Dietitian Practice Business Plan and SWOT Analysis

Dietitian Practice Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory

The Dietitian Practice Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start a Dietitian Practice business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.

Your Business Planning Package will be available for download after your purchase.

Product Specifications (please see images below):

  • Bank/Investor Ready!
  • Complete Industry Research
  • 3 Year Excel Financial Model
  • Business Plan (26 to 30 pages)
  • Loan Amortization and ROI Tools
  • Three SWOT Analysis Templates
  • Easy to Use Instructions
  • All Documents Delivered in Word, Excel, and PDF Format
  • Meets SBA Requirements

Dietitians and nutritionists are rapidly becoming some of the most important healthcare and medical professionals in the United States. It is no secret that obesity rates within the United States are increasing significantly. As such, the demand for dietitians that can provide insightful advice as to properly eat diets that can assist people in losing weight is significant. This demand is expected to continue to increase as more and more people from the baby boomer generation require ongoing health care needs especially as it relates to preventative measures such as changing a person’s diet. One of the nice things about owning and operating a dietitian practice or nutritionist practice is revenues are relatively immune from negative changes in the economy. Many private health insurance companies as well as publicly funded healthcare systems are now allowing for direct reimbursement for services rendered by a dietitian. This trend is expected to continue in perpetuity given that dietitians can provide a low-cost measure for providing preventative healthcare services. If an individual eats a very healthy diet and maintains a active lifestyle and their risks for significant cardiac disease and other ailments is reduced significantly. As such, many private and publicly funded health systems are taking this approach in order to reduce future expenditures.

The startup cost associated with the new dietitian practice are relatively low. Given that no medical equipment is typically needed outside of scales and some other general furniture, fixtures, and equipment – start up costs for new office typically range anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 depending on how much working capital the dietitian is going to have on hand. The gross margins generated from services typically range anywhere from 80% to 95% depending on whether or not bad debt expense is included as part of the cost of goods sold. The barriers to entry for a new dietitian practice are relatively moderate. Usually, the individual needs to be licensed as a registered dietitian or licensed nutritionist before they are able to practice in most states. This educational requirement does create a strong barriers to entry for any new individual looking to enter the market as a dietitian.

A dietitian practice business plan should be developed in conjunction with any documentation that will be showcased to a financial institution or landlord. This document should feature a three year profit and loss statement, cash flow analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page that features financial information that is on par with that of natural national averages for a dietitian practice. As it relates to the dietitian industry, annual revenues in each of the last five years have exceeded $6 billion. The industry employs 25,000 registered dietitians as well as an additional 20,000 individuals as support staff. Payrolls in each of the last five years have exceeded $2 billion. This industry is expected to grow significantly faster than that of the general economy given the current and ongoing demand for dietitians that can provide guidance for living a healthy lifestyle. It is expected that the year on year growth rate for Maine somewhere in the 4% to 5% range over the next 10 to 15 years.

Within any business planning documentation, a full demographic analysis should be included. Typically, the target market radius for dietitian practice is 20 miles. An examination of the population size, population density, median household income, median family income, percentage of people that have private health insurance, percentage of people that receive Medicare, and print percentage of people that suffer from obesity should be included in this analysis. It is especially important to focus on the percentage of people that have obesity given that this is the primary target market for most dietitians. Beyond the demographic information, a full competitive analysis should be included as well. This includes examining the only other independent dietitians but also weight loss centers as well. It should be noted that in many cases, one of the best ways to immediately develop revenues is by maintaining relationships with weight loss centers that do not have a registered dietitian on staff.

A dietitian practice marketing plan needs to be developed so that individuals as well as referring physicians and allied health professionals can be easily targeted from the onset of operations. Foremost, it is imperative that the dietitian or nutritionist developed strong and ongoing relationships with physicians that refer clients that have had cardiac issues or obesity issues directly to the practice. This is one of the best ways to develop the business given that many people trust their physicians and will take them up on the recommendations. As stated above, one of the other ways that these businesses immediately generate revenues at the onset of operations is by maintaining strong relationships with weight loss centers. While in some instances these businesses do retain a dietitian or nutritionist on staff, the vast majority of the time they do not. As such, these businesses can be another source of strong referrals on an ongoing basis. There also exists the opportunity for a dietitian to operate any independently contracted capacity for a weight loss center that wants to be able to offer these services to the general public.

A proprietary website for the dietitian practice should be produced as well. Foremost, this website should showcase the experience of the owner, staff dietitian and nutritionists, hours of operation, insurance is accepted, culinary pricing information, and other relevant information about the practice. This website should be registered among all major search engines. Usually, once the website is established it is very easily found within localized and regional searches for dietitians given the low number of people that are generally in this field.

One of the other ways at the dietitian practice can increase its visibility is by maintaining profiles on social media platforms such as FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram– for photos of people that have lost significant weight using the dietitian practices services. Of course, any photos of any client or patient need to have permission from the individual before they are posted online. It is important to maintain a modest social media presence at minimum given that many people will seek recommendations online among their friends, family, and the community for specialized services like dietitians. As such, this low-cost form of marketing can have long-term results that have a very strong return on investment for any underlying a cost relating to setting up these pages.

A dietitian practice SWOT analysis should be produced. As it relates to strengths, the revenues of a dietitian are relatively immune from negative changes in the economy given that most people seeking out the services are in desperate need of changing their lifestyle. The gross margins from services are considered to be very high and start up costs are considered to be very low. The barriers to entry, again, are moderate to high given the need for appropriate education and licensure requirements in order to practice as a dietitian.

For weaknesses, the billable hours and fees charged by dietitians are not very high. As such, these businesses need to maintain a very constant and watchful eye on the cash flows of the business given that these companies typically do not generate substantial streams of revenue. Additionally, although some publicly funded and privately funded healthcare systems to allow for reimbursement of dietitian services – many do not. As such, a major economic recession could impact the revenues of the dietitian practice as people can no longer for the services out-of-pocket.

For opportunities, these businesses can rapidly expand by hiring staff dietitians that will boost the revenues of the business on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, secondary and satellite locations can be established in markets outside of the company’s initial target market.

For threats, outside of a major change to healthcare policy within the United States there is really nothing that is going to impact the way the dietitian practice conducts its operations. The demand is going to continue to grow as more and more people have increasing body mass indexes and face issues relating to obesity. Although more people are getting into this field, there are still a limited number of educational programs that provide the necessary education in order to obtain a dietitian or nutritionist license.

These can be very good businesses to run over a substantial period of time. Most banks, lenders, financial institutions, and third-party investors are willing to put the necessary capital for a new dietitian practice given the strong level of economic stability. The high gross margins ensure that these businesses are almost always able to remain profitable and cash flow positive in any economic climate.