Which Injectables Should You Offer To Start With?
When you first start building your aesthetics practice, you’ll no doubt have experience in a number of treatments. But which injectables should you offer to start with?
Start small and grow gradually
Focus on building your reputation with treatments you are confident in carrying out well, that give great results. Even if you only offer one treatment in a number of areas, being able to perform this beautifully and produce lovely results will help you to gain patients. From there, as your knowledge and confidence as an injector grows, and word of your skills spreads, you can start to expand your offering.
Many practitioners start by offering toxin treatments only, then slowly begin widening into certain filler treatments.
Don’t spread yourself too thinly by offering lots of different treatments while you are still new to the industry. You will have enough challenges to deal with, from treating patients unsupervised to taking payments, without making it harder for yourself.
Keep your treatment menu small but ensure everything on it can be executed perfectly. If you’ve ever seen an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, you’ll fully understand this approach… Aim for the highest standard of reproducible results so people know you are reliable.
Do some market research into the location(s) you intend to practice in. What do they already have? What are they missing? Can you fill this gap or provide a better service than those already operating? Make a list of all these opportunities and build a plan around them, but don’t feel pressured to plug all the holes straight away.
Build relationships with your patients as you grow from your early one or two treatment days, and they can grow with you. They can be an invaluable resource not just for recommending you to others, but in finding out which treatments they’d like from you.
Insights into what your patients really want can help you to expand your aesthetics business in the right ways, step-by-step. Listening to your clients can also mean you avoid costly mistakes down the line. This is especially true if you start considering introducing expensive devices – you don’t want to find that no one wants to use them!
Real world examples from successful clinic owners
We asked Harley Academy faculty members who are former or current successful aesthetic clinic owners, which injectables they offered when they first started out to give you some real world examples.
Dr Marcus Mehta, creative director at Harley Academy, co-founder of STORY clinics and Comma, the leading global medical aesthetics networking platform.
“When I first started in aesthetics I only offered botulinum toxin because I was too scared of using filler. I actually only used botulinum toxin for about six months before I built up the confidence to use filler. At the start I was very scared of using a needle technique because of the risk of vascular occlusion and that made me progress to using a cannula very early on in my injecting career.”
Dr Kalpna Pindolia, director of education at Harley Academy, aesthetics specialist at STORY Marylebone and former clinic owner.
“I started out offering botox. It appeared to be a familiar treatment for the general population of my area and was commonly requested. The more successful outcomes, the more referrals I got.”
Lorraine Guinnan, RGN, senior clinical trainer at Harley Academy and owner of Imagination Aesthetics.
“Initially I did not have the confidence to do fillers independently so started offering just Botox. I then introduced cheek filler treatments and gradually expanded to offering other filler treatments within my private practice. As I worked in a large clinic chain I did have lots of exposure and, therefore, did all treatments but sometimes I felt slightly out of my comfort zone. However, this experience enabled me to treat lots of patients and gain lots of experience very quickly.”
Natalie Haswell RGN, senior clinical trainer at Harley Academy, Allergan Medical Institute faculty member and owner of Haswell Aesthetics, Colchester.
“I also started out with Botox. I felt more confident due to more practice and competence. Once I had had more training and competence I introduced fillers gradually. Starting with lower risk areas like the cheeks. I built confidence and then expanded my portfolio to lip filler and more advanced areas such as noses, temples, chin, jaw and tear troughs.”
Honing your injecting skills
Whichever injectables you opt to offer from the outset, ensure you feel confident in delivering them with great, reliable results.
One-on-one mentoring can then prepare you to level up your practice as you add in more treatments. These tailored learning experiences are designed to hone your injecting skills and provide practical, real-world insights and advice from expert trainers.
Our 1:1 Injectables Training Sessions are customised to your needs, you simply need to choose an area to focus on. These include cannula use, lip filler and lower face treatments. By investing in these bespoke mentoring experiences, you’ll get the most value you possibly can out of each individual session to rapidly enhance your development.
They’re particularly powerful when you’re ready to level up your aesthetics practice by introducing new treatments. But, to begin with, take a leaf out of our experts’ books and don’t be afraid to start small. Remember, you’re not “just offering” one treatment, you are specialising in it!
