How a Pennsylvania Med Spa Built a Multi-Location Empire
Ever wonder what it takes to scale a med spa business to over $1 million in monthly revenue? The journey of Misha Aesthetics provides valuable insights for anyone looking to grow their aesthetic practice. In a recent interview with Rachel Nappo, Practice Manager at Misha Aesthetics, we get an inside look at how this Pennsylvania-based business expanded from a single location to five thriving practices.
Humble Beginnings
Misha Aesthetics began with two women who had a dream and just a few hundred dollars. One already owned a dental practice, where they started offering injectable treatments in a single room. What began as a modest operation quickly outgrew that space and became its own standalone office.
"It all started with two women with a dream. They had a couple hundred dollars that they put together in an investment... and now we have five locations and generate over a million dollars a month in sales." - Rachel Nappo
While the business has existed for about a decade, the significant expansion from one location to multiple sites began around 2020, during the pandemic. Despite the challenges of business closures, the team successfully opened their second location in Warminster and continued to seize strategic opportunities for growth.
Pandemic Pivot and Expansion Strategy
The COVID-19 pandemic, which might have devastated many businesses, actually presented unique opportunities for Misha Aesthetics:
- The Zoom Effect: With more people seeing themselves on video calls, many became more aware of their appearance
- Increased Disposable Income: Less travel and entertainment spending meant more available funds for self-care
- Strategic Acquisitions: When their medical director closed his practice in Reading, Pennsylvania, they absorbed his client base
- Leveraging Existing Talent: They built new locations around key staff members, such as a nurse practitioner who had worked with their medical director
Building Trust Through Provider Excellence
One of the cornerstones of Misha Aesthetics’ success is their commitment to provider training and expertise:
"Before you're even hired with us, we have you go through 100 hours of training alongside providers... we make sure our team has valuable credentials at the end of the day so people know they can trust us." - Rachel Nappo
This investment in staff development ensures consistent quality across all locations and builds client confidence, driving powerful word-of-mouth referrals.
Marketing That Creates Personal Connection
Their unconventional med spa marketing approach has proven remarkably effective. Led by Chris, the son of one of the owners, the strategy embraces authenticity over polished perfection:
"His method worked. He likes to go that more silly route and be not so serious especially when it comes to our social media stories... people feel like they really have gotten to know us personally through our Instagram stories because of the silliness and just how random everything is." - Rachel Nappo
This approach creates a sense of familiarity before clients even walk through the door, reducing the barrier to entry for new patients considering aesthetic treatments.
Data-Driven Operations
Managing multiple locations requires moving beyond gut feelings to data-driven decision making. Rachel emphasized how crucial their med spa EMR software (SimplPast) has been to their multi-location success:
"Our EMR software is really great. Its reporting features are amazing so it's very nice to run those types of reports to see what location is exceeding in what realm... that really contributes to our success." - Rachel Nappo
In 2021, the team completely reprogrammed their software system to better track metrics and establish benchmarks, allowing them to make more informed business decisions across all locations.
Team Building and Retention Strategy
Misha Aesthetics has enjoyed remarkable staff retention, which Rachel attributes to several factors:
- Promoting from Within: Many team members, including management, started at entry-level positions
- Hands-On Leadership: Managers still pitch in at the front desk when needed
- Flexible Hiring Philosophy: They evaluate hiring needs circumstantially, sometimes prioritizing experience, other times focusing on cultural fit and trainability
- Commission-Based Structure: Providers can directly impact their earnings through their effort and client retention
Why Team Members Stay
While many med spa owners worry about training staff only to have them leave to start their own practices, Misha Aesthetics has largely avoided this issue:
"I think one of the reasons why people stay is they realize a lot of the work that goes into running a business and they don't want to take that on." - Rachel Nappo
Having one of the business owners serve as lead injector gives staff a front-row seat to the challenges of ownership. They witness firsthand that while they can leave work behind at the end of the day, business owners never truly get a day off.
Future Growth: The Wellness Connection
What’s next for this thriving aesthetic empire? Misha Aesthetics is expanding into wellness services:
"We're just kind of breaking into the wellness sector... we've already started hormone therapy... it's not just so much about the beauty on the outside, we're kind of focusing on now the inside as well." - Rachel Nappo
Rather than rushing to open additional locations, they’re concentrating on broadening their service offerings and ensuring their recently opened wellness center achieves its full potential.
Keys to Successful Med Spa Scaling
The Misha Aesthetics story highlights several critical factors for successfully scaling a med spa business:
- Invest in provider training and education
- Create authentic marketing that builds personal connections
- Implement robust systems for tracking metrics and managing operations
- Build a culture where team members can grow and advance
- Maintain quality control through what they call “Misha Magic” – collecting and acting on client feedback
- Balance opportunistic growth with strategic planning
For aesthetic practice owners looking to expand beyond a single location, the Misha Aesthetics journey offers a valuable roadmap to generating seven-figure monthly revenue while maintaining quality and culture across multiple sites.
While Misha Aesthetics has been in business for about a decade, their significant expansion began around 2020. They grew from one to five locations over approximately 3-4 years, with acceleration occurring during and after the pandemic.
Misha Aesthetics embraces an authentic, sometimes “silly” approach to social media marketing that focuses on building personal connections with potential clients. Their strategy involves day-to-day content that shows the personality of their team, making clients feel familiar with the practice before they even walk through the door.
They maintain quality through extensive provider training (100+ hours before hiring), regular on-site training with brand representatives, and a data-driven approach using their EMR software to track performance metrics across locations. They also actively solicit client feedback to ensure their “Misha Magic” experience is consistent.
Misha Aesthetics uses a commission-based structure that allows providers to directly impact their earnings through their efforts and client retention. This incentivizes providers to build strong client relationships and continue growing their patient base.
Surprisingly, the pandemic created growth opportunities for Misha Aesthetics. The increase in video calls made people more appearance-conscious (the “Zoom effect”), and reduced spending on travel and entertainment meant more disposable income for aesthetic treatments. They opened their second location during this period.
Their hiring approach is circumstantial – sometimes prioritizing experience and other times focusing on cultural fit and trainability. They’ve found success with both approaches, noting that experienced hires sometimes come with habits that need adjustment, while new hires can be trained in the practice’s preferred methods from the beginning.
Rather than immediately expanding to more locations, Misha Aesthetics is focusing on broadening their service offerings to include wellness services, such as hormone therapy. They recently opened a wellness center in January and are working to develop that aspect of their business, focusing on “beauty from the inside out.”
Want to learn more about scaling your aesthetic practice? Consult with Diamond Accelerator for more insights from industry leaders who are setting new standards for growth and success in the medical aesthetics field.
