I was thinking, “Luxury at your doorstep!” during a recent visit to LiveLoveSpa in LA!
I was immediately drawn to the central booth with large colorful flower arrangements and loud upbeat music. It was the brand DazzleDry and with the lust of a teenager at a Harry Styles concert I signed up to get my nails done to test it out. Thrilled, my number was called and I immediately picked a bright yellow to match my dress.
The nail artist was amazing, and through talking we figured out that we were from the same home town and we both started our careers in beauty via offering home services!
She began fresh out of high school at 18 years old. It was not for another 12 years at age 31 that I too would enter the spa world via offering home medi-spa treatments. I got to thinking about how our very different paths led us to enter the industry in the same way.
Dr. Chantal Lunderville, L+A Medical + Wellness Editor
Dr. Chantal Lunderville is a board-certified physician specializing in skin health, aesthetic medicine, and Women’s health. She attended medical school at UCLA School of Medicine, followed by a residency at UCSF Family Medicine, and on graduating opened her own concierge aesthetics practice in the San Francisco Bay Area focusing on hormone health, skincare, and longevity.
Since then Dr. Lunderville has grown her practice to include overseeing nurses and aestheticians as medical director to over 15 practices across California, and through Dr. C’s Academy helps to launch new practices across the US and Canada through consulting and online courses in business, compliance, aesthetic procedures including neurotoxin, fillers, lasers, microneedling, and lasers. Read Full Bio
Dr. Lunderville On Why You Should Start With Home Spa Services
The global market size of the spa industry, which includes at-home services, is expected to grow from around $95 billion in 2021 to over $185 billion by 2030 [1]. I believe that in-home services represent an overlooked niche in the beauty and wellness market, a classic entry point in an ever-competitive industry. I recently did the Masterclass with Mark Cuban, which I highly recommend! In the Masterclass, he teaches owners to start small and focus on their customers, and not make the mistake of immediately raising money to open their business.
I advocate that offering home services offers a way for the beauty or wellness entrepreneur to enter a luxury space with unbeatable low overhead.
A recent survey found that 49% of consumers express a preference for at-home beauty or wellness services, citing convenience and personalized care as the top reasons for choosing in-home treatments over traditional spa visits [2]. Gen-Z and Millennial women are driving the demand [3]. While it may not fit your business model long term, (although it can!), it is an ideal starting point and training ground.
My Experience with Home Spa Services
Mobile or concierge treatments offered in the home (or hotels/pop-ups) have always interested me from my training in family medicine. As a doctor, doing home visits offered a way to condense time, reaching a closeness with our patients that would take years to cultivate in office. It is also significantly easier to assess healthy habits and skincare factors with greater ease. When I started my concierge medical spa in 2018, I focused on skincare assessments, perfecting the beauty consult, and creating profitable models for neurotoxin and fillers, while I learned the industry as a newly graduated doctor. I kept my overhead low (hello San Francisco rent!) by avoiding renting an office. In 2 years I had a regular clientele and more booking requests than I knew what to do with. To this day I still draw on my experiences from those years in mastering my sales, product, and consumer knowledge.
Dr. Lunderville’s Tips For Getting Started
Currently, as a medical director and consultant to various practices, I encourage nurses and aestheticians to keep their initial businesses bare (meaning a small curated intentional menu) with little overhead. Most look at me like I have 3 heads, “Wait so you don’t want me to get a storefront, invest in the latest device, and hire a marketing company?” No. If you do not already have enough returning clients that can support your business, pay your bills. and save for retirement or you are starting out fresh and new to the industry, then I want you to focus on organic profitable sales-driven growth and relationships FIRST.
5 Tips to Remember
- Invest in your website and socials, as this is where people will make sure you are legitimate and will function as your “storefront” essentially.
- Incentivize your clients to refer you, either by booking together or incentives.
- Know your audience, post your services to Mom groups or LinkedIn, community boards, as many places as possible.
- Strategize for what makes you unique, be clear on why someone would rather book with you than your competition in a spa? Perhaps it is a customized consult, sending them ideas for their next nail pattern? Or offering a flexible schedule based on their upcoming event or back-to-school prep?
- Be sure to check with your state and local licensing to ensure home treatments are permitted
You can optimize the luxury experience of services more than you can when you’re starting out in the office because you can solicit and implement feedback quickly and without the burden of employees, rent, and device leases. This will help set you up for success with the foundations when opening a physical location, and you can make that decision when it makes financial sense (when you have the bookings and profit to support it).
To quote Madam C.J. Walker, the first documented female millionaire in America, who said, “Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” [4]
If you are interested in launching a mobile medical spa or other business, you can find all my courses and consulting offers at www.drchantallunderville.com
Sources:
- U.S.Market Report, 2024. https://media.market.us/spa-industry-statistics/
- WellSpa 360 Report, 2022 https://www.wellspa360.com/news/research/news/22275617/ispa-ispa-study-reveals-spagoing-selfcare-habits
- Wellness Trends for 2023, MindBody, https://www.mindbodyonline.com/business/education/blog/wi/5-wellness-trends-watch-2023
- https://andreabolder.com/top-100-business-quotes-to-empower-female-entrepreneurs/