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Aesthetics
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D is for drive If you’ve got this far, you’re clearly a driven person, and that’s good. In my talks I refer to your BIG VISION. What I mean is, what is the end goal? Is it having a clinic in a particular location? Having a certain number of patients? Winning an award? Running a business is incredibly rewarding but incredibly challenging, and there are lots of small, humdrum tasks that have to be carried out day to day. Taking out the bins, phoning the plumber, writing copy for a new advert to run on social media – these are tasks that by themselves are often boring, repetitive and uninspiring. But, of course, they still have to be done! Do you have that big vision in mind all the time? There has to be an inspiring goal, something that makes you get up in the morning and face the challenges, because there will be many. In my opinion, if you have a significant goal in mind, the setbacks are just obstacles in the road. Obstacles can be overcome with persistence and help. So, building your vision and making it clear in your mind is a critical component in building a successful business. That’s how you find the motivation to tick off the little steps in your todo list that take you to the top of the mountain.
E is for continued education To take a career in aesthetics seriously and to maintain a high standard of practice, you need to arm yourself with as much information and knowledge as possible and continue to do this over your career. A one-day course alone will not be sufficient. An education plan for the long term needs to be created, developed, re-written as necessary and adhered to if any kind of success is to be achieved. It is worth considering whether you have such a plan in place and, if not, what the likely long term success of your business is likely to be. You should regularly attend conferences and webinars, as well as reading journals where the latest techniques and equipment are discussed. Aesthetics is a rapidly moving field, and those that don’t keep up will not last long. The ‘experts’ are the ones who understand that we never stop learning.
F is for financial sense You may already be a business owner, or have experience in the private sector. However, most who venture into aesthetics will come from the NHS and, therefore, will have had little training in setting up a business and entirely new skills are needed to succeed. There are many business skills you will need to develop, but, in my opinion, one of the most important and easily forgotten concepts in business is if there is more money going out than coming in, your business will fail. Most medical students leave university under a cloud of debt right from the start of their working life, so it becomes normal for your finances to be out of control. In my opinion, instead of just managing your debt, you need to master elimination and prevention of debt. To keep things very simple, I suggest to go through all your monthly outgoings on your bank statement. Use a chart to categorise your spending. Be honest about where your money is going. This column has to total less than your income. If that exercise was time consuming and stressful, it’s nothing compared to squaring the accounts of your business. Doing so may be the defining moment in your deciding whether you’re cut out to run a business. If need be, get some expert advice on financial planning.
G is for guidance It is common knowledge that when receiving support, a person makes much more rapid progress than alone. One of the biggest factors that took me to the next level was the decision to have both clinical and
business mentors during my career. When you choose a mentor, you’re putting your trust into someone of greater experience, wisdom and success than yourself. For experienced medical professionals, it can be hard to accept that someone is better than you and even harder to hear someone tell you that you need to improve. But this is exactly what you need if you want to make your business a success and outlast your competitors. By taking on board the wisdom and guidance of someone with many more years of experience, you can see your practice leap forward, whereas before you could only take small steps. A mentor can also help you see the long-term view, whereas you may be only trying to get through the month. Mentors can also open up opportunities for development and qualifications that may never have occurred to you. Finding a good mentor takes time. Not everyone will ‘gel’ with your personality and some will have quite different career goals than you. Be willing to pay someone for their time and expertise if that is what is needed to accelerate your career. The most successful value their time, as you should also do. Ask locally who offers the opportunity to ‘shadow’, and even treat their patients. Ask if they are able to discuss cases with you either in person or remotely and if they will be willing to help if you’re stuck. You may seek out different guidance for different skillset, for example for financial education, business skills, and even communication skills. Every learning moment is valuable, even if you only learned how not to do something. Being a member of an industry association can also help, as they often provide mentorship opportunities.
H is for humility One of my mentors told me that one of the best skills I could develop and perfect is the skill of knowing that I will never know everything. Having a modest opinion of yourself means that you have the selfawareness to understand that you don’t know everything and you cannot be right all the time. That means you will get things wrong and you may have complaints levelled against you. You need to be able to deal with such events in a way that allows you to conduct business ethically and empathically. Over-confidence has no place in this industry. You need to know your limitations and work within them until you have gained the extra competence required. Of course, you need a level of confidence to operate, however you have to also be able to take constructive criticism. If you are unable or unwilling to cultivate a sense of humility, you should not be working in aesthetics.
Summary This article has covered the ABCs (or the A-H, if you will) of the skills required to be a successful practitioner in the field of aesthetics. It represents a ‘wish-list’ of what I wish I had known at the start of my career. Hopefully it gives a taste of what is needed to not only be competent, but to thrive in an industry where there remains a lot of mediocrity. Most businesses fail within 12 months. Be one of the few who will outlast their competitors. Disclosure: Dr Sadequr Rahman offers paid-for mentorship opportunities. Dr Sadequr Rahman is a GP and aesthetic practitioner with clinics in Harley Street, London and Newport, South Wales. He has appeared on ITV and Channel 5 discussing aesthetic procedures, as well as written about stress and burnout in his book ‘Superdoc’. Dr Rahman regularly offers mentorship to new practitioners. Qual: MRCGP, MBBS, BSc (Hons)
Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 7/Issue 10 - September 2020
