After graduating as New England College of Optometry’s valedictorian in 2014, Dr. Sandra Chiu moved back to her hometown of Toronto. She assumed her path would look more or less like everyone else’s: a mix of corporate shifts, a crowded schedule, and enough stability to make a dent in the student loans that had shaped so many of her decisions. Ownership wasn’t on the horizon; it wasn’t even on the table.
It meant working across multiple corporate side-by-side practices (two locations downtown and another in Mississauga) before eventually settling into a long-established uptown clinic with multiple lanes and a steady patient flow. The hours grew from two days a week to four and a half, giving her the full schedule she’d been chasing. She found a rhythm—a workflow that was steady and predictable.
But predictability has an odd way of revealing what’s missing…
In Sandra’s case, it took years of reliable days—patients, lunch breaks, commutes, repeat—before she noticed that reliability had flattened into something else. “It was like I was having the same day over and over again,” she says. “I felt underestimulated.”
It wasn’t a single moment that pushed her away; it was the steady build-up of minor pressures and disconnection that changed the job into something she no longer recognized. That realization lingered long enough to prompt a harder question she’d been avoiding: was this the work she wanted to do, or just the work she happened to be doing?
A Pandemic Reframe, and the Way Forward
During the first months of the pandemic, when nearly everything shut down, Sandra experienced the same disorientation everyone did. But beneath the uncertainty surfaced an unexpected clarity about what her life actually required. “If I’m just going to go to work and go home and go to work and go home… I could do that from anywhere,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be Toronto, and it doesn’t have to be in this practice context.”
Suddenly, options she had once dismissed as impractical now looked, at minimum, worth reconsidering. Every option was suddenly on the table.
She looked at career paths outside optometry, exploring science roles, pharmaceutical roles, even the possibility of stepping away from clinical work altogether. Still, a quieter instinct kept drawing her back. She wanted to build something of her own.
As the primary breadwinner in her household, she couldn’t afford the slow-build trajectory of a cold start. A new clinic might take months or years to generate stable patient flow—time she simply didn’t have. She needed it to be profitable right away.
So she shifted her focus to something far more practical, a route many new grads never think to consider. Instead of building a clinic from zero, she searched for a business that already had momentum.
The search eventually led her to a long-established optical run by a husband-and-wife team in Port Elgin, Ontario—a small but growing community that, until now, she never would have pictured as home. But the numbers made sense and the patient base was solid. If she stepped in, she could pay herself from day one and build upward from there.
She purchased the establishment and gave it a new name: Lake Views Eye Care.
Where Textbooks End and Real Practice Begins
The experience presented her with a different kind of learning curve; one no amount of textbook training prepares new grads for. She shares, “Initially, I had zero knowledge of the dispensing side of things. I thought I knew, but I didn’t. I didn’t about the different lenses out there, what different designs mean, the different suppliers… like truly, truly zero.”
All of it belonged to a part of the profession she had never been asked to engage with in corporate settings. Thankfully, she wasn’t navigating it alone. As part of her purchase agreement, the previous owners stayed on for two months, giving her hands-on transition support and grounding her in the realities of optical operations before stepping back.
In addition, she bridged the experience gap by leaning on lens reps and consultants along with OSI’s one-on-one support and toolbox of resources. “All you have to do is ask questions,” she says. “You’re not alone.”
Reading the Momentum of a Growing Town
As her confidence grew, so did her sense of what was possible in a town whose population was expanding faster than its optometric services. Many new grads imagine rural work as a temporary compromise or a professional slowdown. Sandra saw the opposite.
Rural communities often offer the quickest path to autonomy (clinical, financial, and personal) because they hold unmet demand. In her case, unmet demand meant an opportunity to grow ahead of corporate chains that would eventually arrive.
Rather than waiting for a large retailer to establish a foothold, she moved first—putting everything in place to meet the needs of the community.
She found a new space, rebuilt it, and is now preparing to open a second location with two exam rooms.
Finding Clarity in the Numbers
Indeed, this kind of planning requires a strong grasp of one’s finances, something many young ODs feel unprepared to confront. Sandra doesn’t romanticize that reality, but she does refuse to let it dictate the limits of a career.
“Stop worrying about the big number,” she tells students who think that debt disqualifies them from making bold decisions. She encourages them to talk to a financial planner, calculate the monthly payment, and treat it like any other fixed expense, “like a car payment or phone bill.” Once the number is concrete rather than abstract, the overwhelm loosens.
That monthly number brings clarity, and with clarity comes room to think. Sandra encourages us to ask questions: “Are you practising optometry the way you want? How many weekends or evenings are you working? Will your employer mentor you? Will they market you? Do they want you to take over one day?”
Financial clarity gives structure to the earliest steps of a career, replacing desperation with discernment and helping new grads move toward roles that genuinely fit.
Paying it Forward
Now expanding, Sandra is preparing to open a second location with two exam rooms. The pace of growth has prompted her to think about the support that shaped her own transition. Wanting to give back, she now serves on the NECO alumni board and mentors students, inviting new grads to reach out when they feel stuck on next steps, curious about ownership, or unsure where independence fits into their plans.
For students and new grads, the through-line is simple: a willingness to ask questions and a habit of testing assumptions can turn a career from something that happens to you into something you shape purposefully. “Keep an open mind,” she reminds us. “Especially about rural optometry.”
OSI’s Role in Making Independence Possible
Much of Sandra’s transition was supported by OSI—its training resources, vendor relationships, consulting support, and the collective buying power that gives new owners room to breathe. OSI’s model reflects the same message Sandra shares with students: independence isn’t about doing everything alone; it’s about having a community that strengthens your decisions.
If you’re curious about private practice, buying a clinic, exploring rural opportunities, or simply figuring out your next steps, OSI Group can help you map the path. Your future and your freedom can all start with one conversation.
Start the conversation with us at info@opto.com — we’d be happy to connect.
