A business plan isn’t just a document you create to appease your inner overachiever; it’s the crucial foundation for launching a sustainable virtual clinic that could eventually become a brick-and-mortar practice. 

Your virtual clinic’s blueprint is your road map for launching a successful telehealth practice, guiding you through potential financial traps, helping you outsmart competitors, and attracting patients who can't wait to tell everyone they know about you. 

Your Step-by-Step Business Plan Blueprint for Launching a Low-Cost, High-Impact Virtual Clinic 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a practical blueprint for your virtual clinic:

1. Write an Executive Summary

Your executive summary is the compass that sets the direction for your practice’s main objectives and reasons for venturing into entrepreneurship. It's where you lay the groundwork for your entire business plan.

• Who you are: What unique skills do you have to offer? Are you an expert on providing comprehensive care for spinal leaks? Or a dietitian who helps patients with chronic illnesses with their nutrition?
• What you offer: What services do you plan to offer through your virtual clinic? Virtual consultation? Remote monitoring? Lab test analysis? Or business-to-business partnerships with medical start-ups?
• Why your practice will succeed: Write down what will separate your virtual clinic from competitors. Use the niche statement in our “How to Start a Virtual Clinic” guide to narrow down your unique services. “I help [specific patients] achieve [specific outcome] using [your secret sauce].” 
• Your budget: Determine how much you’re willing to invest in launching your virtual practice. 
• Compliance: Navigate HIPAA and determine the state licensing requirements for your target areas. 
• Scaling: Create a plan to transition to hybrid care as your virtual clinic grows. 

Remember that the most effective approach for virtual clinic start-ups is to start small, validate demand, and scale strategically. Launching a start-up can take four to eight weeks and cost between $500 and $10,000. Growing your patient base takes time and persistence, but costs can be controlled here to keep things lean.

2. Define Your Niche 

Generic clinics often get lost in the crowd of competitors, so it’s a case of 'specialize or struggle' when launching a virtual clinic. Defining a niche is not just a choice, it's a necessity to stand out in the competitive market. 

Some of the steps you should take when defining your niche include:

• Audit your skills: What unique value do you offer patients? For example, dieticians can offer lab-based nutrition for patients with autoimmune disorders. 
• Validate demand: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find high search volume keywords with low competition. You’ve hit a goldmine if you find a keyword with thousands of searches and little competition. You can also survey your existing patients or social media followers to determine their biggest struggles with the illness you intend to focus on. 
• Craft your niche statement: Your niche statement gives you a clearly stated goal. Make it as precise as possible. For example, a dietician’s niche statement could be: “I help women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) reduce insulin resistance by 25% in 90 days using personalized meal plans.”

3. Budget Start-up Costs 

Calculate the start-up costs of launching a private practice: 

Budget estimates:

Revenue streams

Go over potential revenue streams for your business like:

• Core services: $150 to $500/session for patient consults
• Membership fees: A cash-based model allows you to charge a monthly subscription of around $100 to $300. 
• B2B: Think of ways to earn revenue without direct interaction with patients. For example, you can provide consultations to start-ups or community education projects. 
• Packages: Offer bundles that encourage patients to keep coming back.

When reviewing the numbers, aim to keep patient acquisition costs (PAC) below 30% of what you plan to charge per session. Be flexible with pricing and experiment with different services. 

For example, some patients may prefer informal paid small group classes on a monthly membership basis in addition to 1:1 virtual consultations. There are always discoveries to be made, such as patients' value of the online community aspect and their health benefits from this format.   

4. Compliance Checklist 

Cut through the red tape with this no-nonsense guide:

Licensing:

• Check state telehealth rules (e.g., Florida’s out-of-state license).
• Use services like Med USA for multi-state licensing.

 HIPAA Compliance:

• Use tools like Doxy.me (free) and Zoom for Healthcare ($15.99/month).
• Sign Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with vendors. 
• Train staff on phishing scams. 95% of breaches start in-house.

Malpractice Insurance:

• Sign up for malpractice insurance before launching your product.
• Sign up for cyber liability insurance. 

 Privacy Policy:

• Use templates from the HIPAA Journal for your website’s privacy policy page. 

Liabilities to avoid:

• Using social media apps, like FaceTime or WhatsApp, for patient consultations is against HIPAA requirements. These apps do not meet the security requirements of HIPAA, which protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic personal health information (ePHI). They cannot monitor logins and terminate access to PHI on a user's device to support emergency access to PHI and to safeguard sensitive information. WhatsApp's Business Terms of Service (TOS) clarify that it should not be used for this purpose. 
• Skipping cyber liability insurance. The average breach costs $9.4M. Smaller businesses may still face substantial costs from a breach, even if the average cost might appear lower than larger companies. 

Hire a telehealth attorney for an hour to audit your setup.

5. Technology Stack 

Your technology stack significantly impacts patient experience, so pick wisely. 

Must-Haves:

• Telehealth Platform
• EHR
• Payment Processing

Nice-to-Haves:

• HIPAA-compliant texting apps for greater accessibility than a phone call
• Personalized apps
• Remote Monitoring

6. Hiring & Team Building 

Start solo, then add:

1. A virtual assistant for scheduling and emails.
2. A billing specialist 
3. A per-diem clinician to handle overflows.

Freelancers vs. Full-Time Employees

• Freelancers: No need to pay employee benefits; more flexible, more affordable.
• Full-Time Employees: Increased commitment, more skills, and office-specific training, but 30%+ added costs due to employee benefits and other employee-rated costs.

Tools

• Slack: For team communication.
• Trello: Track tasks like “Update website” or “Follow up with leads.”

7. Patient Acquisition Playbook 

Some ways to attract patients to your virtual clinic include:

1. SEO

• Use keyword research tools to find high-volume search keywords related to your services.
• Publish weekly blogs on topics potential patients would be interested in.

2. Social proof

• Publish case studies to showcase your expertise. 
• Encourage patient reviews. 

3. Partnerships

• Collaborate with influencers (e.g., chronic illness podcasters).
• Host joint webinars with local gyms or PT clinics.

4. Paid Ads:

• Facebook/Instagram: Target keywords that people who need your services search for, like “chronic pain relief.”
• Google Ads: Bid on long-tail keywords like “virtual spinal leak specialist near me.”

8. Financial Systems 

Pricing Strategies:

• Competitor-Based: Charge 20% more than standard prices if you offer niche expertise.
• Hybrid: Offer sliding scales for low-income patients (tax-deductible!).

Tax Tips:

• Deduct your home office, Wi-Fi, and anything else you invested in your virtual practice.
• Set aside 30% of all income for taxes.

9. Scaling to Hybrid Care 

Consider expanding to hybrid care after using 80% of your virtual capacity for at least three consecutive months. Hybrid care involves an experimental phase that offers virtual access and an in-person option to interact with a clinician. 

At times, patients may be bedbound due to fluctuating health issues but then regain some mobility and prefer to meet with a clinician in a private setting outside their home. Some patients may be able to come to the office once a year for a physical that can be completed in person. Others may prefer primarily in-person visits but sometimes need access to virtual visits due to childcare responsibilities or health condition flare-ups. Other patients may prefer only to have virtual interactions with their physicians. 

Steps:

1. Add In-Person Services. Rent exam rooms from services like WeWork Health. Make sure to check if the building is accessible. Many clinicians think only of wheelchairs as mobility devices and have wheelchair ramps for accessibility. Spinal leak patients who are totally bedbound may be completely functional when flat but still unable to sit up at all and must be transported by stretcher. The building needs to be able to accommodate a stretcher. Some options here are to look for a first-floor room, as elevators may not be able to fit a stretcher, and to ensure that doorways are wide enough.  
2. Wait until the demand for in-person services justifies the additional operating costs running a brick-and-mortar clinic would bring. 
3. Revisit compliance requirements (OSHA, local permits, etc.) when adding physical space.

Justify Your Virtual Clinic’s Viability Before Investing in It

Need help creating your business plan? Book a strategy session with our telehealth marketing experts today and sign up for our free business plan template to start crunching the numbers. 

Need some additional information in advance? Check out our "How to Start a Virtual Clinic" planning guide.