This year the main strategy agenda is, as always, wide-ranging – but with a focus on topics and themes that are more relevant for business owners to pay attention to in more competitive market conditions. In addition, ConsultingRoom.com has members who are now thinking of retiring – and in discussions with them, we realise many are not properly structured to provide an appropriate reward for the years of hard work that they have put into their enterprise. Whether you’re just starting out, or thinking of selling in the future, business owners need to effectively plan for an eventual exit – and this is a theme that will be explored throughout the day.
Suitable for all members of your clinic team involved in clinical, marketing, finance or strategic decisions, this agenda will stimulate thought and debate alongside providing access to experts for advice and guidance. Delegate rates for the day include multi-buy discounts so it’s great value to bring your core team along!
08:30 - 09:30
09:30 - 10:00
Why 2020 could be a critical year for your business
Business change continues to accelerate at a rapid pace in many sectors; and companies (large and small) that don’t observe and adapt will disappear. Despite the worldwide tourism and travel sector outpacing GDP growth for a record 8 consecutive years, after over 150 years of trading, Thomas Cook, one of the world’s biggest leisure travel groups, with sales of £7.8 billion, 19 million annual customers and 22,000 employees, ceased trading in September 2019. The aesthetic industry has witnessed unparalleled levels of growth over the last decade, but certain sectors of the industry have seen large companies struggling to make a consistent profit. With many economists predicting that a recession (last seen 12 years ago) is overdue, practitioners need to ensure that their business is structured to increase profits in today’s more competitive market-place and to weather any consumer belt tightening that could ensue with a reversal in economic growth.
10:00 - 10:30
Maximising the value of your business with a part-time Financial Director
Financial Directors are not accountants, or bookkeepers – but are integral strategic financial decision makers employed by multi-million-pound turnover enterprises. However, businesses of any size – especially at certain strategic points in the growth of a business, or when a business prepares for sale or seeks to acquire a competitor, can benefit from the expertise of an experienced financial director. This presentation explores exactly what a financial director does, and how employing a part-time Financial Director can make a dramatic short- and long-term difference to the profitability of your business and its eventual sale value.
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10:30 - 11:00
FACEBOOK and the aesthetics industry
With almost 2.5 billion active monthly users and an ever growing family with Instagram and Whatsapp, Facebook represents an ever evolving marketing platform for businesses Worldwide. Come and join an exciting session with Darius Pele from Facebook and hear about the latest best practice to help your business grow and how to future proof your social media strategy.
11:00 - 11:30
Refreshments & Exhibition
11:30 - 12:00
Differentiating for improved client retention in an increasingly competitive marketplace
The number of new outlets offering generic treatments and services at discounted rates is making the medical aesthetics market tougher than ever. In this lecture we will focus on how to differentiate your treatments and services to ensure existing clients will never want to leave, regardless of the discounts offered elsewhere. We will look at tactics to increase their number of visits and net spend per visit to help avoid the temptation to compete on price.
12:00 - 12:30
The challenges of increased competition and how to overcome them in a modern market environment
In an ever-evolving market with new technologies launching year after year, staying ahead of the curve can be challenging. External environmental factors such as Brexit, market fluctuation or changing regulations, can have huge implications on our businesses. Looking at creative solutions to address these challenges can be impactful whether short or long-term plans and in turn can help motivate teams and drive forward the business, even in testing times. Having experienced many challenges throughout the years, I will discuss how I overcame these challenges and continue to move forward and grow my business.
12:30 - 13:00
The top 5 things you must do to find premises, negotiate and manage a long-term lease
Finding a suitable property and securing a lease is a difficult and risky process – with many people investing in and building a livelihood around something that they do not own or control. If you have not sought the correct advice you could be sitting on a ticking time bomb that could be extremely expensive and destroy the eventual value of your business. This highlights the risks, alongside providing practical advice for dealing with renegotiation of rents and leases with landlords.
13:00 - 14:15
Lunch & Exhibition
14:15 - 15:00
Pricing strategies - Why I charge what I do!
As competition has increased, so has the pressure on average prices charged across injectables, lasers and many other services promoted in the non-surgical aesthetics market. As price is a major factor in maintaining gross profit margins it’s imperative that every business works from their cost base to calculate their price and position in the market to ensure that they have a sustainable model. In addition, unless you can squeeze expenses out of your business, increasing your prices over the next decade will be key to continued healthy profits. This session explores price pressures and how to overcome them in your business.
15:00 - 15:30
Why providing the best Customer Experience is the buzzword for all businesses in the next decade
Is customer service part of the customer experience? Or is customer experience what happens when someone receives customer service? Are they the same thing? The terms 'customer service' and 'customer experience' are often confused or used interchangeably. They’re not the same thing, but they are related. The difference between customer service and customer experience is that while customer service is one piece of the puzzle — focused on human interaction and directly supporting customers — customer experience is the sum of the entire customer journey with your business. This presentation explores why focussing on customer experience rather than customer service will be critical to the future of your business alongside launching the latest online course for your staff (available free to consultingroom.com members) that will ensure that they understand and contribute to the positive experience that your customers should enjoy.
15:30 - 16:00
Refreshments & Exhibition
16:00 - 17:30
Start with the end in mind – Preparing your business for an eventual sale
Having gone through a business sale in 2019, I understand how unprepared I was for the actual process, and how the business was poorly structured in terms of having the most advantageous outcome from a tax perspective. In this session we explore different aspects of making your business more saleable, alongside the paradox that business owners face in operating a service orientated business model where they are the face of their business. Strategies that every business owner should think of right at the beginning of starting their business, and certainly several years before a potential sale to maximise the actual cash that they can extract from their blood sweat and tears, will be debated by the panel.
