Starting a Natural Therapy Business

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Starting a Natural Therapy Business

Naturopathy or naturopathic medicine is a form of alternative medicine employing a wide array of "natural" treatments, including homeopathy, herbalism, and acupuncture, as well as diet and lifestyle counseling. Naturopaths favor a holistic approach with non-invasive treatment and generally avoid the use of surgery and drugs. Naturopathic philosophy is based on a belief in vitalism and self-healing, and practitioners often prefer methods of treatment that are not compatible with evidence-based medicine. Naturopathic medicine is replete with pseudoscientific, ineffective, unethical, and possibly dangerous practices.

Naturopaths often recommend exposure to naturally occurring substances, such as sunshine, herbs and certain foods, as well as activities they describe as natural, such asexercise, meditation and relaxation. Naturopaths claim that these natural treatments help restore the body's innate ability to heal itself without the adverse effects of conventional medicine. However, "natural" methods and chemicals are not necessarily safer or more effective than "artificial" or "synthetic" ones, and any treatment capable of eliciting an effect may also have deleterious side effects.

Running your own Natural Therapy Business can be very rewarding. However, it can mean long hours, hard work and lots of challenges.

Before you start your natural therapy business, you need to consider your options, do your research and plan ahead. use our free step-by-step market research kit to develop your business plan.

Businesses in the natural therapy industry deliver alternative therapies that are not commonly practiced under mainstream Western medicine.

Treatments given in the natural therapy industry are intended to either complement Western medicine or as an alternative form of treatment. Treatments include:

acupuncture

traditional Chinese medicine

chiropractic services

herbal remedies

massage

aromatherapy

homeopathy

other therapies that fall outside of the scope of commonly accepted Western medicine.

This guide explains how to start a natural therapy business in Queensland. It will help you understand the importance of market research before you enter the industry. You can also use our tools, quizzes and services to assess your business idea.

Plan to succeed

Things to Consider when Starting A Natural Therapy Business:

Planning is one of the most important things you can do to achieve business success. Once you have gone through the 7 steps to business success and completed the business readiness quiz, you should be ready to start planning your business. This process gives you an opportunity to consider what goals are realistic and achievable, and helps identify what you can do within your budget.

Find out how to prepare a business plan.

Market research

Market research allows you to assess the viability of your business, challenge your assumptions and identify business opportunities.

Suitability: Think about your goals, both business and personal and how these fit in with your idea.

Knowledge: Think about the skills required to run a Successful Therapy Business.

where / how can you gain the skills required

you can’t do everything – identify the skills that you can outsource

Environment: How can you keep up with current changes in the Therapy industry

Mentors / Coaches

Networking

Research

Customers: How can you find / reach your customers

Social Media

Word of Mouh

Advertising, etc.

Competition: What is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

What makes you stand out?

How can you add value to your products / services?

Finances: How are you going to manage your finances?

What are your start-up costs

What does a lead cost you?

What is your break-even point?

Managing your cash flow? etc.

You are not alone. There is lots of information out there to help you to succeed in Your Therapy Business and you don’t need to do it all yourself

Having done it all ourselves, we can help you avoid the mistakes, guide you through the challenges and show you the path to a Successful Natural Therapy Business.

Getting into the natural therapy industry

Before you start a natural therapy business in Queensland, you need to understand how the industry works, what things you need to consider in your planning, and the legal requirements you must meet.

Natural therapy industry market research

Market research can help you to:

understand the industry

assess the viability of your business idea

identify key factors that could affect the success of your business.

Manufacturing therapeutic goods

If you manufacture therapeutic goods (e.g. herbal skin care products), you may need a Licence to Manufacture Therapeutic Goods from TGA. Licence costs vary and it may take up to 6 months to process your application. You may need this licence to manufacture therapeutic goods that are used for the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of sickness and disease.

Marketing therapeutic goods under your name

If you market or advertise therapeutic goods under your name, you may need to register or list these goods with the TGA. You must comply with labelling and packaging regulations.

Setting up a natural therapy business

Can your idea work?

To accurately predict your chances of success, you need to evaluate your business idea. Below are some strategies to help you assess the viability of your business idea.

What you learn from market research helps you to:

develop business strategies
identify your target market
assess your competitors
position yourself in your industry and the business environment.
Read more about market research.

Your business structure

Choosing the best structure for your business is one of the first and most important decisions you need to make. You should seek professional advice before you decide on a business structure because there are many legal, financial and tax issues to consider.

The 4 most common business structures are:

sole trader
partnership
company
trust.

Find out how to set up these legal structures and the advantages and disadvantages of each structure.

Establishing your business

Learn more about establishing your business, including business rights and responsibilities, tax requirements and business insurance.

Registering a business or company name

Choose a business name that accurately reflects your business operation and conveys to clients what services or products you sell. You may also require a company name to operate your business.

Check to see if your proposed business or company name is available on the Organisations and Business Names search.

Learn more about registering a business or company name.
Useful business tools and resources
Business planning tools

You can access a range of business planning tools for free, including:

business planning kit
market research kit.

Webinars

Web-based seminars are an ideal way for you to improve your business skills without having to leave your desk. The Queensland Government regularly provides free business webinars that cover a range of topics to help you plan for and continually improve your business.

Trade and export

Trade and Investment Queensland aims to help Queensland companies earn more export dollars through individualized and targeted services such as workshops, seminars, networking events and mentoring.

Business online resources

You can sign up to or visit our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts to receive business updates, links to useful information and support, and case study videos to help you start, run and grow your business.

Reference

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Thursday, December 11, 2014