Episode #86 on the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast: Pay Your Clinic Rent with Retail Income - Retail Tips from Acupuncturists Tori and Marla of TOMA Skincare

Today I’m talking all things wholesale and retail with Tori Paide and Marla Peoples, acupuncturists and founders of the clean skincare line, TOMA Skincare.

Tori and Marla are business partners who both left corporate careers to become acupuncturists. They met in acupuncture school and after going their separate ways briefly after graduation, eventually decided to work together to build multiple practice locations.

Today they run The Stillpoint, a wildly successful clinic in Maryland with a huge retail income as well as multiple offerings, from cosmetic acupuncture to microneedling to massage and more.

They also teach excellent microneedling classes and facial gua sha online – which is how I discovered them years ago!

In this episode, we talk about:

  • How to choose products that sell and also align with the ethos of your business as well as your passions
  • Where to buy products at wholesale prices (Faire.com)
  • How to dip your toe in the water with retail, with minimal risk
  • How to pay your rent from retail income alone
  • What kinds of products sell well at Marla’s practice
  • Brands Tori and Marla recommend
  • And much more

Show Notes:

🎙️ Listen to Episode #86: Pay Your Clinic Rent with Retail Income – Retail Tips from Acupuncturists Tori and Marla of TOMA Skincare

💙 This episode is sponsored by Jane.

You might already be familiar with the name, but if it’s new to you, Jane is a HIPAA-compliant clinic management software and EMR.

Chasing down patients or clients for important information isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, especially when there are forms to be filled, payments to be processed, and consents to be collected.

That’s why Jane has designed user-friendly online intake forms, so you can gather all the information you need ahead of the appointment — whether that’s health history, insurance details, or a credit card on file.

Jane will even send a friendly reminder 24 hours before a patient’s appointment if they haven’t completed their intake form yet — saving you from having to manually follow up.

To see Jane in action, click here to book a personalized demo. Or, if you’re ready to get started, you can use the code ACUSCHOOL1MO at the time of sign-up for a 1-month grace period applied to your new account.

Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:05):

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community, take marketing action with confidence and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives. So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

(00:35):

Hello there. Welcome back. Today I’m talking all things wholesale and retail with Tori Paide and Marla Peoples, acupuncturists and founders of the clean skincare line, TOMA Skincare. Tori and Marla are business partners who left corporate careers to become acupuncturists. They met in acupuncture school and after going their separate ways after graduation, they eventually decided to work together to build multiple practice locations. And today they run the Stillpoint, a super successful clinic in Maryland with a huge retail income as well as cosmetic acupuncture, microneedling, massage and more. And they teach excellent microneedling classes as well as facial gua sha online. Their microneedling classes are how I discovered them several years ago.

(01:19):

In this episode, we talk about how to choose products that sell and also align with the ethos of your business as well as your passions, where to buy products at wholesale prices, how to dip your toe in the water with retail, with minimal risk, ideas for how you could pay your rent just from retail income alone, what products sell well at Marla’s practice at the Stillpoint, some brands that Tori and Marla recommend and much more. I hope you enjoy this episode with Tori and Marla.

[JANE.APP] (01:53):

Today’s episode is sponsored by Jane, a clinic management software and EMR. Waiting on hold isn’t anyone’s idea of time well spent, especially when you are busy providing exceptional care to your patients and running your clinic. The Jane team knows how valuable your time is, that’s why they work hard to keep call wait times to an average of two minutes. This means you can get quick answers to your clinic questions and head into your weekend with one less task on your to-do list. Plus unlimited phone, email and live chat support from their team of friendly real humans is included in every Jane subscription. So no matter where you’re at in your Jane journey, they are always there to lend a hand. To see how Jane can help you take back your personal time. Head to the show notes to book a one-on-one demo and use the code, [ACUSCHOOL1MO] at sign up for a one-month grace period applied to your new account.

[MICHELLE] (02:49):

Alright, let’s get into this episode with Tori and Marla. Hello Marla and Tori, how are you?

[MARLA PEOPLES] (02:57):

We are good. How are you?

[MICHELLE] (02:59):

I’m doing well. Thank you for being here again. I actually can’t remember if this is your second or your third visit on the podcast. It’s been several times.

[MARLA] (03:09):

Yeah, it’s our second.

[TORI PAIDE] (03:10):

I think it’s our second, yeah.

[MICHELLE] (03:12):

Second. Okay, wonderful. Well, welcome back.

[MARLA] (03:14):

Thank you so much. Well, I will give you guys a minute to introduce yourself if you’d like.

[MARLA] (03:20):

Sure. Tori, you want to start?

[TORI] (03:22):

Sure. I’m Tori the [TO] in TOMA. I am also here today because I have a lot of experience running a wellness spa. It’s been about 18 years, so I just have some ideas that come from that experience I look forward to sharing

[MARLA] (03:39):

And I’m Marla, I’m the [MA] in TOMA and I have my own practice and have TOMA with Tori and for a decade had wellness spas with Tori where retail was a, rapidly grew to be part of our businesses.

[MICHELLE] (03:56):

I am really excited to talk to you both today about how people can get retail-ready for the holiday season, for Black Friday, for pretty much the whole month of December.

[TORI] (04:08):

Yeah. It’s a huge opportunity, I mean we see it as consumers, it’s already happening. We are being marketed to for the holidays, people start to get ready at the end of the summer for Black Friday, the larger companies. And I know we’re talking to a lot of individual acupuncturists here today who may not have like a big retail space or the budget to do big retail. But yeah, black Friday is a big one, huge opportunity for everyone

[MARLA] (04:35):

And it takes a little bit of planning, thinking ahead. So, we’re in October and we’re almost on the edge of it being late. So really thinking through what type of products you represent, like you like, that you enjoy, that you recommend to people on a regular basis and how can you bring them into your practice. But there is a little bit of planning involved, but it’s fun. It’s not something that’s stressful actually because you’re shopping for your practice and giving opportunity for your clients and customers to purchase something.

[MICHELLE] (05:08):

Yes. I was looking at a wholesale website the other day and felt like why would I need to do any shopping for myself the holiday season when that’s basically what I’m doing, looking for products for my clinic. It is equally fun, maybe even more so because then I get to share them with my patients who I know will really get a kick out of some of the items. How do you recommend that people go about choosing products that they’ll actually be able to resell? Like what’s a good choice?

[TORI] (05:38):

I think with the competition we have with Amazon, and Amazon, Amazon is competitive within itself, I think it’s really, there are brands that that don’t sell on Amazon, TOMA is one. It’s a choice on sort of where you want to take it. But finding independent small brands that have no minimums or very small minimums. When we were starting out, and one of the reasons we even thought about TOMA, I mean way, way, way back in the beginning is that a lot of brands have these giant minimums, like opening orders of $2,000. And that’s just not practical. So I think finding small brands that are going to work with you and let you sort of sample the market and see what sells is one bit of advice.

[MARLA] (06:34):

And there are sites, so, when we were starting out, Tori, I think even the Stillpoint still uses, faire.com is a great place to find different brands, small indie brand from journals to candles to smudge snakes to eye pillows to air plants. And they don’t have minimums and they give you an opportunity to purchase basically like on credit where you can purchase, you can try something, you have a trial period to return it. And that you also don’t have to deal with these crazy minimums as Tori was talking about. You can really discover small indie brands that not everyone in your area may be selling. We actually have a friend that sells TOMA but also more of like a beauty lounge and she has turned her front of her boutique into this massive retail thing. And for the holidays she has clothing, she has jewelry, she has candles, she has eye masks, she has, some of our face products and people will come in and shop even if they’re not getting a service, because they know they can find something unique there versus going to a big box store where everyone else may be purchasing from.

[MICHELLE] (07:50):

So is that faire.com?

[TORI] (07:54):

Yes.

[MARLA] (07:54):

Yep.

[MICHELLE] (07:54):

Okay. Got you. I have definitely seen that before. And so when you say that you can order something and do a trial period, so if it doesn’t sell, you can return it and get your money back, is that what that means?

[TORI] (08:08):

What most brands will let you in the opening order. Most brands will let you return just the opening order. So like your second order, you wouldn’t be able to do that. But yeah, I think it’s like a 60- or 90-day window. It’s really fair. Well, and it’s called Faire.

[MICHELLE] (08:28):

So I feel like one of the fears that people have of buying things wholesale outside of the large minimums is this idea that they’re going to buy a bunch of stuff that they think is great and then it just won’t sell and then they’ll have this stock cluttering up their space. As you said, a lot of people don’t have huge reception areas where they can arrange products for sale. So that is really nice that if it’s your first order, you have the potential to be able to send things back if they don’t work out

[MARLA] (08:58):

Well, and another thing, as a practitioner in my solo practice, I think about all the things that I recommend to my patients. So we talk about journaling, we do talk about smudging, we do talk about just essential oils and crystals. And so when I talk about that and then I say, I recommend you journal, they’re going somewhere to buy a journal. And so I now have a journal and I say, “I recommend you journal, I have them here, would you like to purchase one?” And so it’s, they’re going to go somewhere else to get it. So it’s things that you talk about and incorporate into your practice that you can sell. And then also doing a holiday open house. So I do invite, I’ll do one night on a Thursday night and I’ll just say, just doing a holiday open house. Would love for you just how I get you get patients this way. Also would love for you to bring some friends if they have an interest in learning about acupuncture. I’m happy to talk with them about it. I may even give a demo of a microneedling service or an Acu Glow service and then I have product out for purchase. And I just have some snacks and have some cider or some teas, whatever you want to have out there, depending on your space. And if you work with other people, we’ve seen practices where there are multiple practitioners that come together and they do it that way as well. They have everyone come together to host a holiday open house.

[MICHELLE] (10:20):

I love that idea. When would you recommend that people host that? Like the first week of December? Because I feel like after a certain point in December, everyone’s focus is so scattered, it even gets hard to invite them to things because they have family stuff they’re doing. When would you recommend actually scheduling something like that?

[MARLA] (10:41):

It depends if you’re doing a Black Friday, Cyber Monday, some people have an online store, websites where you can click through and shop and you’re an affiliate and then you don’t have to carry the product and people can purchase that way. Early December, and we used to at the Stillpoint, partner up with a local charity and give a percentage of sales now that we are a bigger wellness spa. So that was the draw, is knowing that we are giving back to a charity. But you can always still put something together and say holiday open house, bring your friends, come shop, come learn about acupuncture, skincare, whatever it is that you’re promoting. Say 10% of proceeds goes to a charity and pick a local charity. Any donations rather than no donations. So I wouldn’t be fixated on, oh am I going to sell it up to make a donation. But that is another option to do as well if you want to bring people in and also give back to your community.

[MICHELLE] (11:36):

That’s really nice.

[TORI] (11:38):

I think one thing a lot of individual practitioners may struggle with is space, sort of like merchandising. I mean even if you have just one shelf, you can put so much on it. I think there are different styles, like a minimalist, if you have a lot of space, you can get spread things out. I really like things, like a mirage of different things on a shelf. And it can be random, but you can use risers and really maximize the space that you have and give some variety. I think that is fun to do, especially, even if you just have a treatment room, there can be a shelf or two on the wall that has a lot of things. And you’d be surprised. I think patients who come to us, they want to support us, absolutely want to see us thrive. So I think that if you have multiple price points that people can choose from, you’d be really be surprised how quickly you can move things. And I really think that it’s a little bit of management, but for potentially a lot of passive income. You’re not paying that shelf. You’re paying a little bit of rent for that shelf, but I mean it’s just sitting there anyway. But there’s no like human resource behind that that would cost you more money. And then low minimums, no minimums, testing the water. I think it’s just, every practitioner should have something that makes sense to them too. It’s the other thing, is it needs to make sense to you and match your ethos in your practice and all that.

[MICHELLE] (13:08):

Do you have brands that you recommend?

[TORI] (13:12):

I do, top of mind, at the Stillpoint we have a very large space. We move a lot of retail and it’s just because it’s like it your face, right when you walk in there. I would say 90% of what we have at the Stillpoint comes from Faire. And we choose the smaller brands, smaller lines. TOMA is not the end-all-be-all for skincare. So we do have a couple other lines. We do have sunscreen, which is really good. We have a company called My Shell for sunscreen. We do MD solar sciences. We have just a lot of, I wouldn’t even say they’re big, they’re even brands. We have this one crystal maker, he makes these beautiful crystals that hang in the window. So it’s decor for us. And you can buy them. Jewelry does really well at the Stillpoint too. And I don’t know, like if I was an individual practitioner, I would start going down into the jewelry or, I think you need a bigger space for that. But jewelry does do really well and again, we pick it out on Faire. It’s a really, really great site.

[MARLA] (14:27):

And even on there you’ll find your journals, you’ll find your candles, your clean candles, you’ll find like, Tori, isn’t that where air plants started? We found on Faire?

[TORI] (14:38):

Yeah. These cute little air plants that you can, they come with magnets and they’re like in a little, you can put them on your fridge. I mean such a great like stocking stuffer.

[MARLA] (14:46):

Beautiful crystal.

[TORI] (14:48):

Yep. Stones are really good too, gemstones. Like I would even love, I haven’t done this yet, but to do like a little gemstone bowls of gemstones that you can choose from one or $2 each. The energetic property of the stone can be just written or you can give it away on a little card, a dollar here, a dollar there. I mean it can really add up. And you should be pricing things to be like 100% more than you paid for them. So if you pay a dollar for the stone, you’re going to sell it for two. But to be honest, there’s some things that we are like we can mark this up much more. We know our market. And then you also have to build in, if you don’t return it and you have to put it on sale, as soon as you put something more than 50% off, oh you’re losing money on it. And even then some you’re losing a little bit of money, because your investment’s sitting there. But yeah, it’s just managing, starting really slowly and small and buying things that you want yourself.

[MICHELLE] (15:48):

Excellent.

[MARLA] (15:50):

We used to put when people would, again this is if you have a little bit of a larger space, but even where I am in my practice, I’m in a suite with five rooms or a couple of other practitioners. We have a counter where people can check out and those little bowls of gems, or we’d get like a little bracelet thing that you can buy online where you hang a couple bracelets. We used to have these things called blessing bracelets and we would, people would try them on and walk out with four on the wrist. They just love them and they were meant to buy a stack. And they were $25 to $30 a piece and we paid wholesale for this, we paid half the price. And they would just like, oh, and then then they would come back without an appointment and say, “I want to buy more bracelets as gifts.” So, it’s Victoria’s Point, utilize your space, make things accessible, things that you like, things that you would use. Things that you’re passionate about, I think make a difference. It’s not retail just because you want to sell something. It’s something that has meaning to you so people can see your connection to it.

[MICHELLE] (16:51):

Yeah. I was going to ask about pricing strategy. So you said mark it up at least 100% from what you purchased, maybe more. And I know that really to move things on Black Friday, it seems to help if you are discounting things steeply to stand out in the market. I found that at my practice, if I discount something 20% on Black Friday, people are not that impressed. So I don’t know if that means my original markup should be higher, should be more than 100% of the wholesale. Like how do you recommend people set their original price if they know they are going to put something on sale for an event like Black Friday?

[MARLA] (17:33):

Some brands will have you require, like for TOMA, just to give an example, we have a price that is set, you can’t mark it up. So I know Tori can speak to this, but I just want to be mindful that there is a recommended retail price and that’s to keep it level in the marketplace. But Tori, I don’t know if you have strategies that you’ve been doing within the Salepoint?

[TORI] (17:55):

I think it all washes out. First of all, I think Black Friday, 25% off everything in the boutique is totally reasonable. I mean you’re not Amazon

[MICHELLE] (18:04):

Exactly.

[TORI] (18:05):

But 25 feels better than the 20. And you’re still making that 25% off of it. And with retail, you really over time make your money in volume month after month after month. Imagine being able to pay your rent with the retail profits. Just do the math and back into that and it’s very doable. Yeah, so I think some brands will not let you go under certain prices, but you can put TOMA on sale at Black Friday. Just the suggested, it can’t be permanently more.

[MICHELLE] (18:40):

Got you. Interesting.

[TORI] (18:41):

And there are different things you can do. You can do like a BOGO thing, like buy three products, get one free and do the math in that on what your profit would be. Let’s say you profit $30 off of each product, that’s a total of $60 and you’re giving away a $20 product, your profit is $40. That sounds pretty good because you’re selling in volume. In order to get the BOGO you have to buy more than maybe you would’ve otherwise. It’s like when the free shipping is over $75, why would you buy $60 when it’s going to cost you 15? You know what I mean? That’s how you can get people to choose more.

[MICHELLE] (19:20):

Do you recommend that people start out offering shipping or just keep everything in-house?

[TORI] (19:28):

Absolutely not.

[MICHELLE] (19:29):

Yeah, shipping is so tough.

[TORI] (19:31):

Absolutely not.

[MARLA] (19:31):

Unless you’re an affiliate and that company shipping for you don’t ship, your costs, it’s not worth it.

[TORI] (19:37):

Yeah. No, no, no.

[MICHELLE] (19:39):

Yeah, I tried it once. Everything was $9 to ship, that was half of my profit.

[TORI] (19:44):

And your time, right?

[MICHELLE] (19:47):

Yeah. It’s very time consuming.

[TORI] (19:49):

Absolutely.

[MARLA] (19:50):

And that’s where being an affiliate helps as well. So you can offer and promote retail and you can be an affiliate and then that company ships for you and you’ll have to worry about the space, you’ll have to worry about the inventory. What you earn is less than if you’re doing wholesale, but it is another option.

[MICHELLE] (20:06):

Yeah, and then there’s no work at all on your end as the seller. So that makes sense that you would make a little bit less, but all you’re doing is providing them the link. You don’t even have to decide how much of this should I purchase and then set it up in your office. All of the work is done by the seller, which is so nice.

[MARLA] (20:25):

Honestly, you can actually do an online, because people don’t always have time to come in. And if you are an affiliate, you can do a holiday online shopping promotion where you put all the links for the different brands. You speak about what you love, you do a quick video clip of why you love them and what you’re recommending and you say everything is available from Black Friday to Cyber Monday and then after purchasing there’s a drawing for a free something or other. So if you don’t want people to come in and if you don’t have the inventory, you can always do an online shopping because those links are always available to you. So there’s so many ways to do this. The other thing I was thinking of when Tori was speaking about retail, if you’re introducing new services, a lot of people right now are introducing microneedling or facial cupping and gua sha or even cosmetic acupuncture, you can always roll in and do a package, but offer one of your retail items that you love in that package. So you’re getting people to commit to buying services. I know we’re talking about retail, but there is something to be said for having a holiday services package if you’re doing something and then just give them a gift of retail because they may come back and buy that product when they’re done and they’ve completed their series.

[TORI] (21:42):

Yeah, that value add is really good. Say you’re giving away, a $50 product, but they’ve bought a package of three of anything, acupuncture treatment. That $50 product is a $50 value to them, but you paid $25 for it or less depending on how you mark things up.

[MICHELLE] (21:59):

Yeah. I really love the idea of having a holiday open house. I love an open house to begin with and then I just think it’s a nice opportunity to dress up the office and invite people in and people are feeling very festive already. And it’s a fun invitation for shopping.

[TORI] (22:18):

Absolutely.

[MARLA] (22:20):

You could offer discounts for people scheduling at that moment with you. If they want to schedule an appointment, you make a note in their record and then you also can have some items for sale. And sometimes it’s just nice during the holiday season to stop and do something that you enjoy. Because we’re running around, we’re doing so much. But take a deep breath, come in and enjoy some time for yourself and mingle.

[MICHELLE] (22:42):

Can you tell us a little bit about TOMA then, in case people are interested in selling TOMA products? Because you have the affiliate link or people can purchase wholesale so they have both options.

[TORI] (22:53):

Yep.

[MARLA] (22:54):

And many practitioners do both. We do have people that sell wholesale in their space and then also want to have in their confirmation emails or on their website a link for people if people choose to purchase online, they can do that as well.

[TORI] (23:09):

Yeah, and the commission is less, I mean if we ship it, the affiliate is less. So some practitioners will do a little bit of both, buy like three of your favorite products and then as those sell out, we ship really quickly. We turn things around fast. But you could also have the affiliate link and just say, “Oh, TOMA will dropship it to you. No problem. Just buy it from here.” So we don’t have any minimums. There are a couple gifty type things. Skincare is oftentimes a little hard to buy for someone you don’t know. But TOMA products really, they’re adaptogenic in nature, meaning that we’ve got many products that if you’ve got oily skin or you’ve got dry skin, we’re recommending the same product. So it’s a pretty safe product to buy from someone else, but at the same time I think it’s, you can pick and choose maybe our little mini kit. That’s what we like to send home after microneedling. That’s a great stocking stuffer or, just little holiday gift for people. And again, no minimums, little commitment on your part, fast shipping. With our experience in the wellness spa industry, we know what works and what doesn’t and we want to help our practitioners be successful.

[MICHELLE] (24:20):

And I love that your products are all non-toxic, no hormone disruptors. I think it’s very hard to find clean skincare. A lot of brands say that they’re clean, but that it’s just a label that doesn’t mean very much, but you guys have done so much research and I really appreciate that.

[MARLA] (24:40):

Yeah, thank you.

[TORI] (24:41):

Yeah, and the one thing that sets TOMA apart, I just really want to emphasize this is it will be hard to find another clean skincare brand that gives you flexibility on minimums. It’s labor intensive to do that much shipping. That’s why they like to say minimum of six per sku. It really sets us apart I think because we’re working with smaller companies and individual practitioners.

[MARLA] (25:06):

And Michelle, I really appreciate you saying that about the clean skincare because there is a regulation as we’ve talked about in our previous podcast on skincare. But I also think it’s really important for the practitioners that are doing microneedling in particular, knowing what you’re putting on people’s skin. Because you really need to do, we follow these European standards of this sterile concept where you’re not introducing something that’s mixed by hand or in anything but a sanitized sterile bottle. You putting that on your skin is really important, which is why, to Tori’s point, we don’t do minimums. We really want to help you be able to do something in your practice and also be able to introduce that to your patient.

[MICHELLE] (25:47):

Yeah, it’s amazing. Well, I have asked this to you guys several times before, but I’ll ask it, just in case it has changed, what is your definition of success?

[TORI] (25:59):

I think…

[MARLA] (25:59):

You want to go first, Tori?

[TORI] (26:01):

Yeah, I think success, well, recently I’ve been thinking about this a little bit, but I think it’s feeling like you’re floating downstream versus paddling up. And it’s a feeling. Sometimes it’s obvious you’re paddling up when, just everything’s going wrong. But to me I think it’s more of like, how do I feel today? Do I feel like I’m floating down or do I feel like I’m bucking the currents?

[MARLA] (26:28):

Yeah. And I think exactly that and really kind of, there’s just some peace in that and floating up. But I also, more recently having had this time to work with practitioners and watch what they’re doing in their practice when get the call or the email or we even get a review after a class of how people have been able to implement something new into their practice and they feel like they were breathing life into their practice again or they’re so happy and their patients are so happy, that’s really rewarding. Watching someone build something, having not introduced a new service before other than acupuncture to all of a sudden having this multifaceted practice where they’re doing different modalities and it’s successful, that to me is success, knowing that other people are having success in their own practice.

[MICHELLE] (27:19):

Well, thank you so much both for being here. I really appreciate it. So where can people find you online? Where can they connect with you?

[TORI] (27:27):

Our website is professional.tomaskintherapies.com. That’s the site where people can apply to be a partner. It’s just a short application. You just have to prove that you are a practitioner. That site, before you do that short application does explain who we are and all of our products that we sell as well as our classes. That will be on that site as well. And then retail site is tomaskintherapies.com. And those are all, tomaskintherapies.com is our Instagram handle. And we’ll be on TikTok soon.

[MICHELLE] (28:00):

Well, thank you again so much.

[TORI] (28:02):

All right, thanks Michelle.

MARLA] (28:04):

Thank you.