blavigne, Author at Eye Care Business Canada

Thriving in today’s competitive optical retail environment requires constant attention and innovation. Independent eye care practitioners are facing increased online and budget bricks-and-mortar competition. Big box and even grocers and pharmacies are competing for optical retail product revenues. How do clinics thrive in this environment? How can they grow revenues? The answer: Optometry diversification of your revenue streams.

Here are some of the evolving opportunities.

Medical Model
The scope of optometric practice continues to expand providing optometry diversification opportunities. Optometrists can prescribe a variety of topical and oral therapeutic pharmaceuticals for an ever-widening scope of pathologies. Potential future scope expansion may include the use of lasers or other nouveau procedures.

There is high prevalence of macular degeneration and glaucoma in our patient populations. Diagnosing and managing treatments of these diseases can indeed provide consistent revenue streams into the future.

Unfortunately, many optometrists, despite having the requisite scope to treat these diseases, refer the patient for treatment to their local ophthalmologist’s office. Macular wellness centres and efficient management of glaucoma can be quite professionally satisfying while fulfilling a need in the medical eye care community.

In many instances, patients appreciate the elevated level of care despite the requirement of private pay in many instances. Keeping these patients in the optometry universe allows for continued refractive and ancillary care such as dry eye services while adding to the practice’s profitability.

Diversify through Practice Niches
Vision therapy, Dry Eye centres, Myopia Management, Low Vision, AMD wellness and optometric aesthetics are examples of growing business divisions within optometric settings. When incorporated in an efficient manner through delegated effective treatments, these services can be very accretive to optometric practice profitability.

The need for skilled optometrists in these subspecialties is growing. Care for these patients is making tangible improvements in patients’ vision and their lives. It is important to treat each of these business divisions as unique with separate budgets, with training costs and bonuses attached to each.

Incentivizing a key staffer as a “Champion” of the specialty can assist in training and marketing to promote the service to the public and to referring optometrists, ophthalmologists, and other health care practitioners.

Sunglasses, nutraceuticals, and dry eye products
Retailing all the products that can help improve and preserve vision is important. These optometry diversification opportunities help raise revenue per patient while increasing the “mind space” that allows your patient to think of you and your offerings when it comes to eye care and eyewear.

Providing readily accessible high quality products through an omnichannel strategy can improve patient outcomes and bottom line profits. E-Commerce should be readily accessible through the office’s online portals to allow easy reordering.

Consider a subscription strategy to improve affordability perceptions and smooth out revenues over time. We use Avocado lenses for contact lens subscriptions. If carrying various products is too onerous as a new or smaller clinic, consider partnering with retailers to share profits such as “The Drop Shop”. This strategy eliminates stale dating of products while still being able to offer a wide product array.

Professional fees versus Commodity products
Your professional fees for services should be commensurate with your education and offerings. My standard recommendation for struggling practices is to raise your professional fees and annually increase them in order to keep pace with inflation.

The Golden Rule is to wow every patient with world class service, care and technology. When retailing products, ensure the products are lower or within 10% of exactly the same product found in other retail settings. If coming closer to your competitors’ pricing is too challenging, consider choosing products not readily available in big box and online channels.

Consider including budget options to compete with online or low-cost operators while still providing boutique and premium products as a primary offering. Gaining and retaining trust is of utmost importance for independent offices. Misrepresentation of our intent will continue and intensify by retail entities looking to crush independents.

Audiology
In three of our five clinics, we have integrated hearing services. This symbiotic relationship with the vision and hearing clinics allows for economies in practice through sharing of resources.

Hearing services can provide additional sources of revenue for optometric practices while offering patients access to this much needed service. On average, patients with hearing loss take seven years to seek help thus reducing their rehabilitative capacity and reducing their enjoyment of life.

Marketing
The battle for our patients will continue. As an independent will you tolerate direct to patient competitors that still supply high margin product to optometrists?

When will Independent practices refuse to be led down the garden path by multinational conglomerates looking to monopolize via an omnichannel strategy?

As an independent optometrist it is crucial to invest in internal and external marketing. Guerrilla marketing will allow one to compete with a nimbleness that the big companies cannot match. SEO, digital marketing, word of mouth campaigns and low cost social media outreach are pillars of the independent optometric strategy.

Pursuing these optometry diversification opportunities will benefit practice profitability.

View other articles from Dr. Miranda.

DR. TREVOR MIRANDA

Dr. Miranda is a partner in a multi-doctor, five-location practice on Vancouver Island.

He is a strong advocate for true Independent Optometry.

As a serial entrepreneur, Trevor is constantly testing different patient care and business models at his various locations. Many of these have turned out to be quite successful, to the point where many of his colleagues have adopted them into their own practices. His latest project is the Optometry Unleashed podcast.

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Getting Staffing Right is Essential for Sustained Growth

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

Achieving a 3-year growth rate of 65% in a hyper-competitive market is no small feat. This kind of success requires a consistent approach in staffing across the entire organization – hiring people who uniformly represent their brand and their values. This is a particular challenge when the owner-operators are all highly skilled eye care professionals, not Human Resource specialists. This is exactly what FYidoctors has achieved.

FYidoctors’ challenge wasn’t identifying the applicants who were simply ‘qualified’ based on licensed credentials or experience; it was identifying the applicants who were the right people for the job. Those who had the essential qualifications, but also the essential characteristics to fit well and contribute to the FYi brand. They needed a way to find the people in the applicant pool who shared FYi’s personality, standards, and client-first ethos. People who could be trusted in those ‘moments of truth’ to do the right thing – even when no one was looking. They also needed to be able to apply that same standard at every location across the country.

Getting Started

FYi’s staffing model consists of eight positions at each clinic. While some roles require optometric or opticianry certifications, others are more clerical, client support, or sales-focused.

The Fit First partnership with FYi began as a pilot, with approximately a dozen clinics drawn from markets across the country, where the owner had volunteered to participate. To understand the behavioral profile of FYi’s top performers, we used the TalentSorter® platform to isolate the elements that made them such great exemplars of the FYi culture.

We analyzed the data and developed a template of the behavioural patterns of the ‘ideal candidate’ for each of the eight jobs at each clinic. Each of these patterns fused together traits and characteristics specific to the role itself (clinical vs. more consultative sales-focused, for example), with other traits that reflect and reinforce FYi’s cultural values: emotional intelligence, soft skills, and compassion. We knew if we could guide them reliably to the right people in the applicant pool, who also had the necessary credentials, the team at each clinic could reliably leverage the system to make better and more consistent people choices.

Shifting into Action

The eight behavioural templates were loaded into the TalentSorter® platform that was configured for independent use by each location. TalentSorter® allowed FYi’s opticians to effortlessly post and advertise open positions, manage the application flow, assess each applicant’s behavioral ‘fit’ in the role they were applying to, and sort their entire applicant pool by FitScore®. Simply put, the applicants whose behavioral profiles most closely matched the ‘ideal’ appeared at the top of the stack.

"TalentSorter has been a great tool for us when hiring employees. The FitScores of applicants have proven to be very accurate and in line with performance ratings. It provides me with valuable insight into potential hires and helps me determine which to bring in for interviews. The interview questions in the reports are great guidelines to help me dive deeper into areas where I need to learn more about the potential fit of an applicant on our team. Overall, my experience with TalentSorter has been terrific.”

– Patti, FYidoctors Owner-Operator

Results

Feedback from users was that the system started saving them time right away. Owners spent less time in interviews and instead spent their time with better people. New hires onboarded faster, fit in better, were productive sooner and stayed longer. Locations in tight labour markets reported that though they received fewer applicants, they were of far higher quality.

Significantly, when looking across the network, we discovered the most successful locations, with the lowest turnover, were also the ones that were having the highest ratio of candidates completing the assessment. Based on that finding, FYi made TalentSorter® a mandatory tool. Since then, they have used TalentSorter® to assess over 8,500 applicants.

Success

In September 2022 FYidoctors was named among Canada’s top growing companies, with more than 375 clinics across the country. Doctor-led, professionally managed, and patient-focused, the organization concentrates on delivering outstanding eye care and medical aesthetics treatments along with patient-centric products and services.

At Fit First Technologies, our mission is to make hiring practices and career discovery easier, more human, and more effective for everyone. The executive team has extensive knowledge and understanding of HR, employee engagement and retention, human analytics, and computer science.

Our suite of cutting-edge products and proprietary software is used by thousands of businesses, educational institutions, workforce development agencies, and job seekers every day. Our technology opens new doors for job seekers, students, and even those who face employment barriers. Our ultimate goal is to enable a more functional, efficient workforce ecosystem for everyone.

If you are interested in more information on how our platforms can work for you, please feel free to reach out to us at info@fitfirsttech.com or call 1-800-513-7277 (toll free).

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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The Importance of Social Media

Digital Marketing

Twenty years ago, I thought practice owners investing in a website was silly. Afterall, don’t most patients ask a friend or relative for a referral? Who would ever choose a practitioner just from a website? I could not even imagine other platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook could shape and influence us.

Today, if you don’t have a website, you are seen as a dinosaur. Patients are interested in knowing more about you and your office. The pandemic taught us the importance of staying together. On a side note, my 92-year-old mother, who never used a computer in her life, grabbed onto a tablet and started surfing the net. She even has an Instagram account.

Your presence on social media is important.
Google reviews are important. Social media by itself is not enough to drive growth but social platforms can help you connect with your patients, increase awareness about your brand, and boost not only new patients but keep the ones you have informed, connected and loyal.

Think of social media as another way to communicate your authority. In general, people are increasingly savvier and more discerning about which businesses they support. Before deciding, they will do a quick search to browse your website and social media. When they do, what will they find, a generic site or something that is a rich source of information? It is very important to not only set up robust profiles but to also update your site frequently with relevant content. This goes a long way to building your brand’s authority and making sure you make a positive first impression through social media, showing that your office is trustworthy, knowledgeable, and approachable.

Sometimes, a seemingly simple social media post, such as one promoting a charity initiative or team members having some fun in the office, can receive several likes, comments, and shares. Remember, with social media you get to tell your own story. Having an online presence on any of the social media forums like Facebook or Instagram is a great way to interact with your audience and to really connect with them on a personal level. Through these platforms, you are given the opportunity to inspire through your success or past failures. Social media is a place where interacting with your audience gives you more exposure and helps you better understand your audience and as a result, your patients. Stories help show people how relatable and personal you are. Consistency is also key.

Social media opens the conversation for instant interaction, relationship building, and customer loyalty. It gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise as a leader in your neighbourhood or community. Sharing information on various health issues helps people see your expertise and helps with the building of confidence and trust. Social media allows you to let your personality shine through everything you share. Your authenticity has an opportunity to be seen. And to make sure that your story is heard and spreads at a faster rate, you might want to work on your content so that it is appropriate enough to impress the audience.

On a final note, it is critical that you define what you want to get out of social media and to develop a social media strategy. Do you want new patients to discover your services? Do you hope to generate referrals from existing patients? By keeping your strategy specific, you can determine which social media channels are the best fit for you and your practice.

From my experience, the number of doctors I have met via Instagram is incredible. Please follow me @jackie_joachim_. I would absolutely love to connect!

Jackie Joachim has 30 years of experience in the industry as a former banker and now the Chief Operating Officer of ROI Corporation. Please contact her at Jackie.joachim@roicorp.com or 1-844-764-2020.

JACKIE JOACHIM

Jackie has 30 years of experience in the industry as a former banker and now the Chief Operating Officer of ROI Corporation. Please contact her at Jackie.joachim@roicorp.com or 1-844-764-2020.

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Student Loan Update

Building Wealth, Finance|Wealth, NextGenOD

The Adulting 101 two-part series made mention of cash flow and debt. Let’s turn our attention to what is likely the greatest debt you have coming out of school: optometry student debt.

This isn’t all glum, however; as there has been some good news in recent months.

Many Forms of Student Loans

There are three general types of student loans, four if we include family loans.

The first source of funding is often the Canada Student Loan program. This is administered nationally and falls under the National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLCSC).

The second source of student funding is often provincial. These loan programs differ from province to province.

The third is a student line of credit from your financial institution.

Organizing your Debt
Optometry student debut, like all debt is a weight on your back so getting a plan to shed that weight is key. You want to get the final values of each of your debt types, when repayment is required to begin, the interest rates that apply and the minimum monthly payment information.

Understanding the terms of each type of debt will help you prepare your plan for repayment.

Provincial Student Loans
Most provincial plans offer a six-month grace period after your study period ends. This grace period is designed to provide you time to start working and generate an income before payments need to begin. This is ideal for most optometrists because of the delay from study period end until licensing.

You will want to review the website of your provincial plan for further details and to see if such a grace period applies.

National Student Loans
Perhaps the best news to come about in the student loan system in decades is the permanent elimination of the accumulation of interest on Canada Student Loans effective April 1, 2023.

If you graduated prior to April 1, 2023, you will still be responsible for paying any interest that accrued prior to April 1, 2023.

The NSLCSC also provides a six-month grace period before repayment begins.

There are also several provinces that have integrated programing with the NSLCSC. It’s a web site chock full of information that is worth your time to review.

Student Line of Credit
Financial institutions are typically not as kind on repayment terms. Most banks love optometry students because they have a great need for additional funding and a great track record of repayment. This makes optometrists a good bet for lenders.

That doesn’t mean you should take unlimited advantage of the lending being offered to you. They still charge interest and over time that interest adds up.

Creditor Insurance
Many lenders will offer you life and disability insurance on your loan. This might seem like an easy option to have, but creditor insurance is designed to ensure that the lender gets repaid and doesn’t offer you any long-term flexibility. You can often secure individually owned insurance at similar rates with better coverage. Speaking with your financial planner will ensure you set up the right coverage for your needs today and tomorrow.

How I Eliminated My Student Debt
Personally, I hated having student debt and needed to get rid of it before I could move forward with a business purchase loan or home mortgage.

My key was to continue to live like a student until my bank, government and family student loans were paid off.

This strategy allowed me to eliminate my student debt within 18 months of graduation. Keep in mind, I didn’t purchase my first car until after I purchased my practice. I kept the focus on my career and had a disciplined repayment and savings strategy.

Best Advice
Everyone’s priorities and situation are a little different. Working with a financial planner will ensure that all aspects of your goals and current financial situation are taken into account. Your planner will be able to map out a repayment schedule that allows you to tackle your optometry student debt on your desired time horizon in a tax and interest rate efficient manner.

Read more of Dr. Arnal’s advice on building wealth and personal freedom.

Advisory
As your Chief Financial Officer, I am here to help guide you through the various adult decisions you will need to make and the next steps you will be taking. Helping you understand your money and assisting you in making smart financial decisions about your debt repayment, insurance protection, tax management and wealth creation, are just some of the ways that I work as your fiduciary.

Have more questions than answers? Educating you is just one piece of being your personal CFO that we do. Call (780-261-3098) or email (Roxanne@C3wealthadvisors.ca) today to set up your next conversation with us.

Roxanne Arnal is a former Optometrist, Professional Corporation President, and practice owner. Today she is on a mission of Empowering You & Your Wealth with Clarity, Confidence & Control.

These articles are for information purposes only and are not a replacement for personal financial planning. Everyone’s circumstances and needs are different. Errors and Omissions exempt.

ROXANNE ARNAL,

Optometrist and Certified Financial Planner

Roxanne Arnal graduated from UW School of Optometry in 1995 and is a past-president of the Alberta Association of Optometrists (AAO) and the Canadian Association of Optometry Students (CAOS). She subsequently built a thriving optometric practice in rural Alberta.

Roxanne took the decision in 2012 to leave optometry and become a financial planning professional. She now focuses on providing services to Optometrists with a plan to parlay her unique expertise to help optometric practices and their families across the country meet their goals through astute financial planning and decision making.

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Partnering with Associates: Retaining and Engaging Associate Optometrists

Independent SightLines

Finding good people is a challenge for all businesses these days. Specifically for optometric owners, it is increasingly difficult to attract and retain associates. There are many more opportunities for new graduates and current associates that may appear more attractive than joining or continuing to work at your optometric clinic. Henry Ford once said, “coming together is a beginning, working together is a process and staying together is success.” In this article, I will look into ways to improve engagement and retention of associate optometrists. Warren Buffet said, “being committed to each other’s success is a true partnership. It’s an emotional alliance.” You may not be partners in a legal sense but embracing a partnership mentality with all members of the team is crucial to success.

Profitability

It is important to run a profitable practice. High spectacle and contact lens capture rates, sub-specialty offerings such as VT, Dry Eye, Myopia Management and Low Vision; selling sunglasses and nutraceuticals can improve profitability. In this way, you can invest in your people, processes, equipment and working environment. It is important to mind all the key performance indicators such as Cost of Goods, Revenue per Patient and Revenues per day. Without benchmark measurements of these KPIs, one cannot manage to improve. Our associates are more attractively compensated because the revenues per patient are significantly higher than the industry median. Financial compensation is not the only criterion to consider when thinking about staying but it is a very important factor. New graduates are often saddled with debt for many years and they deserve to be well compensated. Other entities are enticing your current associates with promises of lucrative financial compensation. It is also important that the shareholders get paid as well. This makes sure that the business EBITDA is healthy and associates can consider how attractive it is to become a real partner. It is also helpful to guarantee an average minimum per day wage. This gives the associate optometrist peace of mind that they can afford to stay with your clinic and puts the onus on practice owners to keep the associate “busy”.

Mentoring

Associates need mentoring and feedback. Teach them what the expected clinic sales process is. Systematize all processes to ensure expectations are clear and patient care is consistent. We recommend handoffs from the exam lane to the optician to be able to outline the recommended doctor treatment plan to the patient and the optician at the same time. Share relative practitioner KPIs and provide feedback to improve capture rates and revenues per patient metrics. In our clinics, all patients get a quote and consultation. We also have a bonus program with our associates. This is based on the net profitability of the practices. It encourages associates to habitulize sales processes and “smart” patient recommendations that benefit both the patient and the practice.

Collaboration

Everyone wants to be heard in the workplace. Associate optometrists are no different. Collaborating with your associates starts with great communication. We use Slack App to provide clinical support in real time, feedback and advice. We include all our optometrists in the weekly staff meeting and quarterly doctor meetings. We have a formal review process annually where we inquire about their short, mid and long term goals and how we can provide support to help them achieve them. Despite the associates not owning the clinic, we request feedback for all major clinic purchases and operational decisions. We ask for what the associate’s ideal schedule is and try hard to accommodate their requests. A profit sharing program incentivizes the associates to be flexible when it comes to supporting clinic production and maximizing schedules. We are transparent with the financial metrics of the practice, thereby encouraging an “owner’s mindset”. Encouraging associates to grow their skill set through mentorship is also attractive to younger practitioners and they look to expand their skill set.

Generational Gap

Quit whining about the Millenials and Gen Z! Get to know their motivations and try to accommodate them. Part time schedules, parental leave, travel opportunities, learning and having fun at work are all important components to attracting these generations of ODs. Why begrudge doctors that want to enjoy themselves along the way and not wait until retirement age to do what they want to do?!

Pathway to Ownership

It is prudent to have a pathway to ownership. Consider creating a clear and transparent pathway. Junior partnerships and opportunities for helping on the management side are also highly valued. It is crucial to target great people to join your clinic and then do everything to keep the amazing people happy and well. We hired a Director of Wellness and Experience who is tasked, amongst other roles, to help with the wellness and experience of our doctors! Get rid of associates that counter your culture of sharing and exceeding patient expectations and who don’t contribute to staff morale and workplace satisfaction. Not all great associates make great partners but all great people make great associates.

Servant Leadership

It is important to lead by example. The last shall be first is theological teaching but so true in business management. The concept of “servant leadership” is where as an owner you share in the challenges of the clinic. Working some evenings and Saturdays, valuing everyone’s contributions, and understanding family and kids come first are crucial to being a clinic that associates will find attractive. It is important that owners choose their attitude at work. Setting a positive tone, being calm and having emotional control are vital. Containing overt disappointment is always prudent. There is a time and place for honest feedback and it often isn’t when you’re upset and frustrated.

Culture is Crucial

Building and maintaining an attractive culture is imperative to optometric success. This makes work seem like it isn’t “work” and is a fun and enjoyable place to help patients see better while getting paid. Doctors will be attracted to staff and other doctors that share the concept of a great office culture. As an owner, it is your job to call out counterculture attitudes and activities and to foster an environment that provides support, care and fun for all teammates. All optometrists want to find their dream practice; why not make it your practice?!