How DIYing Your Medspa Could Be Costing You More Than You Think

In this episode of the Aesthetic AF Podcast, hosts Sam Varner and Tara Dotson Riley discuss the hidden costs of DIY in your MedSpa business. The conversation explores why new business owners often fall into the DIY trap, the importance of professional marketing, and essential strategies for quicker, more efficient success. Learn why investing in experts, from marketing to legal, can save you time, money, and stress. The episode also emphasizes thinking like a CEO from the start, building a strong team, and prioritizing vital business components for optimal success.

What you'll learn:
✔️ Why new MedSpa owners fall into the DIY trap
✔️ The real ROI of investing in experts
✔️ How to build a strong, high-performing team
✔️ Why thinking like a CEO from day one is crucial

Don't let DIY derail your success—tune in now! 🎙️👇

Episode Breakdown:
00:00 Welcome to Aesthetic AF
00:09 The Hidden Costs of DIY in Your Business
00:56 The Importance of Professional Marketing
03:00 Outsourcing for Efficiency and Growth
05:55 Building a Powerhouse Team
09:58 Final Thoughts + How to Connect with Us

Join Our Community of MedSpa Owners: https://www.facebook.com/groups/salesandmarketingformedspas

Learn More About The Podcast or Apply to be a Guest: https://aestheticafpodcast.com/

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About The Hosts 🎙

Sam Varner –
A profit strategist with over 16 years of experience in financial services, public relations, and business coaching. She helps service-based business owners create sustainable, scalable, and highly profitable companies.

Tara Dotson Riley –
CEO of Tara Lynn Media (TLM), specializing in digital marketing, social media management, content creation, premium brand growth, and client acquisition strategies for medspa owners looking to establish authority and dominate their local market.

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Looking to attract high-value clients, increase revenue, and scale your medspa? The Aesthetic AF Podcast is your go-to resource for marketing, sales, and business growth strategies tailored for medspa owners and aesthetic professionals.

🎙 Hosted by Sam Varner (Profit Strategist) and Tara Dotson Riley (Marketing Expert), each episode delivers real-world insights and actionable strategies to help you build a thriving, profitable aesthetic business.

✔️ Stay ahead with the latest medspa...

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Aesthetic AF
• 0:09 The Hidden Costs of DIY in Your Business
• 0:56 The Importance of Professional Marketing
• 3:00 Outsourcing for Efficiency and Growth
• 5:55 Building a Powerhouse Team
• 9:58 Final Thoughts + How to Connect with Us

Transcript

Sam Varner: Hey everybody. Thanks for joining us at the Aesthetic AF podcast. We are really excited to start this conversation today. We're going to talk a little bit about why your DIYing in your business is probably costing you money. So Tara, when I say that, what's the first thing that comes to mind? 

Tara Dotson Riley: So I 

Sam Varner: think 

Tara Dotson Riley: DIYing in your business, there's so many different avenues where we think, oh, I can do that myself.

Tara Dotson Riley: I can do that Facebook post myself. I can do that consent form myself. I can do quick books myself. Like I can do these things because I don't want to hire or invest in what it would take to get them done by a professional. So yeah, I think it's all avenues and they're [00:01:00] all so important. 

Sam Varner: They are.

Sam Varner: They're so important and it's hard when you're starting out. Let's talk to the starting up business owner first. Let's have that conversation. So when you're starting a business. The number one thing I see with business owners constantly is the fact that they think there should be minimal investment required.

Sam Varner: And I think when it comes to our med spa business owners, there is an awareness that you have to invest in the build out of your space. You have to invest in chairs and decor and then product, right? If you're doing injections. If you're doing fillers, if you're doing all of those sorts of things, you have to buy those products to be able to provide them to your patients.

Sam Varner: But we forget that the other pieces are probably a heck of a lot more efficient if they're done by a professional rather than if you just decide you're going to hire your 16 year old niece to do your social [00:02:00] media. It's going to look like your 16 year old niece did it. And how important would you say there is having your social media on point when you're starting?

Sam Varner: Why do you even, why do we even care if our social media is working? 

Tara Dotson Riley: Yeah. And not just social media, but all of your marketing. Yeah. And there's a lot of times where I just wish that a business owner would talk to a marketing expert, not even necessarily me, any marketing expert that they trust before they even pick a name.

Tara Dotson Riley: Because even the name of your business, there's so many things that can go into it from a branding perspective of, is it going to create good SEO for you? Is it going to resonate with your audience and give the kind of experience that you're wanting? So like, even from point, before you've even created that formation, having that consultation with somebody that is an expert on the ramifications of.

Tara Dotson Riley: Those selections. When you think about 

Sam Varner: like your social media create, like even the you do so much like yes, content creation, but [00:03:00] the content strategy. 

Tara Dotson Riley: Yes. 

Sam Varner: Gets missed, right? All the time gets missed. 

Tara Dotson Riley: Yeah. Just throwing up a post. is not doing your social media the justice that it deserves.

Tara Dotson Riley: So there is so much strategy that goes into creating a marketing strategy that will actually benefit your business, book you clients, and then actually get you the quality of clients and quality of services that you're wanting to provide. And I think the interesting thing with MedSpas is starting that business, you know there's this investment.

Tara Dotson Riley: Right, like they know there's going to be a lot of cost involved and there's these non negotiable costs that are black and white and they know they're going to spend it, but then there's these other costs over here that I think are like, well, I don't have to spend money on that. I can cut corners here.

Tara Dotson Riley: And where I see the most success is whenever a business looks at marketing, strategy, business, development even, legal, all of those things as non negotiables. 

Sam Varner: Yeah. Like, 

Tara Dotson Riley: this is [00:04:00] what it takes to start the business. That is where I think I see more success from the MedSpawners. 

Sam Varner: Yeah. I think more success and faster success.

Tara Dotson Riley: Yes. 

Sam Varner: Right? Because you can lean into all of this stuff then you know confidently as a business owner. is from the outset starting to generate what you're trying to do. You're doing a lot less guessing, a lot less estimating, a lot less learning. I mean, the other piece of it, if we want to get into the nitty gritty of it, This alleviates so much owner time management, right?

Sam Varner: Because how do you do all the things, right? Especially as a new med spa owner. So often you are a sole provider at the beginning. And in order to do that, capture the content. I'm talking just even on the marketing side. But. You're doing that. You're capturing the content. You're engaging with your audience in all platforms that you're engaged in.

Sam Varner: You are coming up with what your product [00:05:00] pricing is, right? What are your offers? You're going to build a membership. Well, okay, saying that and doing that are two very different things. Trying to come up with all of the documentation, all of the structural pieces of it, all of the sales process, how you get your social media to funnel into your sales.

Sam Varner: And then you're having to have conversations with clients and make sure the phone is answered. In the meantime, you're trying to do the Botox on the patient you have in front of you. This is why having some of these pieces outsourced and, or I was going to say, I'm going to say handheld, right? So you hire somebody like a business coach that has done this with many businesses over and can say.

Sam Varner: X, Y, Z. There you go. You're done. Yeah. Instead of you muddling through. Right? 

Tara Dotson Riley: Yeah. It saves so much time. And then also you're not throwing spaghetti at the wall constantly, right? Yeah. Like, knowing that you have someone that has been there, done that. . They've seen what works, what doesn't work, [00:06:00] and being able to lean on that expertise to then replicate in your own business.

Tara Dotson Riley: I just think there's so much value in that. As a business owner, we already have 45 billion things going on at all times. 

Sam Varner: Yeah. 

Tara Dotson Riley: Lean on the people you can to make your life easier, but also make your business more successful. 

Sam Varner: Yeah, because at the end of the day, the whole reason that any of us are creating these businesses is so that we can spend more time with our kids so that we can have more money in our direct personal pocket to be able to spend on travel or investment or whatever the heck it is that you want to do, right?

Sam Varner: It doesn't matter, but you don't have to do it all yourself and doing it all yourself is most likely Causing it to be much slower, much more frustrating, leading to burnout, all of the things that we see over and over again, right? Where we talk to business owners at networking events and conferences and all these things, and [00:07:00] Tara hears it, I hear it.

Sam Varner: Every expert that we have on this podcast has alluded to it. There's just, there's a different way of going into business. Thinking of yourself as a C. E. O. From the very beginning, even when you're a baby business, even when you're the garbage emptier and the service provider and you still need to come at it as a C.

Sam Varner: E. O. And you know what? The C. E. O. Knows. They know that they don't know it all, so they don't put it And that's okay. On their own plates. Yeah. And it's okay. You're not supposed to. And who really wants to know everything? I don't want to have my hands in every pie. No. It's 

Tara Dotson Riley: exhausting. I think knowing where you're strong at and you might come in with maybe you're a provider that also has a marketing background, so you know you're really strong in that.

Sam Varner: Yeah. 

Tara Dotson Riley: That's totally fine then. Find the areas that you don't have that strength and make sure you're leaning on experts in that area. Because it's, yeah. 

Sam Varner: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think. If this episode can leave you with anything, it's [00:08:00] that concept of, go back, take a look at your operations, with a, like, go through it with a fine tooth comb and decide.

Sam Varner: Where am I strong? Where am I weak? Making sure as a business owner that you're building a really strong team around you. So leaning into what your personal strengths are, whether they are, yeah, maybe you're really good. Maybe you have a background in marketing and you can lean in on that or you don't.

Sam Varner: And you need to call Tara and you need to say, I need your help on this. I need some strategy. I need just a pointed in the right direction, or actually I need you to take this fully off my plate and allow me to focus on what I do best. Right? So, So whether it's that, or whether you need to dive into a more strategic relationship with a CPA or a bookkeeper, or making sure you have your lawyer, like going through all of your information, all of your paperwork, making sure that you're as protected as you can, or whether or not you need somebody like me [00:09:00] because the business side and the big picture strategy and all of the pieces are hard for you to figure out.

Sam Varner: You know how to treat clients. You know how. You want them to feel and the environment you're creating, but you don't know quite how to like set that all up and have it be going efficiently, then you call me and I help. And whether it's Tara or I, or whether it's somebody else that you know in your life, this is really important.

Sam Varner: This is as important as choosing an awesome location for your new business. 

Tara Dotson Riley: Yeah, I think when you start looking at your marketing strategy, your sales strategy and those other things that get overlooked. As non negotiables within growing your business. Yeah. You'll be shocked at how much quicker you're able to grow that business and how much more success you start having when you lean on the right experts.

Tara Dotson Riley: And I will say like the right experts, just because somebody says they're an expert doesn't mean they are. So also be selective with who [00:10:00] you lean on. And make sure you do your due diligence as far as interviewing them and looking through who's the best person for that. 

Sam Varner: Yeah. All right.

Sam Varner: I think that wraps us up for today. We're so glad you guys listen. We will join you here next week with another great episode, 

Tara Dotson Riley: check out our Facebook group. We started a community for MedSpa owners to ask questions about things like marketing, sales, to network.

Tara Dotson Riley: So check out the Facebook group, follow us on Instagram. We're also posting clips there. And We're going to be interacting with all of y'all there. So check us out on all the things. 

Sam Varner: Yeah. Until then, we'll see you next 

Tara Dotson Riley: week. All right.