Starting a medspa during the golden age of aesthetics has to be one of the most challenging of all business startups. Laura Stillman, C.R.N.A., M.S., eagerly accepted the challenge and built a stunning medspa right in the heart of Grand Blanc, Michigan, about an hour outside of Detroit.
For Stillman, starting her medspa actually occurred as she received training and began treating friends and fellow competitors at horse shows. She began building a name for herself as treatments were actually performed in her and her husband Mark’s RV. As business grew, she knew she found a wonderful future in aesthetics.
At Colloredo & Associates, our marketing is built fully customized whether for industrial clients, medical patients or a teenager looking for that first automobile. As we work with this variety of clients, some are referred to by friends which is exactly how we began working with Beauti Pharm. We’ve been fortunate enough to work quite extensively in the medical arena in many different specialties. But, one in particular, medical aesthetics, is growing at a rapid pace. So, we get to meet and work with some of the world’s premier providers of cosmetic injectables that routinely administer neurotoxins, fillers, PDO threads, and more for the beauty and confidence of their clients.
Laura Stillman is a business person. Her ability to recognize a market, test it out and find a way to make it profitable is impressive. With her work as Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, she achieved the level of degrees, advanced training and ultimately patient experience to make herself available to train to become one of the area’s most trusted Master Injectors for cosmetic.
Colloredo recently built her new branding with logo and associated graphics as well as her social media sites and her new website located at beautipharmmedspa.com. The business is now ready to take on new patients in a beautiful facility.
Entrepreneurs take months and sometimes years thinking about, planning and ultimately launching their vision in the business world. It is a beautiful thing to watch and many times results in something truly special.
Laura and her husband Mark did a fantastic job with instituting what we would call a “transitional” phase in building their business. Rather than taking on employees, a brick and mortar location, and other expenses, they masterminded a way to get into business slowly, methodically and without accumulating debt. Their on-the-road concept helped the business flourish over time without the added pressure of rent and payroll.
Recently, as their business proved viable, they decided to add the brick and mortar location and from there, they will begin to plan on future expansion and adding employees. This is a very good and safe business plan and we at Colloredo & Associates laud them for doing so.
Many times, businesses fail to recognize the true cost of doing business (marketing, phone, computer, software, raw materials, etc.) and dig themselves a hole before attaining their first customers and initial income. Our word of advice is to sit down and create a business plan along with a budget spreadsheet and determine a monthly goal of short term and long term gross income that would result in a break-even amount. You will be amazed at how many clients you will have to service just to pay the rent. And always plan on vacations, holidays, sick time, etc., in that budget.
So, let’s all try to be like Laura and Mark when we build our businesses and make sure you are making money soon!!
Bob Colloredo has been working for advertising agencies since the 1980s. In 2006, he took a leap of faith and started his own shop, Colloredo & Associates, Inc.
He hasn’t looked back.
Colloredo & Associates has grown from a one-man business to a full-service, integrated marketing and advertising agency with 10 professional staff members, including both industry veterans and talented young stars. The company serves clients from Florida to New York City to the West Coast from its home office in Knoxville. And the shop is definitely on a growth path, more than doubling in size in the last four years.
