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The survivability of a franchise business is close to 70%. Now looking at independent small businesses, it's about 35 to 38% depending on what stat you look at. So franchise businesses beat out for survivability. Independent small businesses two to one. And what's interesting, even when they looked at the independent small businesses that were succeeding, many of them had the elements of why the franchise business models were succeeding. Now the question becomes why? Why does the franchise business model beat out the independent small business model so effectively? Welcome to the MedSpa CEO podcast where I teach you how to grow and scale your medspa or aesthetic practice so that you can have the income and impact you know you were meant for with without overwhelm, stress or feeling like you have to sacrifice your personal life and happiness to do so. It's totally possible for you and your business. Plus simpler than you think. Keep listening to find out how. Welcome my friends to another episode of the podcast. I am super pumped you are joining me today for a topic that is a spirit spicier topic in our industry. Especially in fact it might have been last episode I was chatting about my funnels and kind of diving into how my funnels are having a lot of success, especially even in just the last 30 to 60 days. But with that success brought in some negative feedback as well. And I was sharing that with you guys as well too. My philosophies that seems to drive so many folks in our industry crazy is this idea that I do not believe that customized treatment plans are the most effective way to actually grow and scale your clinics, practices and med spas. And so today we are going to be diving into why customized treatment plans can be hurting your business. What I actually mean because part of the reason why people argue with me about it I can empathize with meaning when people argue with me about it, they're thinking that I am saying that you are never going to personalize or adjust or shift anything when I'm saying don't do customized treatment plans. Okay, so we're gonna talk today why there is so much evidence for being able to have consistency and reliability in everything that you do inside of your businesses. As I was sort of doing some research for this episode specifically I was looking up the stats on the franchise business model versus the independent small business model and there is so much data that supports that. The franchise business model, the survivability of a franchise business and by survivability I just mean after five years they are still in business is close to 70%. Okay, so it's about 68, 69% of the franchise businesses will still be open five years in. Now, looking at independent small businesses, it's about 35 to 38%, depending on what stat you look at. So franchise businesses beat out for survivability. Independent small businesses, two to one. And what's interesting, even when they looked at the independent small businesses that were succeeding, many of them had the elements of why the franchise business models were succeeding. Now the question becomes why? Why does the franchise business model beat out the independent small business model so effectively? And they know the answer. The answer really is that being able to have really standardized operating procedures, deliverability offers like an offering as well too. It helps the business to be more consistent and reliable. It helps the business to be more operationally efficient. It helps the business to have more radical clarity on what their positioning is. Okay, so today we're gonna be talking about customized treatment plans. Specifically, many of you know I'm a licensed esthetician and certified laser tech, and when I was in esthetician school many years ago, customized treatment plans were actually taught to us when we were in school. The idea that every human is unique and when they come to you, and the fact that it's a really unique value proposition to be able to give every human a bespoke experience and treat them like they are the unique unicorns that they are. And this seems so lovely on the surface. And in fact, I can understand why many of you might believe that this is in the best interest of your clients and your patients. But what we know is, is that it actually isn't. Okay, so today we're gonna unpack what I mean by customized treatment plans and why they're so ineffective, how customized treatment plans are likely preventing you from really scaling your business, why customized treatment plans make it really ineffective for you to be able to standardize outcomes, sales and revenue numbers across providers in your clinics and your practices. Now, as I said, like, I understand the allure of customization, I understand why many of you believe that this is the best way to do things. But we as human beings actually want consistency and predictability and reliability. So as consumers, okay, so 78% of small businesses are actually service based businesses. And service based businesses in general are more challenging to actually scale the consistency, reliability and the deliverability than say, like a product business, right, where you're manufacturing the product and what have you. And so in service based businesses, consumers want consistency, reliability and predictability. And there's many examples I could give you is Starbucks as An example, I think that Starbucks has really bitter tasting coffee myself. But the fact that I know I was in New York last week with my family and my daughters wanted to grab a Starbucks, right? We still went to many local businesses because I care about visiting local businesses. But the reason why those companies are able to scale is because people know if they go to Starbucks, no matter where they are really in the country or the world, there's going to be consistency and reliability in what product, the product offering, right? Like their menu is the same across all their locations. They have very strict standards and protocols that their baristas have to follow. And so I can say with a fair amount of certainty that if I get my almond milk latte with an extra shot, extra hot, that if I get it in New York City, it's probably gonna taste pretty darn similarly to how it tastes when I get it here in Scottsdale. And as a consumer, we like that consistency and reliability and predictability. We actually don't like it. It lowers our experience and how much we enjoy the experience when there is inconsistencies. And Michael Gerber's book, the E Myth Revisited, which I often quote for this cause it's kind of the classic grandfather book about why many independent small businesses fail. And he div deep into this. But he gives an example of when he was going to his barber for the first time. So the first time he goes to this barber, when he gets there, they offer him like something to drink, like, do you want coffee or water or what have you. And so which was great. And he was like, yes, I'll take some coffee or whatever he got. The second time he went, he was not offered the coffee or the water. And what he goes on to explain is that it would be better to not have offered the coffee or water to begin with than to offer it and then not offer it the next time. The inconsistency, it adds to the negativity of the experience, then the consistency of just not even offering it. So he goes on to explain that. And like, he gives some stats on the franchise business model as well. The franchise business model decides ahead of time on all those standards, standard operating procedures as well. And this matters maybe slightly less when you're a solo injector, solo esthetician, solo practitioner in some way, because it's just you. But I will tell you that once you start scaling your team, and for those of you with teams, makes it so that you actually do not have the ability to really give predictable outcomes, results for your patients and clients when you rely heavily on customized treatment plans, and many of you do. So yesterday I was talking with a client who has been in the industry for decades. Really successful clinic. She's been busy. They're experts at what they do. But she was saying. And we were talking about, she's like, her problem was, is how does she get her team members all on the same page? She feels like the experience is really provider dependent and that she doesn't have consistency across providers. Okay. And so we were really unpacking, and I was sharing with her what she needs to do because she's like, I feel like I tell them things, and then we get all excited about it, and then it doesn't end up being consistently delivered and followed through. And so we were talking about customized treatment plans. And this has been the sort of industry standard, this idea of customized treatment plans. And one of the examples I also use as well is about a year ago, year or two ago, my husband had a basal cell carcinoma removed with Mohs surgery. Okay. Now, the dermatologic surgeon did not tell my husband, he's going to give him a customized surgery, Right? He told my husband, we're gonna do Mohs surgery, which is a certain procedure that, you know, and he was explaining it to my husband. And then, of course, we're gonna adapt the depth that we're gonna go once we're in there, because they don't actually know. They can kind of, you know, guesstimate. I'm assuming how deep, but they will decide how many layers they go deep once they're actually in the surgery. But he didn't tell my husband, I've got a customized surgery for you. And the reason being is one, they figured out a clinical protocol that can help them get consistent, reliable results in the surgery. Now, this is where I think when I say customized treatment plans aren't the way to go, and many of you on the Internet like to argue with me about it, is that you misinterpret me saying customized treatment plans are not great, with me saying that you shouldn't ever personalize something or adapt something for the human in front of you. No, what I'm saying is, similarly to the surgeon, the surgeon was like, we have this consistent, reliable framework, right? Mohs surgery. And we're gonna adapt it based on what your specific scenario is, like, how deep that cancer is. Once we're in there, we will determine how deep we go. And what I explained to my client yesterday was that one, we need to finalize her signature. Menu. Okay. She'd Started on it, but not finalized it yet. And she really hadn't told the entire team about it yet. And so we're going to finish your signature menu of signature packages, signature programs, because they have acne as well, too, and potentially a signature membership, and then signature offers in general, because we want to finalize the structure of her menu. So that way we can take their clinical protocols of her decades of experience, turn them into branded named packages, programs, et cetera, that differentiate her from everyone, but then also holistically put together those packages. So we take those clinical protocols and we put them together. Okay. Now, the question I often get is like, what about when we need to adapt things? Right? Well, of course, we can adjust things for the human in front of you, but still, the consumer, the customer, the client, the patient actually will have more trust in knowing that you have a standardized protocol in making a package. Right? They're like, okay, so I always use the example of the brightening package. It could be an acne program, a contour package. There's so many different packages we can put together that you and your team are so experienced and your expertise that, you know, because you've done it with so many people, all these things come together to deliver amazing results. Okay. Now, this doesn't mean that you can't have wiggle room within your packages. In fact, when you look at a clinical protocol, let's say it has a combination of, you know, a laser, lighter, energy device, chemical peels, microneedling, I mean, when we talk about toxin filler, it's sort of the same thing as well, too. There may be some variables that you need to adjust for the human in front of you, like the depth and the intensity of the energy or light or laser device. Right. How many layers of that can chemical peel you actually end up doing? So even though you have this clinical protocol that we've put together into a package that is standardized. Right. For your practice, it doesn't mean that you can't actually personalize some of those protocols within the packages in order to make sure that it is going to be effective for the human in front of you. But what I think is interesting is that the reason why people give me pushback on it is because they think that they believe that that is what their clients and patients want, that their clients and patients want everything to be customized and bespoke for them. And we know that the research tells us that that is not true. Your clients and patients want to know that they are not the first guinea pig that has ever had this particular protocol that you have put together, they want to know that you've actually done this exact thing with lots of humans that are just like them, and that the outcomes and the benefits therefore are pretty dang predictable and reliable at this point. And so when you put together branded to named packages, this helps. But I really do understand where many of you are coming from. You know, I was talking with my client yesterday and we were just talking about, because she has been in the industry even longer than me, and we were just talking about how this is what we were taught. Like customized treatment plans has kind of been the industry standard and it really becomes challenging. And I know because I've coached so many of you at this point, especially when you have a team, it becomes next to impossible, possible for you to be able to really give consistent, reliable results across team members. The other thing that customized treatment plans do is when you have team members and you don't know what they're recommending, meaning, you know, you kind of know, but you don't really know because you're just letting them think on the fly all the time, then it makes it to where that client or patient is going to be a lot more loyal to that provider than to the practice as a whole. And the reason being is that that provider is deciding on the offering themselves. And so it actually is true that if that particular client, like when I go to somebody, a certain provider, whether it's an injector or esthetician, if I know or my impression is that all the providers are delivering inconsistent experiences because they're all doing customized treatment plans, then when that provider leaves, I'm going to feel like a fish out of water because any other provider that I see in your practice or clinic is not going to be delivering the same sort of experience. And it's true, because all of the providers that are giving customized treatment plans, which means there's a very large amount of variability across those providers in the experience as well too. And so, you know, I hear all the time, you know, my clients who have had providers maybe leave and take like their entire client base with them. And so moving away from customized treatment plans and really creating a very unique and branded menu of signature offers where you can now effectively give consistency and reliability across your providers, will help actually build loyalty for your clients or patients to your practice and not just be so provider dependent. And so customized treatment plans on the surface have been in our industry for decades. And I really do believe if you just got licensed yesterday or you just started doing esthetics yesterday in the beginning? Yeah, you're going to be doing customized treatment plans because you don't have the expertise and authority to say like these clinical protocols actually deliver these results yet. And so in the beginning, you might give yourself a little bit of time to actually start to notice what clinical protocols are gonna work. But we actually started using signature packages that we named and gave unique names to them about a year after. Within a year or so after opening. So it wasn't that long before we decided to do this, before we had the light bulb moment. And so we hadn't been doing it for decades. We didn't have to wait that long in order to understand what combination modalities of services, treatments and products were gonna go to really give outstanding outcomes. So when you can put together a consistent and reliable menu that isn't dependent on your providers on the fly thinking about how to customize for each individual person, you can actually not only increase revenue because your patients and clients don't have to decide this laundry list of decisions that they have to make when you present services and treatments a la carte and products a la carte like that. So it increases revenue and profits, but it also increases loyalty, brand loyalty, because you have more consistency. And I will know, hey, there are other providers here who deliver these exact protocols as well too, okay? Because there will be. Right. Because you have consistency in what is being recommended to whom and when as well. All right, my friend, that is what I have for you, this episode. And I wanted to especially dive into it because I have some video ads and just talking with clients and being in the industry for so long, I understand and I actually even empathize with why many of you rely heavily on customized treatment plans. But I hope this episode really showed you why customized treatment plans are really preventing you from effectively scaling your businesses. And so let's make 2025 the year where we move away from customized treatment plans and we help you put together an incredibly unique to you signature menu of programs, packages and a membership potentially as well, that differentiates you from the competition that builds loyalty with your clients and patients. And ultimate makes you radically more profitable too. Hey, if you're enjoying this podcast and you're a boutique results driven med spa owner who's looking to drive more sales profitably each month without hustling yourself into the ground to do so, then you should consider applying to join us inside of the MedSpa Advantage. It's the only program designed to help you grow your revenue and profits while gaining back more time so that you don't feel scattered and drained while running and growing your business each month. To learn more about whether or not you're a fit for joining us, you can head over to heatherturveen.com apply to apply to get on a call with us to learn more. That's heatherturveen.com apply to learn more. It.