenue within the coming years. Similarly for liability, if a bank writes you a check for $” Y”, you don’t pay it back right away. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement: It tells you the required money to start the esthetician business and to keep it afloat.

In the process of making these statements make sure to add a few key costs to it like, esthetician supplies and equipment, staff training, advertisement, payroll, insurance, taxes, and other legal expenses.

Appendix

It’s not a very essential part of the esthetician business plan but attaching your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling may help make the plan more professional.

Summary

While making an esthetician business plan try your best to make it as professional as possible. There is no need for fancy fonts or colorful text, but proper heading and spacing are important. Before making this you have to understand the roadblocks you may face and explain how you will overcome them with the business plan. Set realistic expectations rather than bold statements as it helps to earn more trust from readers. You can add a nice cover page to give it the flare you desire. Believe in yourself and have fun.

Conclusion 

The article provides a complete guide on crafting a business plan tailored for an esthetician’s business. It covers crucial elements like the executive summary, company analysis, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team overview, financial plan, and appendix. Note that the esthetician business plan is tailored heavily to catch the financiers( e.g. banks, angel investors, etc) so make sure you cover each point and in doing so professionally explain your esthetician business, the esthetician industry in a nutshell and where you stand in it as a business owner. So, follow along, fill the segment with the researched data of your esthetician business, and make a plan that makes your business idea stand out in the vast amounts of start-ups around you.

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