How to Write a Business Plan for a Private Clinic: Complete Guide

Whether you’re looking to raise funding from private investors or to get a loan from a bank (like a SBA loan) for your private clinic, you will need to prepare a solid business plan.

In this article we go through, step-by-step, all the different sections you need in the business plan of your private clinic.

Whether you want to open a primary care or a specialized clinic (e.g. plastic surgery, chiropractor or any other type of medical clinic), use this template to create a complete, clear and solid business plan that get you funded.

For more information about private clinics, make sure to read our guide below: 
How to Open a Medical Clinic in 10 Steps: Complete Guide

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary of a business plan gives a sneak peek of the information about your business plan to lenders and/or investors.

If the information you provide here is not concise, informative, and scannable, potential lenders and investors will lose interest.

Though the executive summary is the first and the most important section, it should normally be the last section you write because it will have the summary of different sections included in the entire plan.

Why do you need a business plan for a private clinic?

The purpose of a business plan is to secure funding through one of the following channels:

• Obtain bank financing or secure a loan from other lenders (such as a SBA loan)
• Obtain private investments from investment funds, angel investors, etc.
• Obtain a public or a private grant

How to write an executive summary for a private clinic?

Provide a precise and high-level summary of every section that you have included in the business plan of your construction business. The information and the data you include in this segment should grab the attention of potential investors and lenders immediately.

Also make sure that the executive summary doesn’t exceed 2 pages in total: it’s supposed to be a summary for investors and lenders who don’t have time to scroll through 40-50 pages, so keep it short and brief.

The executive summary usually consists of 5 major sub-sections:

• Business overview: describe your medical clinic, where it is located, and what type of inpatient or outpatient care you offer. Also, mention the services and treatments you specialize in and the average price per treatment
• Market analysis: a comprehensive market analysis includes details about your market. Provide information about your target audience (children vs. elderly, health conditions, outpatient care trends and preferences, etc.), as well as the market size, growth and competitors. 
• People: introduce your construction business’ management and employee structure. Provide a brief (no more than a couple of sentences each) of the knowledge and experience of the team. Also, mention how the company will be structured (management roles and reporting lines)
• Financial plan: how much profit and revenue do you expect in the next 5 years? When will you reach the break-even point and start making profits? You can include here a chart with your key financials (revenue, gross profit, net profit)
• Funding ask: what loan/investment/grant are you seeking? How much do you need? How long will this last?

2. Medical Clinic Business Overview

In this section, you should explain in simple terms the type of clinic you wish to open. Here are a few questions you may want to answer:

• Where exactly is your medical clinic located? And why did you choose that location?
• What type of medical clinic are you opening (franchise vs. independent)?
• Are you opening a primary care or a specialized health clinic?
• Which medical services will you provide? For whom (what is your target audience)?
• What is the capacity of your private clinic? How many beds? How many doctors/specialists will there be?
• What will be the legal structure of your company (partnership, corporation)?

a) Rationale

Before we jump into the business, it’s always good practice to give an overview of the rationale behind this project. In other words: why did you decide to open such clinic in your area today?

For example, if there are no plastic surgery clinics in the area despite strong market demand, you could come in to fill the existing market gap after conducting a proper market analysis. 

b) Business Concept

Now, it’s time to explain your business model. Firstly, business owners can choose between independent practices or franchising. 

But that’s not all. You must also decide on the specific type of clinic you want to open. And that’s only possible after answering the following questions; 

• Will you specialize in primary care or specialty medicine?
• Is this a franchise or an independent clinic?
• Is this a solo, group or hospital-owned practice?

What are the different types of medical clinics? 

Here are a few business models commonly used by medical professionals:

• Solo practice: you will be the main partner of the clinic and have full control. A major pitfall of a solo practice is the high startup costs for leasing the property, purchasing the medical equipment, managing administrative functions and marketing your business

• Group practice: you partner with other physicians or practitioners instead. This business model comes with fewer responsibilities, with well-defined roles for every individual. Also, it provides easy access to capital, lowering the startup and operating costs along the way

• Hospital-owned practice: a medical clinic within the hospital premises. Here, you work with a fixed schedule, getting limited freedom compared to a solo practice. But the upside is that you can capitalize on the hospital’s resources, making it easier to establish your practice and market it to your target audience. 

c) Treatments and Services

In addition to the business model of your clinic, let’s now take a look at the services and treatments you offer.

For example, a plastic surgery clinic with reconstructive procedures could offer the following treatments:

• Head/face/eyes (Facelift, forehead lift, eyelid lift, ear pinning, hair replacement surgery, nasal surgery, nose reshaping, etc.)
• Mouth and teeth (oral surgery)
• Breasts (Breast augmentation, breast reconstruction, breast reduction, breast lift)
• Abdomen (Liposuction, tummy tuck, etc.)
• Hand and upper limb 
• Skin (Chemical peel, vein removal, scar revision, tattoo removal, dermaplaning, laser skin resurfacing)

d) Pricing Strategy

Lenders and investors will want to see your pricing strategy. We recommend you create a summary table with the main services you offer as well as their prices.

You can start by determining the average cost of similar medical services in your area before making your pricing list. 

When creating your pricing structure, consider the necessary elements, like the local regulations and whether most consumers rely on insurance bodies to cover their medical expenses or fund them from their pockets.

e) Legal Structure

Finally, your business overview section should specify what type of business structure you want. Is this a corporation or a partnership (LLC)? Who are the investors? How much equity percentage do they own? Is there a Board of Directors? If so, whom? Do they have experience in the industry? 

3. Medical Clinic Market Overview

One of the most important steps when writing a medical clinic’s business plan is understanding the market you’re in. Try to address here the following questions:

• Industry size & growth: how big is the industry in your area? What is its growth/decline rate, and what factors contribute to its growth/decline in the region?
• Competition overview: how many competitors are there? How do they compare vs. your business? How can you differentiate yourself from them? 
• Customer analysis: who is your target market? What type of inpatient and/or outpatient treatments do they need?

In this section below, we'll be looking at a specific industry within private clinics: plastic surgery. This should be used as an example. When preparing your business plan, narrow down your analysis on the specialty you focus on (e.g. plastic surgery, osteopathy, etc.).

a) Medical Industry Size & Growth

The cosmetic surgery industry was worth $20.1 billion in 2022 (+2.3% CAGR from 2017-22).

In total, there were 22.4 million procedures in 2019: that’s an average price per procedure of around $900.

In terms of plastic surgeons, there were approximately 7,000 in the US in 2020.

b) Competition Overview

In addition to an overview of the market size, you should also describe who are your competitors in the area where you plan to open your clinic.

Find useful information about your competitors’ biggest strengths and weaknesses, products and services, and marketing strategies.

For example, create a summary table that compares your competitors’ treatments, marketing strategies, pricing ranges, target audience, etc. 

c) Customer Analysis

Finally, take some time to understand your target audience. Here are a few elements you must look into:

• What is the average spend per capita on medical procedures (for example plastic surgery)?
• How often do people need such treatments?
• The most sought-after treatments
• What’s the average price of a treatment / service?

4. Sales & Marketing

The next section of your medical clinic’s business plan should outline your customer acquisition strategy. Start by answering the following questions:

• What are the different marketing strategies you will use? 
• What are your unique selling points (USPs)?
• How will you track the success of your marketing strategy? 
• What is your customer acquisition cost (CAC)? 
• What is your marketing budget? 
• Will you consider any offers or promotions to attract new clients? 

What marketing channels do private clinics use? 

A few marketing channels used by clinics include; 

• Content marketing on social media and blogs
• Email, SMS marketing
• Website
• Online local listing (Google Business)
• Signage
• Word-of-mouth advertisement, recommendations
• PPC ads, Facebook ads, etc. 

5. Management & People

You must address two things here:

• The management team and their experience / track record
• The organizational structure: different team members and who reports to whom?

Management

Small businesses often fail because of managerial weaknesses. Thus, having a strong management team is vital. Highlight the experience and education of senior managers that you intend to hire to oversee your private clinic.

For the partners of the clinic, describe their duties, responsibilities, and roles. Also, highlight their previous experience and track record.

For the receptionists, personal assistants, office managers, medical assistants, etc. no need to go into a lot of detail, especially as it’s likely you won’t have hired them yet before you get the funding you need, which is the objective of this business plan.

Organization Structure

Even if you haven’t already hired anyone yet, you must provide a chart of the organizational structure defining the hierarchy of reporting.

6. Financial Plan

The financial plan is perhaps, with the executive summary, the most important section of any business plan for a private clinic.

Indeed, a solid financial plan tells lenders that your business is viable and can repay the loan you need from them. If you’re looking to raise equity from private investors, a solid financial plan will prove them your private clinic is an attractive investment.

There should be 2 sections to your financial plan section:

• The startup costs of your private clinic
• The 5-year financial projections

a) Startup Costs

Before we expand on 5-year financial projections in the following section, it’s always best practice to start with listing the startup costs of your project. For a private clinic, startup costs are all the expenses you incur before you open your clinic.

These expenses typically are: the lease for the space, the renovation costs, the equipment and furniture.

Logically, the startup costs vary depending on the size of your clinic, the treatments you will offer (and therefore the equipment you need), the quality of the equipment and furniture, whether you buy the real estate or rent a commercial space, etc.

b) Financial Projections

In addition to startup costs, you will now need to build a solid 5-year financial model for your private clinic. Your financial projections should be built using a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel or Google Sheets) and presented in the form of tables and charts.

As usual, keep it concise here and save details (for example detailed financial statements, financial metrics, key assumptions used for the projections) for the appendix instead.

Your financial projections should answer at least the following questions:

• How much revenue do you expect to generate over the next 5 years?
• When do you expect to break even?
• How much cash will you burn until you get there?
• What’s the impact of a change in pricing (say 15%) on your margins?
• What is your average customer acquisition cost?

You should include here your 3 financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement). This means you must forecast:

• The number of patients you can receive in a day or week;
• The number of procedures you can perform ;
• Your expected revenue ;
• Operating costs to run the business ;
• Any other cash flow items (e.g. capex, debt repayment, etc.).

When projecting your revenue, make sure to sensitize pricing (prices of treatments and services) and your sales volume (number of customers). Indeed, a small change in these assumptions may have a significant impact on your revenues and profits.

7. Use of Funds

This is the last section of the business plan of your private clinic. Now that we have explained what your private clinic’s business model and services are, your marketing strategy, etc., this section must now answer the following questions:

• How much funding do you need?
• What financial instrument(s) do you need: is this equity or debt, or even a free-money public grant?
• How long will this funding last?
• Where else does the money come from? If you apply for a SBA loan for example, where does the other part of the investment come from (your own capital, private investors?)

If you raise debt:

• What percentage of the total funding the loan represents?
• What is the corresponding Debt Service Coverage Ratio?

If you raise equity

• What percentage ownership are you selling as part of this funding round?
• What is the corresponding valuation of your business?

Use of Funds

Any private clinic business plan should include a clear use of funds section. This is where you explain how the money will be spent.

Will you spend most of the loan / investment in paying your employees’ salaries? Or will it cover mostly the cost for the lease deposit for the space, the renovation and equipment?

For the use of funds, we also recommend using a pie chart like the one we have in our financial model template where we outline the main expenses categories as shown below.