Virtual skin coaching: the next big niche for med spas and skin therapists?

It’s more likely than you may think!

In today’s episode of Spa Business Mastery, I, Kirsten Foss here at Kirsten Foss Coaching, talk about how the new and existing technology available to us (made popular by COVID-19!) is taking spa owners’ earning options to the next level… and how niching into it could give your spa business the explosive growth you’ve been striving for.

Firstly, Let’s Talk Traditional Spa Business Earning Options

First, let’s have some real talk: as someone who has been in this industry for nearly thirty years, first as a spa owner and now as a spa business coach and spa digital marketing company owner, I know (just like you do!) that traditional spa sales are all about providing services and selling retail.

These in-spa sales pull double-duty by both supporting client outcomes and keeping sales afloat. In fact, if you have any experience as a spa owner, you know that retail is actually the most important revenue generator. Why? Because it’s one of the only ways to scale your sales without adding more hands-on service time to your week!

Although traditional sales are scalable in the sense that you can add on more services, more staff, and more retail, spa owners will, inevitably, hit an “earning ceiling”. This is especially true for spa owners who run solo skin therapy clinics and are extremely busy...because you simply don’t have the extra time to squeeze in more sales! As such, the only solution to being able to continue to scale your earnings is to A) get better at educating, and B) becoming inventive when it comes to how, when, and where you sell retail.

Why Focus On Virtual Skin Coaching? Why Not Focus On Selling Spa Treatments?

When swamped with team costs, high overhead fees, and equipment rental, it can be tempting to buckle down and focus on what you know: selling spa treatments.

This is, in fact, a common suggestion I hear from my spa coaching clients. While it may sound bulletproof on a surface-level, when looked at more closely it becomes clear why this isn’t the track to follow for long-term, consistent, and sustainable sales:

• Once you build up a clientele, adding more availability for treatments to an already-booked schedule just isn’t feasible due to space limitations
• The overhead costs associated with providing in-person spa treatments is expensive. Think about the product, labour, admin, marketing, and general operating expenses of your existing treatment lineup… and then multiply that by the amount of treatments you think you need to offer in order to meet your sales goals! Staggering, isn’t it?
• Building a spa business that focuses on solely (or mainly) providing hands-on services is mentally and physically draining. In an industry with an already-high burnout rate, fully-booked skin therapists and spa owners will witness both a high staff turnover rate and poor performance from themselves if they continue to burn the candle at both ends by focusing their efforts on in-spa treatments

Virtual skin coaching offers an alternative to this by taking the spa owner out of the service room. Over the past two years, this has become an even more lucrative opportunity due to…

COVID-19’s Impact on the Spa Industry and Virtual Skin Coaching

As every spa owner and skin therapist knows, we suffered global disruption regarding how skin services were both offered and delivered.

In fact, Statista reports that, in 2020 alone, 80% of owners temporarily closed their spas, 35% implemented a hiring freeze, 32% reduced their staff’s hours, and 25% had to lay off their employees. For many parts of the world, these disruptions have continued long into 2021.

All of a sudden, the only option consumers had for skin solutions and spa treatments from educated skin therapists were virtual consultations, which were mainly offered on Zoom or over the phone. Spas who chose to adapt to transferring their in-person services to the online space were greeted by a new, exciting, and, most importantly, lucrative alternative that has sprouted into a new revenue stream that supports both their lifestyle values and their business goals… all with the potential to keep scaling up!

It is said that, in relation to e-commerce specifically, COVID-19 has advanced online consumer usage by an estimate of five whole years. That means that consumers within the spa industry have gotten so much more comfortable purchasing products and services online that spa owners who haven’t already jumped onto the proverbial bandwagon are leaving major money on the table.

Case in point: one of my solo spa coaching clients put together her e-commerce site at the beginning of the pandemic and, soon after, began offering complimentary online skin consultations and virtual facials (including facial parties for corporate clients!)

At the end of 2020 (and despite being closed for nearly six months), she brought in $88k in sales…  almost solely through her virtual skin coaching services! Due to this financial success, as well as the discovery that virtual skin coaching was better for both her physical and mental health as a spa owner, she has now decided to only offer in-studio treatments three days per week and reserve the other two days as virtual skin coaching days. 

The best part? This isn’t the only success story I have! Many of my coaching and virtual spa business management clients echo that their spa business has seen explosive growth throughout the pandemic thanks to virtual skin coaching. 

How to Get Started With Virtual Skin Coaching: Introducing the Done-For-You Virtual Skin Consultation Toolkit

Whether you are a skin therapist who has been searching for a sustainable career solution for years or a spa owner who is seeking to cater to customers who are ready and willing to learn, experience, and buy their skin care via virtual skin coaching, online services are ready and waiting for you.

After all, I’m calling it now: virtual skin coaching is the next big niche for skin therapists and med spas! Spa businesses need to jump on it now to get the financial ball rolling.

Want to learn how to quickly, easily, and sustainably convert in-person skin consultations into virtual skin coaching? Download the Kirsten Foss Coaching Virtual Skin Consultation Toolkit today.

You get:

• Scripts and protocols
• Recommended technology for all experience levels
• Done-for-you email sequences
• Video tutorials
• Downloadable documents for easy reference
• Form templates to get you up and running same-day

...All with a 100% money-back guarantee!

Let’s have a virtual show of hands: who here is ready to smash their sales ceiling and start seeing the growth of their dreams?