How long does it take to open a clinic? A 120-day timeline
The short answer. About four months from a signed lease to a first paying client, if nothing waits on someone else. Almost everything does, so plan four and be ready for five.
The useful answer. The calendar below is sequenced by what blocks what, not by what feels urgent. Three items slip on nearly every opening — permits, device installation and hiring — and all three are visible from day one if you look for them.
When the clock actually starts
Not at the lease. The clock starts the day two things are true at once: the money is confirmed, and you know exactly which services you will offer. Until the second one is settled you cannot size the space, specify the devices, write the job description or answer an insurer’s application, so every later step is provisional.
Founders lose weeks here without noticing, because the work looks like progress. Viewing spaces before the menu is fixed means viewing the wrong spaces. Fix the menu first — and check it against which treatments need a physician before you build a business on one that does.
Days 1–30: the paperwork that everything else waits on
- Register the business and get your tax registrations moving. Both have processing times you do not control — the sequence is in registering a clinic business in Quebec.
- Open the bank account and put financing in place. A lender’s conditions can change what you sign, so this precedes the lease, not the other way round — see financing a clinic.
- Sign the lease, with the zoning confirmed for your use and the landlord’s work clearly separated from yours. Choosing the location covers what to verify first.
- Order the long-lead devices. This is the single most under-scheduled item in the whole opening and belongs in month one, not month three. More below.
Days 31–60: permits and drawings
Nothing on site starts without a permit, and the permit needs drawings. Plumbing for treatment rooms, electrical capacity for the devices, ventilation, and accessibility are the four things that turn a “light refresh” into a permitted renovation. In Quebec the contractor must hold a valid RBQ licence for the work, and verifying that is a two-minute check you should do before signing, not after a problem.
Do these in parallel, because none of them blocks the others:
- Contractor selected, quoted and licence-verified.
- Permit application filed with the municipality.
- Insurance quoted — the lease already told you the limits it requires, and the application asks about services and devices you have now decided. See clinic insurance.
- Booking system, payments and the bilingual website specified. Not built — specified.
Days 61–90: build-out, and the hiring you should have started
The site work runs, and it is the part of the schedule most likely to go long, for reasons covered in what drives build-out cost. While it does:
- Hire. Good technicians are already employed and owe notice. Start now if you want them working in month four — hiring your first esthetician.
- Build the site in both languages, and get the Google Business Profile verified, which itself takes time. Marketing a clinic in Quebec covers what has to exist before you open, not after.
- Confirm device delivery dates in writing, along with what installation requires from the room.
Days 91–120: inspection, installation, training, soft open
The last month is a queue, and the order is fixed: inspection passes, then devices install, then the team trains on them, then you see clients. Each step gates the next, which is why a two-week slip anywhere in it is a two-week slip at the end.
Give yourself a soft opening — friends, family and staff on the real booking system, at real appointment lengths. It finds the problems that only appear when a real person sits in the chair, and it does it before a paying client does. Then open, with a plan for getting the first clients already running.
The three things that always slip
1. Permits and inspection
Municipal review times vary, and a returned application restarts a queue you were already in. The fix is not speed, it is filing early and filing complete. Nobody gets a permit faster by wanting it more.
2. Device delivery, installation and training
A device has three separate lead times that people collapse into one: manufacture and shipping, installation once the room is ready, and training before it can be used on a client. Add customs, an electrical requirement discovered late, and a licence question — because the Health Canada licence is worth checking before you buy, not on delivery day. Order in month one. Everything in the equipment list has a lead time.
3. Hiring
The one nobody schedules. You are recruiting people who already have jobs, in a market where they have options, and they owe their current employer notice. Two months from first posting to first shift is normal, and it is the reason a finished clinic can still sit empty.
What you can safely run in parallel
Almost everything that is not physical. Registrations, financing, insurance quotes, the website, the booking system, photography, the price list and the hiring pipeline all run alongside the build. What cannot be parallelised is the closing sequence — inspection, installation, training, clients — because each genuinely depends on the one before it. Protect that month by not spending it on work that could have been done in month two.
What makes an opening late
- The service menu was still moving in month two, so the drawings changed.
- Devices were ordered after the build-out started.
- Hiring started when the space looked ready.
- The permit application was filed incomplete.
- Financing was still conditional when the lease was signed.
Four of those five cost nothing to avoid. The full sequence, with the decisions attached to each step, is in how to open a clinic in Quebec, and the money side is in what it costs to open.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to open a med spa?
Roughly four months from a signed lease to a first paying client when nothing waits on a third party, and closer to five in practice. The clock really starts when financing is confirmed and the service menu is fixed, because the space, the devices, the hiring and the insurance application all depend on that decision.
What takes the longest when opening a clinic?
Three things, and they are the same three almost every time: municipal permits and inspection, device delivery with its separate installation and training lead times, and hiring technicians who are already employed and owe notice. All three are visible from day one.
Can you open a clinic faster than four months?
Only by removing dependencies, not by pushing harder. Taking a space that needs no permitted work, buying devices that are in stock, and hiring someone already free can compress it considerably. Wanting it sooner changes nothing that is queued behind someone else.
When should I order the equipment?
Month one. A device carries three lead times — manufacture and shipping, installation once the room is ready, and training before anyone treats a client — and they run in sequence, not together. Ordering after the build-out starts is the most common reason a finished clinic cannot open.
When should I start hiring?
Around day 60, while the build-out runs. Good technicians are employed elsewhere and owe notice, so two months from first posting to first shift is normal. Hiring when the space looks ready is what leaves a finished clinic sitting empty.
Next in the series
Sources
- Registraire des entreprises du Québec, Registering a business. Verified 30 August 2026.
- Revenu Québec, Registering for the GST and QST. Verified 30 August 2026.
- Régie du bâtiment du Québec, Verifying a contractor’s licence (in French). Verified 30 August 2026.
- Ville de Montréal, Authorisations and permits (in French). Verified 30 August 2026.
- Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST). Verified 30 August 2026.
- Health Canada, Medical Devices Active Licence Listing (MDALL). Verified 30 August 2026.
General information about the sequence and typical duration of opening an aesthetic clinic. It is not legal, tax or professional advice, and the timings described are planning estimates, not commitments. Permit review times, licensing requirements and processing times vary by municipality, by province and over time, and your own schedule depends on your premises, your suppliers and your team. Verify current requirements with the relevant authority and take professional advice on your own situation. Nothing here is a representation of the financial performance of any New Age Spa location or franchise, and this is not an offer to sell a franchise; where the law requires one, an offer is made only by disclosure document.
