By Alex R. Thiersch, CEO of the American Med Spa Association

In 2017, AmSpa conducted a survey that asked medical spa owners to identify their top concerns in the industry. What we found was that, while compliance and larger business trends definitely weigh heavily on these people's minds, finding and retaining talented, gifted employees is their primary concern. Following is a look at the top six areas of interest, according to the survey respondents.

1. Finding, training, and retaining quality staff.
People truly are the most important part of any medical spa. The medical aesthetic industry is an experience-based business, so it's no surprise that finding, training, and retaining quality staff is the top concern of medical spa owners. They're looking for people who are not only qualified to perform neurotoxin injections, for example, but are also gifted salespeople who have the ability to promote the medical spa's brand, since the industry is a unique confluence of medicine and retail.

2. Staying compliant with regulations.
Obviously, compliance should be at or near the top of any list of medical spa concerns, since the rules and regulations that govern the industry are so ephemeral. Owners who want to remain compliant are good for the industry, since it suggests that, by and large, folks working in medical aesthetics want to do the right thing and run a tight ship, but may not know exactly how to do that.

3. Growth
A medical spa owner who is concerned with growth is likely to be making money already, so seeing this listed so high suggests that these people are already doing quite well and want to find out how to do even better.

4. Marketing and advertising
Because medical spas are medical facilities, marketing and advertising are quite a bit more complicated than they would be for a traditional medical practice or a retail outlet. Getting the word out about your medical spa can seem like a difficult balancing act and, again, the level of concern expressed by owners suggests that they want to do this the right way, but don't quite know how.

5. Market saturation and competition
This is another sign of a healthy industry, although it certainly doesn't seem like a good thing to people who have built successful businesses and then suddenly have to deal with newcomers who have seen how lucrative the industry can be. Learning how to provide the products and services your market wants is one of the keys to maintaining a successful medical spa.

6. Controlling costs and taking on debt
They say you have to spend money to make money, but how much is too much in the medical aesthetic industry? Keeping track of a medical spa's finances, both in terms of everyday expenditures and big-picture financing, is vital for practice owners to understand, and its position on this list reflects that.

All of these concerns point toward the fact that this is an industry that is absolutely exploding. It's difficult to find employees, because there aren't enough qualified professionals; compliance is difficult because of quick expansion; competition is springing up all over the place—all these things point toward a robust industry, and these medical spa owners want to get their piece of the pie. We at AmSpa want to help you do just that, so stay tuned to learn more about all these factors in medical spa success.