Healthy Practice
Capitalizing On The Next Trillion-Dollar Industry
By Jeffrey Kent
Originally published in ASCP's Skin Deep, August/September 2006. Copyright 2006. Associated Skin Care Professionals. All rights reserved.
Experts agree: wellness is the next trillion-dollar industry. An enormous portion of the U.S. economy--one-seventh, or roughly $2 trillion--is already dedicated to the gigantic healthcare industry. This includes healthcare services, pharmaceutical development, and all the associated advertising and promotion that go along with these big-business endeavors.
Running a parallel course is the wellness industry. Wellness, defined as a total state of healthy living, is characterized by everything from fitness to nutritional supplements to therapeutic spa treatments. Forecasters estimate that by 2010 the U.S. economy will have added another one trillion dollars in these products and services designed to make people feel healthier, look better, and live longer.
What does all this mean for estheticians? It means wellness is the path to financial success. These days, people want more than just a facial, they want a holistic experience that appeals to multiple senses and achieves multiple goals. Incorporating a sense of wellness can help build an esthetician's identity and promote her business as something more than vanity treatments. Most beauty services have secondary health benefits. The key is promoting them in ways that create an overall wellness experience.
Considerable Possibilities
Surprisingly, very few wellness-oriented businesses broadly market themselves. Overwhelmingly, estheticians, spa owners, and massage therapists rely on a client base that has already bought into the benefits of their services. This leaves enormous segments of the population untapped.
"The majority of people in the wellness business wait until someone who is already on the wellness train walks through their door," says Paul Zane Pilzer, author of the best-selling book The Wellness Revolution. "The problem is that most people have not had a wellness experience. They treat illness as something that someone else has gotten, and they don't think about it in a preventive manner."
Pilzer explains the difference between wellness and healthcare is the difference between proactive and reactive. The wellness industry seeks to prevent disease and promote health before a problem exists. The healthcare field--or "the sickness business," as Pilzer refers to it--looks to treat ailments once they've already occurred. This is where an irony of the modern marketplace arises. Though it's a reactive enterprise, the healthcare industry does a far better job of proactively promoting its goods and services than the wellness industry.
"The sickness business is very proactive about getting customers," Pilzer says. "Wellness, on the other hand, is very passive. Look at ads today. They are all for pharmaceuticals for people who aren't sick. For example, you can eat the wrong foods, get heartburn, and just take Nexium. They are creating their own market. Wellness could learn a lot from this approach."
The message is that wellness practitioners should get out and promote the preventive value of their treatments. From ads to business cards, estheticians should tout not just their services but the secondary health benefits those services provide. The question is how? Pilzer recommends starting with education. Most people simply don't know about the overall wellness effects of something like a facial.
"Don't assume your clients know the benefits of these treatments," Pilzer says. "Instead, assume they think they are purely cosmetic. Put up signs that foster questions and conversations about health. Put up posters about skin nutrition, about the health benefits of massage. But don't be overly aggressive. Clients come to relax and don't want to be lectured. However, if you put something up that encourages them to ask questions, then you can educate them."
Domino Effect
Promoting the idea of wellness is essential because once someone has had a wellness experience, they start looking around for other wellness experiences. They want to incorporate more healthful practices into their lives, such as getting more exercise, taking vitamins, and having more spa treatments.
This is where cross-pollination within the wellness industry can produce big results. Ask your clients what else they do for wellness. Do they belong to a gym? Do they go somewhere else for other body treatments? Do they see a nutritionist, an osteopath, a wellness-oriented MD? Locate these other wellness professionals and do some networking. Offer to send them referrals in exchange for the same courtesy.
"The medical sickness industry works by referral," Pilzer says. "Your primary physician is your gatekeeper. For wellness, there is no gatekeeper, so it's essential to build a network of other wellness practitioners."
As estheticians expand their network and their clients' awareness, good things happen. People are ready to hear about holistic wellness. They are ready to embrace long-term preventive health plans. When estheticians help them achieve their wellness goals, success follows closely.
Jeffrey Kent is a Denver-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in Alternative Medicine, American PHOTO, Adventure Sports, and many other magazines.
Experts agree: wellness is the next trillion-dollar industry. An enormous portion of the U.S. economy--one-seventh, or roughly $2 trillion--is already dedicated to the gigantic healthcare industry. This includes healthcare services, pharmaceutical development, and all the associated advertising and promotion that go along with these big-business endeavors.
Running a parallel course is the wellness industry. Wellness, defined as a total state of healthy living, is characterized by everything from fitness to nutritional supplements to therapeutic spa treatments. Forecasters estimate that by 2010 the U.S. economy will have added another one trillion dollars in these products and services designed to make people feel healthier, look better, and live longer.
What does all this mean for estheticians? It means wellness is the path to financial success. These days, people want more than just a facial, they want a holistic experience that appeals to multiple senses and achieves multiple goals. Incorporating a sense of wellness can help build an esthetician's identity and promote her business as something more than vanity treatments. Most beauty services have secondary health benefits. The key is promoting them in ways that create an overall wellness experience.
Considerable Possibilities
Surprisingly, very few wellness-oriented businesses broadly market themselves. Overwhelmingly, estheticians, spa owners, and massage therapists rely on a client base that has already bought into the benefits of their services. This leaves enormous segments of the population untapped.
"The majority of people in the wellness business wait until someone who is already on the wellness train walks through their door," says Paul Zane Pilzer, author of the best-selling book The Wellness Revolution. "The problem is that most people have not had a wellness experience. They treat illness as something that someone else has gotten, and they don't think about it in a preventive manner."
Pilzer explains the difference between wellness and healthcare is the difference between proactive and reactive. The wellness industry seeks to prevent disease and promote health before a problem exists. The healthcare field--or "the sickness business," as Pilzer refers to it--looks to treat ailments once they've already occurred. This is where an irony of the modern marketplace arises. Though it's a reactive enterprise, the healthcare industry does a far better job of proactively promoting its goods and services than the wellness industry.
"The sickness business is very proactive about getting customers," Pilzer says. "Wellness, on the other hand, is very passive. Look at ads today. They are all for pharmaceuticals for people who aren't sick. For example, you can eat the wrong foods, get heartburn, and just take Nexium. They are creating their own market. Wellness could learn a lot from this approach."
The message is that wellness practitioners should get out and promote the preventive value of their treatments. From ads to business cards, estheticians should tout not just their services but the secondary health benefits those services provide. The question is how? Pilzer recommends starting with education. Most people simply don't know about the overall wellness effects of something like a facial.
"Don't assume your clients know the benefits of these treatments," Pilzer says. "Instead, assume they think they are purely cosmetic. Put up signs that foster questions and conversations about health. Put up posters about skin nutrition, about the health benefits of massage. But don't be overly aggressive. Clients come to relax and don't want to be lectured. However, if you put something up that encourages them to ask questions, then you can educate them."
Domino Effect
Promoting the idea of wellness is essential because once someone has had a wellness experience, they start looking around for other wellness experiences. They want to incorporate more healthful practices into their lives, such as getting more exercise, taking vitamins, and having more spa treatments.
This is where cross-pollination within the wellness industry can produce big results. Ask your clients what else they do for wellness. Do they belong to a gym? Do they go somewhere else for other body treatments? Do they see a nutritionist, an osteopath, a wellness-oriented MD? Locate these other wellness professionals and do some networking. Offer to send them referrals in exchange for the same courtesy.
"The medical sickness industry works by referral," Pilzer says. "Your primary physician is your gatekeeper. For wellness, there is no gatekeeper, so it's essential to build a network of other wellness practitioners."
As estheticians expand their network and their clients' awareness, good things happen. People are ready to hear about holistic wellness. They are ready to embrace long-term preventive health plans. When estheticians help them achieve their wellness goals, success follows closely.
Jeffrey Kent is a Denver-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in Alternative Medicine, American PHOTO, Adventure Sports, and many other magazines.
