SMME EP436 Getting Out of the Treatment Room: Your Path from Overbooked Provider to Thriving Spa CEO

11:43AM May 30, 2025

Speakers:

Daniela Woerner

Keywords:

Spa CEO

leadership skills

business growth

time audit

hiring process

virtual assistant

bad hire

onboarding training

client flow

revenue milestones

exit strategy

team building

scalable business

sustainable brand

action items.

Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy, a podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as spa CEO. I'm your host. Daniela Woerner, CEO of Addo Aesthetics and Founder of the Growth Factor Framework Program, where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here now. Let's dive into the show.

Hello beautiful ,Daniela here, and welcome to the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast if you're new here. This is a podcast created just for you the aesthetic professional looking to build a company, not just a really hard job for yourself. You're not afraid of hard work, you just need the right tools, systems and community to make it sustainable. And today, I want to share one of those systems, a system for one of the most transformative shifts you can make in your business stepping out of the treatment room and into the role as spa CEO. I know it sounds a little bit scary and maybe even impossible when you're fully booked and barely have time for a lunch break, but if your goal is to build a business that pays you 100,000 plus annually without burning out or missing time with your family, then this shift is non negotiable. Now we have had over 1600 clients go through our various courses and programs, and getting out of the room is something that I've talked about extensively with all different types of providers, and what I've found is that there are three main categories that I see so many spa owners fall into when they're stuck in the day to day grind of client care and really struggling to grow. So I want to go through each category with you, and then we're going to talk about the step by step process to get yourself out of the room once you have a solid hire in place. Okay, so let's jump into category one, the solo drowning in overwhelm. You're booked solid. You eat between clients, if you eat at all. Hiring feels like a pipe dream, because where on earth would you even find the time? Well, here's the first step. You want to start with a time audit. I know you're type A you thrive on structure, so for the next week, I want you to keep track of everything that you do, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. Why? Because I know that you're checking social media messages before your feet hit the floor. I know you're responding to client text after dinner and making sure that the email inbox is checked before you go to bed. That is exhausting and not sustainable. You need to be balanced so that you can provide the best quality service to your clients. So will the time tracker feel like one more thing to do? Yes, but it's going to give you so much information that we desperately need in order to clean up and structure your schedule. So then I want you to block off time on your calendar. Now, even if it's three months out to begin the hiring process. So you're going to look at when you start to have gaps on your schedule, and you're going to block it just like it's an appointment, but it's an appointment for yourself to dedicate time to the hiring process. Okay? So you need time to write the job descriptions, to interview and to train the new role and listen. You don't have to jump straight into hiring a provider. You can start with a virtual assistant so you can offload admin tasks like emails, scheduling social media. That's going to free up your brain space and lay the groundwork for a successful hiring process later. Now, remember, you are in this for the long haul, so give yourself the time and space now that will save you time and money in the long run. Okay, now let's jump into Category Two, the burned by bad hire spa owner, so you've tried to hire maybe more than once, but they either quit within six months, maybe even six weeks, or they demanded a compensation package that was just so far out of alignment with what is even possible in your business or in our industry in general. And I get how frustrating that is. It's devastating to pour your time and energy into training someone who doesn't stick around. And unfortunately, I've had to coach numerous spa CEOs going through this process. This is why refining your hiring process is essential. I want you to write this mantra down, put it on a post it, put it on your bathroom mirror. Grab a. Your erase marker on your mirror. Whatever you want to do. Hire. Slow, fire, fast. Okay, we want to set clear job descriptions, and this is something that you can even have. ChatGPT help you to do. If you're not using ChatGPT in your business, you better jump on that train, because it is not going anywhere. You also want to have a very structured onboarding and training plan. Okay, so we recommend a two week training process before they ever see clients. Okay, week one, we're going to have all of the processes the traditional ways of learning. So what are the opening and closing procedures? What is the software that you're using on the front desk. What are the policies of your practice? What are the product lines that you carry? These types of things that you're either having a rep come in to train you're watching videos, you're doing webinars, whatever that process is, the traditional way of learning that's going to happen week one, week two for your provider is going to be actually performing the services that you offer on models to ensure that they're in alignment with, number one, the quality of services and number two, the time standards of your spa Time is money. And if you have a provider that can do the service, great, but it takes her an extra 15 or even 30 minutes that is eating into your profit margin in a huge way. Okay, so you've got to make sure that you are available and checking in with them regularly, meaning at least one to two times a week during their first 90 days, these new hires need a strong leader, and that means showing up consistently to support them and asking the right questions, where are you winning this week? Where are you struggling? What can I do to support you? Okay, it's normal to see a spa owner go through three, four, even five, hires before they get it right for a particular role. Now the good news is, is once you go through that each subsequent role is much easier, right? So you're gonna go through 2345, providers before you get it right. But then once you have that provider role dialed in, it's much easier to get the right person after that. So you are still growing as a leader. You are still learning what you need and what your communication style is, and this takes time. That's a big part of the reason why we see leaders go through 2345, hires before they get it right. A lot of it is them understanding what they need and really getting clear on their core values and the culture of the company. Okay, now let's move on to category number three. This is the spa owner with a great team, but they're still the main earner. Okay, so you've hired and you actually like the provider. They're skilled, they're aligned, a good culture fit, but here's the kicker, you're still generating 80% of the revenue, and you have an additional payroll cost, not a great thing. So what are you do? It is time to redirect client flow. All new clients need to go to the new provider. No exceptions, run monthly specials featuring their services, market them like crazy on your social media platforms, so that they become familiar to your audience. As a spa CEO, it is your job to get your providers busy. It is their job to retain those clients that you brought in the door. Okay, so what we're essentially doing is a trust transfer. We're building trust with your practice, rather than with an individual provider. Okay, I'm going to say that again, because I think this is really important. When we are marketing and building our brand, we're building the brand of our spa, and we are attracting clients or patients of a particular spa, not building a relationship that's only with a specific provider that is going to be a really, really important piece of growing a long term sustainable brand. So we've got to build the trust online with the practice, rather than individual provider. Now here's one kind of caveat that I see a lot with nurses in particular. So oftentimes a nurse will be in the room and she's going to primarily focus on injection. She'll do another a few other things kind of sprinkled in there, but her bread and butter is toxin filler, so when she hires, she's like, Oh, well, I need an aesthetician, because we have all this area to support around facials and peels and micro needling. And when you do that like I get the concept. I get the idea. Idea of really wanting to optimize the different services that you offer, but you're kind of comparing apples to oranges here, because if you're full and you cut down a day, we need somewhere for those injection patients to go. So we want to make sure that if your ultimate goal is to get out of the room, we need to hire a provider that can take the patients that you are seeing and carry them for you as you work to get out of the room. Okay, if instead, you're just optimizing to build a team of estheticians that can support your patients in other services, great, but that's not going to get you out of the room. Okay? So, I mean, yes, perhaps the nurse could pass off microneedling and could slow down and say the I'm working this many days and I'm only seeing injection patients. All other services go to the esthetician, either way, eventually she will need to hire a nurse who can absorb those injection patients. Okay, so make it your goal as the CEO to make your team better than you. It's kind of a death of the ego, because it feels good when our patients are like, Oh, but you have such a deep relationship and they only want to see you. That feeds our ego, but we've got to focus on making our team better than us pour into them professionally and as humans, because a strong team makes for an unstoppable company. Okay? So now that we've identified the three categories that I see most and addressed kind of the direction that you go in depending on the category that you're in, we're going to shift into milestones and mindset. So when we're talking about milestones and mindset, we're going to be looking at all right, your provider now is generating income, and now we've got to calculate your spa CEO milestones. So what revenue needs to come in to cover your operational costs and to replace your own income? This is where we're going to map out your exit strategy from the room, which is, on average, going to take anywhere between six months to a year. Okay? We don't want it to take longer than a year, unless there's some really intentional reason that you are doing that, but it's the goal is somewhere between six months to a year to get you out of the room. So to get clear on your milestones, if you work four days a week, how much does your provider need to generate for you to drop to three. That is milestone one, then we're gonna stair step our way down until you're completely out or working just one day a week, if you still love being in the room. I did a post on Instagram not too long ago and was talking about getting out of the room, and some people were saying, but I love being in the room. I want you to do what you love. I think that that's very important. But I also believe that it's extremely important your company needs a CEO. So if you are in the room four days a week, who is actually driving the ship? Okay? So there will be a dip. I don't want to sugar coat it. There's almost always a dip. When the owner gets out of the room, you may lose some regulars. This is normal. But here's the question I want you to ask yourself, if you say yes to staying in the room, what are you saying no to? If you say yes to staying in the room, what are you saying no to? Because staying in the room often means saying no to building a scalable, sustainable business that you really want, one that allows you to go on vacation and not worry that there's not cash coming in, one that allows you to slow down and spend time in the summer with your kids. One that allows you to earn a take home pay that you never even knew was possible for you. So my challenge to you this week, I want you to identify what category you're in, and I want you to commit to taking just one aligned action, whether it's scheduling a time audit, rewriting your job descriptions or crafting a marketing push for your new provider, just one step forward is all it takes, little by little. Now we've got a checklist for you, because who doesn't love a checklist? You can download it below this episode, and it's going to help you move through this process. I believe in you. I know you can do this, and if you need. Additional support, I want to invite you to join us over in the spa marketing Made Easy Facebook group or just send us a DM on Instagram. Okay, my dear, until next time I am cheering you on, as always you.