Hearing Aid Store Business Plan and SWOT Analysis

Hearing Aid Store Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory

The Hearing Aid Store 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 Hearing Aid Store 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 immediately emailed to you after you make 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

As the Baby Boomer population continues to move into their senior years, the demand for hearing aids and audiology services is expected to increase significantly. One of the nice things about owning and operating a hearing aid store that these businesses are able to receive a significant amount of their revenues directly from clients, private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. Although reimbursement rates have declined for hearing care services among many private insurance companies – demand has not waned at all. As such, these businesses are always able to remain profitable and cash flow positive in any economic climate. Most importantly, the barriers to entry for a new hearing needs to work are very high. More often than not these businesses are able to produce their revenues not only from the sales of the actual hearing aid appliance but also from audiology services as well. Most of these locations are owned and operated by a licensed audiologist. The barriers to entry are considered to be high given the specialized nature of the owners requirement to be a licensed audiology practitioner. Typically, the startup expenses associated with the new hearing aids to work our range anywhere from $50,000 all the way to about $150,000 depending on the location of the business. Given that these businesses do not usually carry a large inventory given that hearing aids are made specifically for each client, this substantially reduces the startup costs associated with this healthcare focused business.

Given the highly economically immune nature of hearing aid needs, most banks, lenders, investors, and related funding sources are happy to provide the necessary capital to start a new hearing aid store. As such, a hearing aid store business plan is going to be required in most instances. This business plan should include a three-year profit and loss statement, cash flow analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page. Within the business plan, special attention to should be paid to the number of people over the age of 65 that require hearing aids. In any market there is a certain percentage of people that are going to need to use these medical appliances on an ongoing basis. As such, the national averages for the number of people to use these devices should be divided into the effective target market radius. For most audiology practices and hearing aid stores – the effective target market radius is approximately 20 miles. As such, a thorough examination of the population, population size, population density, median household income, median family income, percentage of people over the age of 65, and percentage of people that have hearing disabilities should be examined. Also, the number of competing practices and hearing aid stores in the market should also be included as well. Although they do not often provide the service to their patients, an examination of ENT physicians should be included as well. One of the things it also should be discussed within the business plan is how the hearing aid store will develop relationships with referring physicians especially ear, nose, and throat doctors. This is one of the quickest ways that these businesses can develop their revenues and operations. Most importantly, some health insurance companies require that a physician authorize the use of a hearing aid. As such, having ongoing referral relationships with the ear, nose, and throat doctors will ensure a continuous stream of referrals from the onset of operations.

Once the business plan is complete, it is time to develop a hearing aid store marketing plan. Most importantly, a very expansive presence on the Internet is required. This website should discuss the owner’s credentials as a practicing audiologist, hours of operation, brands of hearing aids carried, preliminary pricing information when possible, hours of operation, and all applicable contact information. This website should be listed among all major search engines with a focus on ensuring that a person can find the website quickly when they do a local search for hearing aid stores in any given local market. Beyond the relationships with physicians and Internet ordering website, print advertisements can be taken out on a local basis among publications that target people over the age of 65. A presence on social media is not required for this type of business can help boost the brand name somewhat slightly.

A hearing aid store SWOT analysis should also be created. As it relates the strengths, again – the barriers to entry are considered to be moderately high in states that require that an audiologist own and operate the hearing aid store. The gross margins generated from hearing aid sales and audiology services is significant. For weaknesses, hearing issues is not a major medical problem within the United States. As such, many people seem to suffer with hearing disorders rather than acquire expensive hearing aids. Additionally, with any given market there is a modest amount of competition among hearing aid stores. For opportunities, one of the best ways that these companies can expand their operations is by developing ongoing service contracts and assisted-living facilities, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, and related medical entities that have a number of residents over the age of 65. This ensures a continuous stream of revenue as hearing aids need to be serviced from time to time. For threats, as with any healthcare focused business a hearing aid store may have a slight decline in revenues if a significant number of cuts are made to insurance reimbursement rates. However, these businesses are a little bit less impacted by this given that much of the payments accepted for a hearing aid is paid for directly by the patient.