The secrets of my success
If you have meticulously planned your business model, and cut your cloth accordingly, you’ll understand the natural ebbs and flows of the industry. If there’s a dip, there’s usually an unavoidable seasonal explanation for it, and it’s merely a matter of riding it out until peak season ‘kicks in’. My lovely team do this every year, before about-turning and wishing they were less busy with just a little more down time! (Be careful what you wish for!). That’s business. But understand that, and avoid making impulsive decisions, based on a little frisson of panic. If your business needs triaging, take time to analyse your key staff and potential reasons for a dip, before acting disproportionately. Look at the yearly trends, and not the blips. Whilst it’s true, our businesses are often the babies we’ve hand-reared and developed with love, reacting emotionally never ends well. Ther may well be elements of your job you need to improve upon, but it’s highly unlikely they’ll suddenly present all at once in the space of a few weeks. SOCIAL MEDIA My favourite topic. Imagine you were offered a free mainstream TV channel, and allowed to advertise your business on it whenever you wanted? Imagine that your monthly viewing figures were more than the Queen’s Jubilee concert and the Eurovision Song Contest put together? Even better, your viewers were people that were specifically interested in the company, and that you had full control of what content was used? Now, imagine if you never bothered to take the time to use it. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Yet is the gift that too many of you ignore, despite complaining you could be busier. @Consultant_clinic regularly gets 27,000,000 hits a month, and therefore accordingly I spend at least 7 hours a day, trying to be creative and engage our viewers with interesting topics. I train my doctors to ask (beg!) for consent for before and after images, and I put them on photography courses to ensure they take clear images with decent equipment. I am constantly trying to consider, “what would I want to read?” We aim to both educate and entertain, and although it’s time consuming, there is much you can do to prepare posts in
zero filter actually began to work for me! It made it much easier to create posts, and work seamlessly harder, because the words flowed more easily when I wasn’t having to neutralise/curate my thoughts, or people please. I clicked onto (pun intended) the fact, that in general, viewers were really quite weary of same-y posts and topics, and wanted real, with heartfelt opinions and thoughts. The more I showed my true personality – the more people tuned in. Admittedly, it also brought those who disagreed to the fore, but it meant that if people booked into clinic based upon our genuine content and individuality, they were more likely in-synch with the ‘CC vibe’, and correspondingly satisfaction rates also supernova’d. Whilst I’m not suggesting for a moment, that you emulate my own personal, quirky way, I do strongly endorse articulating what you are impassioned about within our industry. Be your own true voice, as it’s always going to be better than a cover version. Social media followers are a discerning bunch, and they switch off faster than a New York minute if you’re not the real deal or speaking from the heart (even if it’s sometimes a little close to the bone). NO FAST TRACK Like social media, there is no fast track algorithm to the top. There is however, consistency, integrity, worth ethic, individuality and creativity. If being skilled and hard-working was all we needed, we’d all have retired by now. Working smarter and ingeniously, using social media tools, my personality and making my business scalable were key. It helped that I was nifty with figures and loved maths and projections – but if I hadn’t used them alongside of the afore-mentioned… I’d have been working harder and reaping far, far less. I’m not by any means perfect, and I learn exponentially every year, but I’m learning to spot and ride the tends, stream-line my efforts, celebrate my individuality and control the controllable. It’s taken me 13 long years, but my consistency is honed to almost military precision and my team are by far and away the best I could have ever wished for. I remunerate them accordingly and never miss an opportunity to thank them. They know how important they are to CC.
Ffyona McKeating Founder, The Consultant Clinic Group
advance and generate excellent content. If I had a penny for every time someone says “I can’t be bothered with social media”, I venture the CC turnover would double. Never, ever ignore free advertisement. Focus on learning how to create content quickly. Did you know, that of thousands of those interviewed on their death bed, one of the biggest regrets was a wish that they had been truer to whom they really were, rather than try to be liked? Personal regrets aside, a lot of the most memorable brands or people you know have a definite unique style all of their own. When I first opened our page on IG, I DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE TRUE TO YOURSELF was very ‘game show host’…. Bland, beige and with little real personality. I noticed, that when I was tired, less likely to employ the social filter we all use at times, and exhibit what I was truly passionate about, or interested in, the CC likes and engagement rocketed. My ADHD, and "Like social media, there is no fast track algorithm to the top. There is however, consistency, integrity, worth ethic, individuality and creativity."
Learn the secrets of Ffyona McKeating’s success as the owner and founder of The Consultant Clinic, the largest aesthetic clinic group in the world, boasting international locations including Harley Street, Dubai, and Beverly Hills.
PHOTO: KRISTINA FLOUR, UNSPLASH
I t’s a cliché, but if it was that easy to grow and maintain a clinic with an 8-figure turnover… the aesthetics market would be even more saturated than it is now. I see plenty of my colleagues ‘busy’, yet their profit margins are malnourished and their business model often unnecessarily complicated and less efficient. The goal is a streamlined, well-oiled machine. Easily said, far harder to execute. It’s difficult to condense into words (bear in mind, that work ethic is everything). However, without the following tips, I simply couldn’t have built (nor maintained!) my business/ brand without. GOLDEN STAFF Your team is most important element of your trade – your business can’t exist without them, and they should be treated/remunerated accordingly. There is never any place for greed in the workplace – my clinical staff are paid a 50% profit split – the highest in the industry, but then I have truly excellent doctors I never want to lose? It makes perfect sense. Conversely, we’ve all had staff akin to ‘metastatic cancers’ within the
company. They either under-perform, or just don’t fit the ethos of your much- loved business and consequently infect other staff members with negativity at alarming speed (which of course hurts productivity). As such, it’s equally important to cut that dead wood, as reward the loyal soldiers. I monitor complication rates and complaints and performance indicators, religiously and audit accordingly. Above a certain percentage just isn’t acceptable – because it significantly impacts the brand. Be brave, and understand your brand strength is vital – so if you need to remove a staff member, do exactly that. Rip the plaster off! You’ll heal far faster! DON’T CUT CORNERS WITH QUALITY I’ve seen so many companies compromise their brand, because there has been a seasonal sale, on a parallel import or different products. Your stock is the tool of your trade, and even the most dextrous of responsible surgeons cannot guarantee safety and results without using premium, guaranteed tools. If your favoured product is a little more expensive but yields better results that make your patients happier,
then raise the prices slightly to accommodate the same. Better to concentrate on nurturing your aesthetics brand as ‘premium’, than depleting the very life blood of what you do. NEVER dilute your quality for short term recompense. KEEP PERSPECTIVE AND ‘CONTROL THE CONTROLLABLES’ If you want to be a serious player in business, you’re going to have to ride out stormy seas you can’t control, at some stage. It happens and it’s inevitable. No one saw the pandemic coming, nor the subsequent ripple effects on our economy. But it’s so important to hang on to the larger landscape picture. One poorly performing month, is just that - one month that turns over a little less. I joke with my team, that at the end of the summer, I should send them each a pack of tissues, and a bumper pack of chill pills. Because invariably they catastrophise, each and every September, when the market is flatter, people are recovering from a summer holiday financial hit, and getting back into the Autumn ‘back-to-school’ routines.
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