By: Alex R. Thiersch, JD, CEO of the American Med Spa Association (AmSpa)

The work of a consultant can be extremely valuable for a medical aesthetics practice. When you spend every day operating a medical spa, it can be very difficult to determine why certain things are working and others are not. Ideally, you would be able to step back and view your business with a critical eye, but for numerous reasons, that simply can't be done

If you're thinking about why a program you designed isn't working out, for example, it's difficult to set aside the amount of work you put into creating it and look at what's wrong with it objectively. That program is a bit like your child—you put an incredible effort into it, and while you know it isn't perfect, you won't hear others speak ill of it. However, sometimes you need someone to tell you that something is wrong, and that's where a consultant comes in.

A consultant can take a look at your business using unbiased eyes and years of experience in the industry. Consultants aren't parts of your organization, so they can look at it with an unbiased view. They can see what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong in ways that someone who has skin in the game simply can't, and they can help you determine a suitable course of action for correcting the problems with your organization.

Of course, you may want to bring in a consultant to help you finish a major project or help install a new dimension of your business, and that's another perfectly viable way to use his or her talents. A good consultant has been part of the industry for many years and has seen what works and what doesn't, so having him or her help you create a new part of your business can help it get off the ground efficiently and avoid problems that programs created without outside expertise may encounter.

A consultant can even help a company in ways that might compromise a full-time employee, in that he or she can say what needs to be said without any fear of recriminations. They might even be called upon to make decisions that someone in the organization simply can't make because of their proximity to the principles involved.

And while a consultant's time certainly isn't cheap, it's a bargain when compared with the damage that inaction can do. What's more, a consultant isn't an employee, so you don't need to worry about paying taxes or conferring benefits, and depending on the contract you negotiate with him or her, you can scale the amount of work in accordance with what you need.

If your medical spa needs a fresh set of eyes on a problem or a new voice to propose a solution, consider bringing in a consultant. A medical spa might seem like a closed system, but it doesn't have to be. An outsider can help your business become the best it can be.

As with last week's blog about mastermind groups, you may be wondering why we're bringing this up in this space. Stay tuned to find out.