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An Aesthetics Training success story: Dr Sophie Shotter

If you’re a medical professional thinking about a change of career, it can be encouraging to hear from people who have been in your shoes.

Dr Sophie Shotter took a comprehensive range of aesthetics training courses with us.

She now runs her own cosmetic clinic, Illuminate Skin Clinics in Kent, and recently joined our team of trainers at Cosmetic Courses.

Here Dr Sophie Shotter talks about her career, her training and her new life in aesthetics.

My background

I’m a medically qualified doctor with a background in anaesthetics in the NHS. When I first thought about aesthetics training, I spoke to a friend who was already qualified, and he recommended Cosmetic Courses.

Why Cosmetic Courses?

It’s the only course run by a Plastic Surgeon, and has a brilliant reputation. In an industry where training is notoriously variable, that assured me I’d be in the best place.

Which courses did you take?

I started off with Foundation Botox and Fillers, and walked away feeling confident about Botox, but wanting to learn a little more about fillers. I booked some more one-to-one training to learn more advanced procedures – lip fillers, cheek fillers, and advanced Botox.

I then trained up in microsclerotherapy, Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, Dermaroller, and microdermabrasion and peels as well.

I think I’ve probably done just about every course they offer!

What did you think of your training?

I’ve trained with most members of the team and found everyone so friendly, helpful and supportive. The quality of the training was second to none. The personalised advice I got and also bits and bobs about business advice were really helpful.

Would you recommend Cosmetic Courses to others?

I’ve already done so to several colleagues and friends. I wouldn’t send them anywhere else. The quality of training I’ve received I don’t think is matched elsewhere in the industry.

What advice would you give to others thinking about aesthetics training?

When it comes to choosing your provider, look at who has designed the training programme. How well established are they? Who are their trainers, and what’s their reputation?

What are the main benefits you’ve found from moving into aesthetics?

For me, the benefits have been enormous. My work-life balance is much healthier. I work the hours I choose to work, I have time for family and friends, and if I have to make an appointment to see my GP, I don’t struggle to do that any more. I’m a much happier person as a result.

The earning potential within aesthetics is massive – much better than within the NHS for me. Although I’m still in the early stages of my business development, that is really, really exciting.

I love my job – I don’t dread Monday mornings any more, and that’s an amazing feeling!

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Cosmetic Courses offers a wide range of courses for medical professionals looking to enter the aesthetic industry. For information on any of our aesthetics training courses, please don’t hesitate to contact the team on 01844 318317 or email [email protected].

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Botox Training Marketing | What to do after your course

How To Market Your New Medical Aesthetics Business | Botox Training Marketing

After you complete your botox training or dermal filler course, you will naturally be raring to go and get started with setting up your own medical aesthetics business. However, one of the main hurdles to jump over in making a success of your medical aesthetic business is the way in which you market yourself. In this Blog, Cosmetic Courses share some Tips for Botox Training Marketing:

1. Print Advertising

Most new aesthetic practitioners initially start with print advertising (local newspapers, fliers, maybe even cheaper local glossy magazines). Whilst this approach may work for some people, it is quite an outdated method of medical aesthetics marketing and can prove very expensive if not approached smartly and monitored carefully. Traditional print advertising essentially falls into ‘local’ and ‘nationwide’ audiences but the average start-up business will be aiming at the local publications to begin with. Even here, where the advertising costs are cheaper, our advice is that there is always room for negotiation: do not take the advertising cost quoted in the publication or by the sales rep. as gospel – be prepared to haggle, stand your ground and you will find that you can get a real bargain (especially just before print closes). Research your desired client’s demographic very carefully and make sure that the publications you are advertising in really are aimed at them or the response could be poor / made up of timewasters. Always ask the readership of the publication to see how many people it actually goes out to (some which seem like a great offer actually have a tiny readership so your chances of getting much work from them are slim). And check out the legal implications before handing out fliers – at local events, for example, you may need to get permission from your local authority (and are very unlikely to be able to specifically advertise medical aesthetic treatments, so be careful not to violate any trading standards!)

2. Online Advertising

Much more of-the-moment and with (potentially) the ability to reach a far bigger audience at once, online advertising for medical aesthetics has become increasingly popular with aesthetic practitioners. You can set up a free medical aesthetics website relatively easily these days if you are fairly tech-savvy, or for a small price if you need to get help. However: please do be warned that this is just the start of the process. There are hundreds upon hundreds of websites out there advertising medical aesthetic services…the challenge is to get yours indexed and found by anyone searching on the big search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) This is a process known as SEO and involves clever use of keywords (the most commonly used words related to your industry that potential customers are searching at any given time), regularly creating and updating content (information, photos, blogs, maybe videos and social media usage linked to your site can really help you get increased rank and visibility quicker too). If all this sounds like complete gobbledygook to you then chances are that you may have a bit of learning to do before you embrace this form of marketing, or you might need to employ someone to help. This is, of course, a Catch 22 as you need to be earning before you can start employing! Do not be put off, though – there are abundant sources of helpful information about SEO and optimizing your site for the search engines…particularly good ones are SEOmoz and Mashable. If you just want to advertise without getting too involved with any of that nitty-gritty stuff, online sites like Gumtree provide quick and easy access to large numbers of potential clients and have options ranging from completely free – approximately £49 per week depending upon your region and the level of visibility that you want for your advert.

3. Word of Mouth

It may be horribly boring, but building up a great reputation via word-of-mouth really is a great way to build yourself a client base. The trouble is that it’s a slower approach than most medical aesthetics practitioners like. Start off with friends, family…anybody who would like botox and dermal filler treatments from you. Encourage them to spread the word. Perhaps offer a ‘refer a friend’ scheme where for each entirely new client who refers a friend, they get a small discount off their next treatment. If you have Social Media pages like Facebook and LinkedIn, encourage clients to leave reviews / endorsements. Try to form a link with an established business, perhaps, like a hair salon or existing medical aesthetics clinic (at least initially). Even if you ideally hope to be independent or freelance, this could be a good stepping stone to get reviews, spread the word about your new talents, link-build and hopefully create a client base. Whilst we never advocate stealing clients from another business (this is simply dishonest and poor practice), the networking that you do whilst working alongside others can help you greatly when you branch off alone.

Final Words of Wisdom for Botox Training Marketing

  • Whatever your method of marketing, always remember to ask “Where did you find us / hear about us?” It is vital that you do this consistently or your marketing efforts are wasted because you have no idea what is bringing clients in and what is not, so you could be spending money on completely the wrong types of marketing.
  • Get into the habit of taking down contact details from every enquirer, whether they book or not. These will form the basis of your ‘marketing database’ – a list of emails, addresses and phone numbers that you can use to sell to in the future on an ongoing basis. Remember that once you have these and as you add to the list, you have a responsibility under Data Protection to look after these details, not to spam them with constant heavy sales pitches and to always give them the option to ‘opt out’ of future promotions.
  • Remember that saying the words ‘Botox’ or ‘Botulinum Toxin’ in a sales-orientated manner violates MHRA standards. So always be careful to use alternatives like ‘wrinkle-reducing treatment’ or ‘anti-ageing injections’ instead!
  • Words are everything – keep track of the language you are using, split test and be prepared to vary it. If something isn’t bringing in clients, change it and try saying it in a different way.

We hope this Botox Training Marketing Blog has been helpful. Cosmetic Courses are market leaders in both Cosmetic Training Courses for medical professionals and providing medical aesthetic marketing advice. If you would like more information about training with us, Book Online now or call our friendly team on 0845 230 4110.

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Cosmetic Courses join the Big Beauty Therapist Botox® Training Debate: Should Beauty Therapists be allowed to Inject?

Back in March, The Consulting Rooms’ Ron Myers reported on the medical aesthetic industry’s “hot” controversy: should Beauty Therapists be allowed to inject Botulinum Toxin and Fillers?

Traditionally, as at Cosmetic Courses National Training Centre, training in botulinum toxin and dermal filler treatments has been the exclusive domain of the medically qualified. Cosmetic Courses lists surgeons, registered nurses, opthamologists, doctors, dermatologists, dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists and certain paramedics amongst its accepted delegates; no mention of Beauty Therapists, despite the hundreds of calls a year from eager candidates.

The logic behind this is strong. To date, the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services’ (IHAS) Treatments You Can Trust Register has refused to provide quality assurance accreditation to cosmetic injectable providers who do not fall into the above job fields. This is typical, Cosmetic Courses Coordinator Rachael Langford confirms, of industry attitudes generally. Insurance is very difficult to obtain to train non-medical delegates in cosmetic injectables and, in our experience, a Beauty Therapist is likely to have a very tough time finding insurance to set up their business afterwards. As Ron Myers points out, the manufacturers and major suppliers themselves of these products do not support their use by non-medically qualified practitioners, which surely speaks volumes.

Many Beauty Therapists are keen to come on botox® training courses, however, and very vocal about their rights to become Medical Aesthetic Practitioners. In such difficult times of economic recession, practitioners from all backgrounds (Myers acknowledges) ‘want to generate an income from this evolving market segment’. As Dr. Phillip Dobson points out,  technically there is nothing illegal about a Beauty Therapist administering botulinum toxin (if a doctor or dentist has signed the scripts for them) and dermal fillers, so long as they do not mislead their patients into believing that they are medically qualified; it all comes down to patient consent. Many Beauty Therapists who telephone Cosmetic Courses argue that they have a better understanding of the skin than, say, a dentist and a number of them have already attended anaphylaxis or resuscitation training. They claim that there is too much “superiority” and “snotty remarks” in the industry and they may have a fair point; even amongst those who are accepted to inject, some Cosmetic and Plastic Surgeons still frown upon Dentists and Nurses who do so. Now an organisation called the CTIA (Cosmetic Treatments and Injectables Association) has been founded to challenge the exclusion of Beauty Therapists from cosmetic injectables, on the understanding that all practitioners should be inspected regularly for quality.

Yet as Dr Samantha Gammell, President Elect of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors (BACD) maintains:

“A one day training course does not provide non-medically qualified ‘therapists’ with the depth of knowledge required for these types of treatments nor the understanding or skills to deal with the complications that can occasionally arise from them. The public needs to protect themselves by demanding to be treated in a safe medical environment by a competent, well trained cosmetic doctor or a suitable healthcare professional who makes the patients interests his or her first concern. It may be cosmetic but it is still medicine.”

Whilst Cosmetic Courses sympathise with the frustration of Beauty Therapists, founder Mr Adrian Richards emphasises that we fully support the BACD. “At the end of the day,” says Mr Richards, “dermal fillers and botulinum toxin are injectable substances that can cause harm. We believe they should only be used by trained medical professionals with the appropriate training. This is why we set up Cosmetic Courses, to offer the highest standards of training and make every effort to ensure that the safety of patients is of paramount importance.” The Cosmetic Courses team are looking into possible alternative training options for Beauty Therapists rather than injectables, so that they can still support their enthusiasm for the Medical Aesthetics industry…more on this coming soon!

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