Having a clinic puts you in a completely different business and in a large percentage of times forces you to make decisions based on limited knowledge or information about optical retail. Whether you are the owner/dispenser or the designated tea boy, knowing or learning about the business you are in will only help you be as successful as possible in future. Here are what I consider to be the five most important steps to having a successful optical operation.
1. Have a clear plan for your optical business
It is nearly impossible to be successful in any business if you haven't any idea about what you need to spend/generate from or on materials, payroll, marketing, general overhead’s, etc. The same holds true for your optical business. You must understand how much revenue you can expect from each order as well as totals for each day, week and month. What are you going charge for the products that you are providing your patients. Will that price deliver the desired return on the practice's investment in fixtures, equipment, inventory, and personnel? How many orders you are capable of producing in any given time frame? Compile that information into a sound business plan that also includes demographic data, a marketing plan and timelines to hit specific business goals that you have set. Develop goals for important benchmarks like capture rate, average selling price per order, optician productivity, inventory turnover, as well key financial performance goals. Having a plan allows you to plan for success rather than letting luck or happenstance dictate your optical business future.
2. Work your plan
Once you make decisions about goals and targets for your practice, you will need to develop systems and processes to track and monitor performance to those goals. Being able to have the information needed to make sound business decisions is key to your success. Failure to monitor progress toward your goals makes success much more allusive. From the information you gather you should be able to easily determine if you have the correct inventory mix in place, or if your staff need to be retrained on a certain aspect of the dispensing operation. You can also use this information to help you understand your growth opportunity, and to manage your optical staff, help you set incentive/bonus programs, etc. Your monitoring process can and should be simple, easy to compile and more importantly be easy to read for the guy in charge.
3. Hire, train, and reward great people
Trained optical staff are crucial to your optical success. That simple statement is probably the most important sentence in this article. Your optical staff not only needs to be technically sound but also must be patient focused. I have preached for years about how important it is to be patient and outcome focused. The practice owners who embrace this theory are the ones with the most success in the industry.
You and your optical staff should make sure that you have a sound business plan, offer fair and competitive service and price, then focus on providing your patients with the best possible vision that you can possibly provide. Believe it or not but it is my experience that patients need, want, and will pay for the best vision possible. The ability to deliver those best vision outcomes is your competitive advantage. You can only accomplish this outcome with great people. Make sure once you hire great people that you continually train and retrain them. The pace of innovation in frame and lens technology is so fast that only well timed and regularly scheduled training classes will keep them up to date. The old saying "what gets rewarded gets done" holds true with your optical staff also. Great people need to be challenged and rewarded when they are successful. Probably the most expensive business cost is employee turnover. Reward you staff according and your turnover can be kept to minimum.
4. Keep an eye on the enemy.
There is and always will be a barrier between any independent practice and a multiple. You have to keep an eye on what they are doing, what deals they are offering and the way in which they affect your business. Do your market research before you commit to investing in a practice, check the demographic of the area and work out your frame/lens supply based on the average dispense. It does not do to be dispensing a complete job that totals £220 to your practice and then selling it for the cost of an NHS voucher. Plan your supply and learn how to maximize profits, your neighbour has!
5. Monitor and modify your plan
Use your plan to help you manage your clinical practice. Set up processes and tracking systems to make sure it is working. When you are not achieving according to the plan, determine why and make corrections before they become critical. Monitor performance to your plan at least monthly. Quarterly you need to review your performance to the plan and make adjustments if necessary—start from the beginning once a year. Revising goals and targets is essential to maintaining strong growth. Once you reach critical growth targets it gets much more difficult to achieve progress and continue your growth so being more creative is key. Successful practices have successful optical dispensers and more satisfied patients. I encourage you to find the ways that will produce best vision for more of your patients and more financial success for your practice.
6. Be a leader, not a controller.
Being a boss is one of the hardest things to do in optics. It's never easy to appear to be everyone's friend and also be their boss. The simple fact is, many people in just about every industry fail miserably in management style and technique. I have heard the phrase "I'm the boss, I can do what I like", countless times. This is the phrase that will destroy your staff moral, your profits and eventually your business will be floating in a big pile of administration papers. I have worked with many managers over the years and I have helped in the development of countless companies all over the UK and I have had literally zero success with Managers who think they wrote the rule book and know it all. As an example, I once watched a manager ridicule a member of his team to the point of shame over a period of 4 years. I listened as the little digs flew from his lips at the innocent, and actually brilliant member of staff. On this day, that member of staff who took the insults in her stride is now the CEO of a very large chain of Estate Agents. You can guess where her old boss is...
The best way to be a successful boss is to have clear distance, be approachable, be professional but be working! There is no rule book to this stuff. It's a very personally tailored thing, but the one rule is simple, if you haven't got what it takes, hire someone who does! Clear leaders and born with it and it will shine.
There is never a time where you have the right to say "I don't have to answer the phone or do menial tasks, I'm the boss". The most successful people I work with are the ones who "get down in the trenches and set the bar high" Set the standard for the level of work your practice needs and your staff will follow. Loyalty is not given easily, it is certainly not given when it isn't deserved.
7. The hardest lesson of all (drowning the puppy)
In any business decisions are tough. Cutting people loose from a business is something I have personally suffered with but the simple fact is... it's un-avoidable.
Hopefully, your business has great, well trained staff who are technically sound and face the public every day with a smile and the ability to sell the most expensive frames on the rack. But in the case of the puppy, this is a dangerous employee to have within your business. They are the ones who have been within the company for years and years. They have the experience and the knowledge to influence the mood of the entire team, but in a negative manner. The sad part is, the puppy is really likable, they are the ones that keep the humour up, the one that is the life and soul of the party. The simple fact is, this isn't a party, this is your business. If they can't focus, knuckle down and produce results...Drown the puppy!
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