This may seem a ridiculous statement, but, in the current climate, nothing could be more relevant. One example of how not to compete with your competitors happened a few days ago, when my wife went to a new hairdresser. This was nothing out of the ordinary, until the person doing her hair asked her if she would ‘be having any Botox today’. My wife was surprised to be asked such a question during a haircut, so proceeded to probe for more details. The hairdresser explained that he had ‘self-trained’ to do toxin and filler injections by watching YouTube videos. According to him, this is probably better than any training you could pay for, and it's free.
Unfortunately, sometimes in aesthetics, this is the calibre of competition we find ourselves up against. I'm happy to say that my wife informed the hairdresser of the error of his ways, my profession and my viewpoint on this, to which he wasn't very impressed.
In my local area, some people are advertising three areas of toxin injections for £80. I'm often confronted with this fact when I tell potential clients my prices, which are considerably more than this. This often leads to the conversation of why someone should pay so much for the procedure when they can get it done elsewhere for less than half the price I give. The answer I always give is because it wont be done by me! I refuse to compete with people who want to use substandard products, are not properly trained and have no scruples when it comes to making a quick few pounds.
However, there is more to this story than meets the eye. First, how are these individuals getting hold of these products? Let's assume for a second that these people are getting their products above board, in that a healthcare professional is prescribing for them. Why would someone do this? Not only is it unethical to support people who practise in this manner for safety reasons, but doing this also essentially waters down the good practice that does exist.
This is why we don't compete with people like this: they are secondary competitors. They are not in the same league as trained and qualified individuals, who have invested time and studied in order to become aesthetic practitioners. I make no apologies for this, and appreciate that some people may interpret this as snobbery, but it isn't. By not lowering our standards (and prices), we ensure that we are not guilty of the same unethical behaviour as some of our ‘competitors’. My opinion is that to provide treatments so cheaply, substandard products must be being used. It is important that as a profession, we make a stand about this. I believe that the most effective way to do this is to refuse to prescribe for people who do not have a professional regulatory body. This is a practice I have never understood, as essentially, if you are the prescriber, you should supervise the procedure. If this is the case, what is the point of supervising someone else to do what you can do by yourself? The other end of this is that you may be prescribing for someone, knowing that you will not be supervising them as you should. In this case, the practitioner should consider whether this behaviour is ethical.
Essentially, there is no place in our profession for cheap sales, cut-price products and price wars. This unethical behaviour does nothing to support patient safety, good outcomes and the professional appearance of the industry. It has no place in our profession and we must stand against it.