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Opening a New Clinic Dr Anna Hemming shares her experience and advice on establishing your own aesthetic premises In 2019 I decided to develop my clinical practice and find premises of my own. For the past 11 years I had been working from CQC-registered medical practices, but my dream was to open my own clinic. The project was eventually started after returning from living in the US and having my children, who were one and four-years-old.
One of the benefits of having a good business plan was the ability to use it to project the size of the premises I would need. It became apparent that we would outgrow a two to three room clinic within a 10-year lease, so we instead starting looking for a building with space for five or more rooms.
Location Creating a business plan The first thing I did was write our business plan with the help of my husband, who is the managing director of a large multinational company. We calculated the cash flow forecast, income statement, projected revenue and cost of goods for the next two years. We also estimated the cost of staff, introducing them when most appropriate, facilities, marketing and equipment lease. The plan took into account the renovation and set-up costs, although we had a separate renovation cost tracker to monitor carefully. Through speaking to others who had done a renovation before, as well as visiting other colleagues’ clinics, we gained a good insight into the cost of setting up a clinic from an empty shell. While working as a GP for my regular income, I had been saving all of my aesthetic profits for the last 10 years to finance the project. I chose to invest a £160,000 director’s loan, while also taking earnings from the business from July 2019. Of course other methods of financing are available through such things as external investments and bank loans.
Purchasing in London was not really an option, so I decided to rent my first premises. I hope to one day purchase the building, but I am taking small steps!
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Finding a suitable property took six to eight months. First I chose my area; after exploring central London and local towns, I eventually settled on Twickenham, which is much closer to home. Working in this area would allow me to see all of my current patients, drawing in from the different locations I practised in which included Richmond, Teddington and Wimbledon. One really useful step I took and something I’d recommend other practitioners do is I employed a local planning consultant to review the premises I saw. He investigated the likelihood that I would be able to change the use of a building in various locations to a D1 medical lease with the council.1 I felt this was important as I wanted to create a medical clinic, and not convert a retail space. The advice was valuable and helped me to change track on one of the first sites I found. Several sites later, after visiting a previous bank and prime retail shops, I revisited an office tucked away in a mews building in Twickenham. I fell in love with the building for a number of reasons. The location was ideal – just a five-minute walk from two stations, near a large car park, but with three spaces of its own outside. It also had the scope to make five rooms and have some staff space. The building is also just off the high street; central yet tucked away, has a private entrance and great light – ideal and an important consideration for welcoming and treating aesthetic patients. The challenge was that it needed total refurbishment. We had to build walls to create new rooms, put in new electrics, plumbing
Before
After
Before
After
Clinic entrance and reception before and after renovation
Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 7/Issue 10 - September 2020
