Unique Event Focuses on Opportunities for New Canadian ODs

Career Options, NextGenOD

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Opportunities & Options for New Optometrists

On the evening of March 29, young Canadian Optometrists and Optometry students will gather simulataneously online and in person for a unique hybrid event. The event will be live at University of Waterloo, School of Optometry and Vision Science and livecast via ZOOM to an online domestic and international audience. Click here for more information about this event.  The event is co-presented by Bausch + Lomb Canada and Eye Care Businesss Canada.

Optometry Students and recent graduates will hear from both industry experts and recent graduates about their various career experiences, exposing the young ODs and students to the opportunities and options that are available to them. The evening will be co-hosted by NextGEN OD ambassadors, Jenny Lee (OD-4 UW) and Nyah Miranda (OD-1 NECO).

The live portion of the event will begin at 7:30 PM (EDT) with light fare/refreshments. The remote attendees will join in at 8:00 PM for the guest presentations (See details here). The presentations will be followed by a  Q&A session and prize raffles for attendees. Nearly $1000 of value prizes will be awareded.

Interested persons should reserve their place soon as soon as possible due to space limitations for the live event.  There is no cost to attend, but available reservations will be made on a first-come first serve basis.

Other sponsors of the event include FYidoctors, IRIS Group, Bailey Nelson, ROI Corporation, Eye Recommend and CRO (Clinical & Refractive Optometry).

Registration is now open for both the live and online event. See you there on Wednesday March 29th.

 

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Act Two – How I Found Myself Writing this Article

Human Resources, Leadership

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Act II

By most accounts, the Canadian primary care optometry practice’s bread and butter is refraction, sprinkled with some management of chronic eye diseases, and the odd acute care case. So, in truth, after such a long period one should expect some degree of monotony. However, how you deal with these feelings may help you progress, expand your footprint, and reinvigorate your passion for the profession.

For me, the COVID pandemic took a lot of the enjoyment out of the practice of optometry. Conversing with patients and exchanging stories during the exam provided me with a constant cultural and culinary education, as well as amazing travel suggestions. Unfortunately, as brevity, sterility and decreased patient interaction became the new norm, I was experiencing increased job dissatisfaction and fatigue.

Burnout

As the pandemic carried on, I struggled with greater responsibilities and increased concern for the well being of my family, staff and patients. I began to realize I was experiencing some of the signs of burnout. I considered trying to keep my head down and just try to plow through until these feeling passed, but knew in truth, this was not a real solution.

By definition, burnout is a condition experienced by workers and professionals in which aspects of their role or workplace induces stress1. This stress results in manifestations of physical, mental and/or emotional exhaustion. Common signs of burnout in the workplace may include anxiety, headaches, insomnia, fatigue and an increasingly cynical outlook on work and life in general 2,3.

burnout, stress

Burnout Can Happen to Anyone at Any Time

There is no defined treatment paradigm for workplace burnout at present. Many people find it helpful to take a leave temporarily, or even permanently. However, identifying the abovementioned signs of burnout and implementing proactive decisions to alter one’s work environment can not only aid in avoiding the symptoms of burnout, but, also open one up to opportunities not previously considered.

Important to realize is that although burnout may be a personal experience it is a community battle. Support from within the workplace, family and friends are integral to overcoming burnout’s depressive cloud. Simply talking to someone about your symptoms or the alternatives you may be considering may help lessen your burden.

Support from Co-workers, Family and Friends is Essential

To avoid burnout myself, the first thing I did was to take a small step away from patient care. I realized that as an optometrist I possessed a narrow academic skill set not easily transferable; however, I also possessed a wealth of life and entrepreneurial experience I could use. I began to think about why I entered the optometric profession, what experiences in my tenure as an optometrist I cherished the most and how I could replicate those experiences. I thought about the personal passions and professional desires I had yet to accomplish or even attempt, and how I may go about doing so.

co-workers

I spoke to several friends and colleagues and found that my experience of burnout, while unique, was not uncommon. This realization gave me some solace. I continued conversing with colleagues and bounced ideas off friends for alternative career paths within the optometric profession. I had often hired students at my office and enjoyed mentoring them as they learned about eye care.

Many of the students I hired went on to pursue careers in the ophthalmic industry. Realizing the desire to impart my knowledge to others led me to speak to a friend who had been teaching in the Opticianry Program at Seneca College. Luckily there was a need for lab instructors, and I was able to provide myself with some variety and a new set of challenges.

I continued to pursue unique experiences and became involved with a community charity project at Seneca. I continued to speak with my peers and colleagues, and sought input on new experiences and opportunities that may be available. It was during one such exchange I was serendipitously surprised to hear of the opportunity to write the article you are currently reading.

As writing has always been a passion of mine, I pounced on the chance to contribute my take on stagnation and burnout in optometry in the hopes it may assist anyone who needs it and provides some ideas of how one may overcome this common condition.

Work Cited:
1 “Staff Burn-Out” Journal of Social Issues. January 1974
2 “Symptoms of professional burnout: a review of empirical evidence”
APA PsycNET. American Psychological Association. 1998.
3 “Health Impact of ThePsychosocial Hazards of Work: An Overview”
World Health Organisation. 2010

Dr. Shaun Rawana

Dr. Shaun Rawana is a practicing optometrist with over 15 years of experience in both the United States and Canada. His area of focus has been primary care optometry with interests in cornea/ocular surface disease and contact lenses. Dr. Rawana recently began teaching clinical skills in the Opticianry program at Seneca College and looks forward to contributing his insights into the current Canadian scene through Optik.

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Mind Blowing Advances in Eye Care

Independent SightLines, Marketing, Technology

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Advances in Eye Care

It is such a privilege to practice a profession that can save vision, relieve debilitating symptoms and protect the future of my patients’ vision. I thought it might be a good time to have a retrospective look at some of these amazing advances over my career.

Retinal Imaging
First, it started with fundus camera images where we could visualize and manipulate the retinal image to better understand what we are seeing under the microscope. Soon that evolved into wide angle retinal imaging to be able to get into the mid and far peripheral retina through an undilated pupil. This game changing technology allowed for a more expedient diagnosis (I sometimes make a retinal referral while the patient is in pre-testing and the image shows an obvious retinal detachment). Next came OCT (Ocular Coherence Tomography) which is essentially allowing a cross-sectional look under the retina and between retinal layers. OCT suddenly gave optometry the ability to instantly diagnose many more retinal pathologies with a high degree of certainty.

When we first acquired these technologies, we imaged every patient to better understand what we were seeing. The amount of occult pathology that was present without obvious symptomology made us pause and think.

Finally, we decided on a wellness model. We would image all patients with angle retinal imaging and OCT to screen for all pathologies that would present with symptoms and those that would be lurking as threats in the future.

Glaucoma Screening
Glaucoma is often called the silent thief of sight because there are often no obvious symptoms until vision is lost and major irreversible damage has taken place. Every eye exam looks for glaucoma, usually through intraocular pressure measurements and viewing the health of the optic nerves.

Nerve Fiber Layer (NFL) and Ganglion Cell Complex (GCC) imaging has allowed a look at early cellular changes before functional vision loss takes place. We screen all patients with visual fields, NFL and GCC scanning to set baselines for future reference and to identify glaucomas early in order to intervene and protect the future of our patients’ vision.

Dry Eye Disease
When I started practice, dry eye disease was a “grin and bear it” condition. Practitioners would acknowledge the presence of inflammation and provide artificial tears (usually a sample not a therapeutic course) and not follow up with the patient again until their routine eye examination two years later.

Now we screen for dry eye conditions before the patient arrives with a DEQ 5 dry eye survey and have added lower lid meibography and vital dye staining to every primary eye examination. Treatment advances in Dry Eye therapies abound and include advanced treatments such as Radio Frequency and IPL as well as LipiFlow. Medications that promote corneal healing and better tear production have made significant improvements in the lives of my patients previously suffering through untreated ocular surface disease.

NeurolensNeurolens
Recently we added an instrument that measures binocular dysfunction in a very accurate way through the Neurolens Measurement Device, or NMD. This technician-driven diagnostic test provides repeatable measurements that allow optometrists to prescribe Neurolenses, which incorporate a “contoured prism” to relieve symptoms associated with a proprioceptive conflict between misaligned eyes and the trigeminal nerve—sometimes referred to as trigeminal dysphoria. These common symptoms include dry eye sensation, light sensitivity, headaches and fatigue.

The results so far have been outstanding. Previously we would have to have patients suffer from not loving their progressive lenses and having to just “deal with it”. Patients have been raving! One patient described these glasses as “magic” and having changed her life.

It is rare that in one’s job you can make such a difference so as to evoke an emotional response of tears of joy and gratitude. Neurolens is such a technology, and a new way of prescribing glasses. We have started to screen all patients with symptoms of trigeminal dysphoria as Neurolens moves from being a problem solver to a
problem predictor.

The Rate Change Paradox
They say that change has never been this fast before and will never be this slow again. The rate change paradox requires optometric clinicians to change, learn and improve. As independent clinics, we have the power to instantly change without the required green light from head office that chains or corporate entities may require.
This is both a blessing and a curse. The curse is that nobody is requiring you to change via a memo sent down from the suits in HQ. That fact means that as leaders and practice owners the impetus for change has to come from you!

Embrace it! There will be many advances that will help us make the vision and indeed the lives of our patients more enjoyable. How quickly will you incorporate this into your clinic? The best is yet to come!

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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Resume Experience Does Not Predict Job Success

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Do Resumes Help?

If you’re responsible for talent acquisition, you’ve likely muttered a few curse words under your breath a time or two. We’ve all been there – struggling through resumes looking for that shiny diamond. How often have you been disappointed by someone who had all the right credentials on paper, but fell flat on the job?

After all, resumes are an exercise in creative writing – crafted, re-drafted, updated by friends, built from templates, word-smithed and maybe even ‘embellished’ just a tad. Resumes are over-processed and stretched into an 8.5”x11” shiny but distorted image of the candidate.

Statistics show that only 1 in 5 hires is considered successful by both employer and employee. That’s an 80% failure rate – completely unacceptable in any aspect of business, including HR.

If you are asking yourself how this is possible, it’s because resumes should not be the primary driver for hiring decisions. The polished 8.5”x11” may outline education and experience (both of which are important), but completely miss the mark on shining a light on what is essential to success in a job.

Skeptical? The very smart people at Harvard Business Review found that prior experience doesn’t predict a new hire’s success, and found no significant correlation between the two. Looking back at what someone has done, doesn’t predict the future.

“Is it realistic to think that HR departments and hiring managers will stop screening for experience?
You can understand why so many organizations do it: Experience is easy to assess. Have you worked in sales for three years? Have you managed people before? It’s either a yes or a no. Past performance and existing knowledge and skills [including qualifications and licenses] are more difficult to figure out, especially if all you have is an application or a résumé. But today, when everyone is complaining about the skills shortage and the war for talent, companies can’t afford to knock out candidates who would do really well but don’t have the experience that someone has chosen to put in the job description. You want to expand the pool of people you’re considering.” – Harvard Business Review

The talent acquisition space is very tough these days. You need every advantage you can get to attract and deliver quality applicants to fill all your vacant positions. Understanding if a person will fit with the company, role, manager, and culture is far more predictive of success, but those soft skills don’t shine through on a résumé.

It’s no surprise that those responsible for hiring are increasingly relying on technology. Fit First® uses patented psychometric technologies and predictive human analytics to uncover those hidden skills, unlock potential and expand the pools of talent available to you.

Let us help you measure what matters and find your next great hire.

TIM BRENNAN

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

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Cultivating Supplier Partnerships

Independent SightLines, Practice, Products | Services | Industry News

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By Dr. Trevor Miranda. 

Dr. Miranda contributes his thoughts and perspectives on the topic of Independent Eye Care Practice in Eye Care Business Canada. Check out all of Dr. Miranda’s articles in Independent Insights category.

“Sales ‘ representatives or Territory Managers can be an essential part of a well run optometric practice. Sales reps as we call them often have a wealth of industry knowledge and product knowledge and also have an ear to the ground on industry trends. Furthermore, the reps know what is working in successful clinics, have insights into competitor strategies and have a myriad of connections to staff and doctors who may one day be candidates to join your growing clinic! Investing time to discuss opportunities with your suppliers is a vital part of a successful independent practice.

Delegation or Abdication?
I hear many “successful” practice owners that say they have delegated meeting with reps to key staff members. While I do believe in empowering staff to meet sales reps and cultivate relationships and business discussions, I also think there should be significant oversight and accountability. Further, owners should consider at least an annual meeting to establish
objectives, establish marketing initiatives and create a reporting mechanism to brief practice owners when staff members are meeting with the sales reps. In many cases, the staff have too much power with very little guidance and controls in place. One of the most glaring examples is frame buying where staff buy frames they “feel” will sell well and look great without any budgets or gross margin return on investment measurements (GMROI). Meeting with reps informs owners of promotions and prizes available. We tap all these rewards centrally and disperse them to the team. Don’t allow the dysfunctional practice of one team member benefiting over the team by selfishly hoarding prizes and bonuses for themselves.

Maximizing the Relationship
Having a policy where the owners and leaders of the optometric practice invest time to meet with current or potential future supplier representatives is crucial to evolving your clinic into a better entity. Is there a new piece of equipment that will bring forward a new revenue stream? Is a “bonus” available to inventory contact lenses and achieve a lower cost of goods? Can you
partner more deeply with a supplier to reduce shipping costs? Perhaps reducing the number of suppliers to maximize these opportunities make sense, but remember to meet with other non-partner suppliers to see if changes would make sense and lead to more profitability and/or better patient outcomes.

Reps are People Too
I find it very bothersome when doctors feel they are much more important than a sales rep. These doctors tend to blow off reps, not keep to preappointed meeting times and tend to view reps as nothing more than an annoyance. I call this “doctoritis”. Doctoritis, by my definition, is when the doctor has been afflicted by the notion that their time is more important than someone else’s time (this includes your patient’s and rep’s time). Be humble my friends and sit down..with everyone. Your reps can also be a feedback mechanism to the higher up decision makers. In my practice, I wanted support for contact lens subscription services and my reps helped to make that wish a reality. Complaints such as vendors creating “flash” sales online while not informing their retail partners get fed back to decision makers that OD owners will not sit quietly and allow
such unfair retail tactics.

Be the first choice
Guess what?! Reps and suppliers have their favourites and their not-so-favourite customers. They know which of us are a pain to deal with and which of us they would rather allocate more discretionary marketing dollars to. They know which clinics they would like to go to as patients and which clinics they would recommend other staff to choose if they are not really happy with
their current job position. You have the opportunity to make a great impression in every interaction. Don’t miss this opportunity with each rep every time. Create a culture that welcomes reps to the clinic and not as an annoyance. Respect their time! Many sales reps have to pay their own costs and it is expensive to visit your clinic. Invest the time yourself or with a delegated well-informed staff member to maximize this opportunity. They are not “throw-away interactions”. While they want to make sales, there is no excuse to be rude, disrespectful of their time or indifferent to their products. Use the time to educate yourself; learn about their product or ask the rep how they could improve your clinic. What do they suggest? The reps enter so many practices and chat with so many clinicians. Take the opportunity to have your blind spots exposed. Consider asking them to secret shop or look at your website and suggest improvements. Book lunch and learn training events or other training pieces that many territory managers are armed with. Most reps are armed with practice-specific programs they can deploy to grow their territory.

Ask your rep if there is something they set up that is of mutual benefit. Our sales reps are a trusted source of information, feedback and inspiration; remember to utilize this resource and help grow your practice!

 

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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Resolutions and Buckets to Do (and Save)

Building Wealth, Finance|Wealth, Tax & Legal Matters

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New Year resolutions

A New Year – a time to make resolutions, be optimistic, and crash! We all start the year with great intentions, but before the end of January, most of us have fallen back to our old habits.

Moving Forward

In order to get anywhere, we have to keep moving forward, even when we have a few set backs. Moving forward gets us to where we want to go, it helps us grow, and it makes life fulfilling.

Setting Goals

As a Certified Financial Planner® I start my client’s journey by diving into what is truly important to them. To be a fiduciary, I must ensure that your goals guide our decisions (it’s not about telling you what to do based on sales targets, product pushes or my own income). Clarity is truly understanding you and is vital to ensuring your forward progress. Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t redirect as new curves in the road present themselves.

Investment Policy Statement

An Investment Policy Statement (IPS) is developed to ensure that recommendations align, not only with your goals, but also with your investment confidence and experience levels, your ability to manage risk, and your anticipated timelines. An IPS is a guidepost that should also highlight your social and moral beliefs when it comes to the alignment of the products that build your portfolio.

Data Collection

Once we truly understand who you are and what is important to you, we need to have a clear picture of where you are today. I like to think of this as the “start of the year organization of all your important documents.”

What assets and liabilities do you have? What terms and rates are you carrying on your debts? What types of investment accounts do you have? What investment holdings are in your portfolio? How does your business integrate with your personal finances? Understanding where you are currently is the basis of creating Confidence to where you are going.

Taxation

Taxes are your greatest expense – not only today, but also in retirement. Taxes appear in your business, affect your income, and impact nearly every purchase you make. It’s essential that there is a clear understanding of how taxes work today and a realization that no one truly knows what taxation will be like in the future.

Buckets?

We often use the bucket analogy to illustrate how we save. Remember taxes? Different type of accounts are taxed differently (Should I Invest in a RRSP or a TFSA). And because we don’t know the future tax implications on our withdrawals, we want to ensure that we build in options (different buckets of money) to help manage our tax rates now and in retirement.

Investment Buckets for Taxation

The Canadian Tax system is complicated! (Marginal vs Average Tax Rate). We have RRSP accounts that we deposit pre-tax money into and pay tax when we withdraw. This is a great option to manage taxes today and help boast the benefits of compounding. Because it can create a tax problem in retirement, we want to balance our savings.

We contribution to a TFSA account with after-tax money, but all growth and withdrawals are tax free.

We purchase a home, which on sale, is currently eligible for the principal residence exemption, so any increase in the value of that asset is tax free.

Commercial and recreational real estate is subject to capital gains tax, the inclusion rate is currently 50% as taxable income.

Your professional corporation often qualifies for the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption, which is expected to increase to $1,000,000 of tax free capital gain.

Then we have insurance products – for a brief on that, follow the link.

You get the idea – lots of buckets!

Buckets for Withdrawal?

And then we also have buckets based on asset allocation. Business ownership, including stocks, and fixed income, including bonds, are structured to help ensure that you don’t have to sell those critical businesses when market values are down AND you can maintain your lifestyle knowing that you have the cash and fixed income buckets to draw from while you wait for the markets to recover allowing your business bucket to overflow and refill the cash and security buckets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flexibility

Having different investment buckets from which you can draw from in retirement will be critical to allow you to live the life you dream of and help manage your future taxation. Understanding the sweet spot of where your taxes are today in balance for tomorrow (based on our current tax regime) will help you make smart financial decisions

Staying on Track

Just like with New Year Resolutions, falling off track is easy. It’s a lot easier to stay on program when you have a coach in your corner. Someone who understands you, your occupation, and the financial world will ultimately put you on the path to Controlling your buckets, your future, your dreams!

Advisory

As your Chief Financial Officer, I am here to help you set up all the buckets that will provide you with the flexibility you’ll need. 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.

Roxanne splits EWO podcast hosting duties with Dr. Glen Chiasson.

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Episode 31: An Optical Executive Insider Reveals Tips to get a Great Lease

Eyes Wide Open, Finance|Wealth, Podcasts, Real Estate

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Tom Bollum, a seasoned optical industry executive shares valuable insights on practice real estate in a conversation with EyesWideOpen host, Roxanne Arnal. They discuss the importance of location and how a change of location could impact the practice. Must read lease negotiation tips are provided!

Tom Bollum

About the Guest

Tom Bollum combines a unique skill set:  Commercial real estate expertise with extensive C-suite experience in the optical world.

Tom successfully founded and built several optical retail businesses and was awarded the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year award for this work.

He always enjoyed the “real estate” aspect of his optical career and made the leap in 2008 to become a licensed real estate Broker focusing on the marketing and sales of residential and retail development properties, as well as tenant representation.

Episode Notes

Tom provides an overview of his “optical world” history which included executive positions with some of the largest players in the Canadian Optical market including NewLook and Greiche and Scaff (Montreal).

He became quite familiar with the high-volume optometric practices with strong retail sales. Tom explains how and why he moved into the real estate business in 2008.

He delves into the importance of location when it comes to retail eye care, explaining why location is still a critically important decision for any practice and what patient retention a practice can expect from a move in physical location.

His objective view of the impact of moving a practice is advise worth heeding for any practice considering it.

He and host Roxanne Arnal each share their experiences with real estate ownership while Tom opines on the value of owning your own premises.

Finally, Tom has some great “insider tips” for practice owners negotiating a new lease. He reveals some of the hidden leverage points that eye care practice owners have and offers specific tips on getting the best deal.

Resources

Click the play button at top of page to listen.

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.

Roxanne splits EWO podcast hosting duties with Dr. Glen Chiasson.

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EyeCareBusiness Canada Announces Sponsorship of CAOS

NextGenOD, Perspectives, Practice, Products | Services | Industry News

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Eye Care Business Canada Sponsors CAOS

Eyecare Business Canada and NextGen OD are pleased to announce their 2023 Sponsorship to the Canadian Association of Optometry Students (CAOS).

NextGen OD is a digital resource specifically for recent Canadian Optometry grads and Optometry students studying in Canada and in the USA. The site provides resources for Optometry Students and recent OD graduates, including information on career options in all facets of optometric practice.

As students enter their final academic years, progress through internships and externships, and possibly residency and fellowships, a host of options and opportunities lay ahead.  NextGen OD provides insights from students making these choices as well the paths of recent grads who are dealing with these important decisions.

The NextGen OD eco-system consists of a website (www.NextGenOD.ca), Facebook page, Instagram, and a Linked In Showcase Page.

APERTURE Magazine Contest Sponsorship and More
A unique aspect of NextGen OD’s sponsorship is to reward winning contributions to CAOS’ online magazine, APERTURE.

Student winners of the APERTURE writing contest will be recognized by publishing the winning entries in Optik Magazine in 2023, reaching over 10,000 Canadian eye care professionals.  Additionally $500 of prizes will be provided by the publisher to the winning entrants.

“As a broad spectrum B2B publisher in the eyecare space, identifying the next generation of leading peer influencers is an excellent opportunity to acknowledge the talent that lies within the student cohort and bring their fresh perspectives to the industry at large.” said David Pietrobon, president of VuePoint IDS, which publishes both Eye Care Business Canada and NextGen OD, Optik Magazine and CRO (Clinical & Refractive Optometry) Journal.

In addition to the APERTURE Magazine contest sponsorship, NextGen OD is planning webinars bringing together Canadian students from across North America with various subject matter experts. Plans are also underway to provide peer-reviewed clinical pearls to both students preparing for Board Examinations and recent graduates that require continuing education credits. These will be provided through CRO (Clinical & Refractive Optometry) Journal and CRO Online CE, a division of VuePoint IDS Inc.

.About VuePoint IDS
VuePoint IDS Inc. is a private 100% Canadian-owned media and marketing services company focused on serving the information needs of the eyewear and eye care industry’s professional service providers including optometrists, opticians and affiliated personnel. VuePoint publishes print and digital titles for eye care professionals under the media brands Optik, (CRO) Clinical & Refractive Optometry, Eye Care Business Canada/NextGen OD and co-publishes IMAGINEM Magazine, a multi-lingual global eyewear fashion publication published in 5 languages.

VuePoint also offers services to eye care professionals, including accredited continuing education program development and delivery for Optometry through CRO Online (www.crojournal.com)  and for Opticians through OptikConEd (www.optikconed.com).

About  Canadian Association of Optometry Students (CAOS)
CAOS represents Canadian Students enrolled in optometry faculties across North America. CAOS has two chapters in Canada, University of Waterloo and Université de Montréal. There are currently nine chapters in US-based optometry schools. CAOS provides optometry students with a unified voice and advocates on behalf of students in shaping the future of optometry in Canada.

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Contact Lens Pricing Strategies for Today’s Consumer

Independent SightLines, Practice, Products | Services | Industry News

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Contact Lens pricing

By Dr. Trevor Miranda. 

Dr. Miranda contributes his thoughts and perspectives on the topic of Independent Eye Care Practice in Eye Care Business Canada. Check out all of Dr. Miranda’s articles in Independent Insights category.

The modern consumer is egocentric. By that, I mean that they generally make purchases based on what is best for them, not what is best for the retailer.

A wise Optical Owner once told me that I wasn’t magic! How dare he dash my dreams of one day becoming a magician?! “You can’t make people buy from you.” He continued, “people will buy if they think it’s in their best interest to buy from you, so go ahead and take your shot by making your pitch.”

The Current Reality

 Today’s contact lens consumer is bombarded with online offers to purchase contact lenses directly. Clearly Contacts and other online retailers invest heavily to attract your contact lens patient into their online channel. At Kits, the online retailer’s fastest growing retail segment is a contact lens subscription that is taking your patient out of your purchasing channel for an average of 10 years (extrapolated based on European stats). Canadian studies have shown that a contact lens patient makes 2.9 purchases per year. Is this consumer using their friendly neighbourhood ECP, a convenient Big Box store, or online retailer to fulfill these purchases? Another industry statistic shows that less than 25% of patients in an optometrist office purchase annual supplies of contact lenses and the redemption rate of massive consumer rebates is less than 50%.

Contact Lens Pricing Strategies:

The Annual Supply: Many contact lens companies offer rebates and train our teams to recommend annual supplies of contact lenses. This allows the consumer to tap into “the lowest price after rebate.” There are quite a few flaws in this strategy:

  1. Most patients do not require or want to buy an annual supply of contacts.
  2. Rebates are a hassle factor and are not universally redeemed. The sticker price is artificially high and can be a shock and disincentive to purchase, rebates also require the patient to do some math to figure out if it is a “good deal” or not.
  3. Many Optometrists are compensated on a percentage of gross sales basis. The inflated price is overly expensive to the clinic owners, as that initial higher dollar amount paid potentially reduces overall profitability to the clinic.
  4. The rebates change, often quarterly, and the office staff needs to constantly update price quote sheets to keep up to date pricing.
  5. Pricing is often tiered so smaller purchase increments are not competitively priced

Per Box Pricing: The easiest way for a consumer to understand and compare pricing is on a per box basis. It is challenging for ECPs to flat price per box because of better incentives to sell larger amounts resulting in better pricing to the owners and thus better profit margins. There are, however, ways to implement this strategy in a way that is staff and consumer friendly:

  1. Negotiate with your Contact Lens Manufacturers for instant rebates or no rebates with better wholesale pricing on the lenses.
  2. Consider a small contact lens inventory where you buy “smartly” in increments that give you the best pricing and thus enabling flat per box pricing without reducing your margins.

Subscription: Studies have shown that many Canadians view contact lenses as an unaffordable luxury purchase. The sticker price keeps them from taking the plunge into full time contact lens wear. The world has moved to subscription: Services such as Netflix, gym memberships, wine clubs and, I have even heard of subscription toilet paper, are now the norm and accepted by the modern-day consumer. This allows contacts lens purchases to be considerd as “sunk costs” thus making available money to purchase other items such as sunglasses or mulitple pairs of glasses. Here are some advantages of subscription contact lenses:

  1. Affordable consistent monthly payments that reduce sticker shock
  2. The ability to consolidate a receipt to tap into insurance coverage
  3. Auto-preparation for rebate submissions.
  4. “Stickiness factor” – On average a patient stays on contact lens subscriptions for 9.9 years in Europe.

Web Stores: The pandemic drove many ECPs to develop an e-commerce strategy. While allowing the convenience of shopping at your clinic/store 24/7 is great, it has also led to some unintended consequences for some offices. Here are some e-commerce tips:

  1. Your online store offering should mirror your in-office offering. If you offer a sale online ensure you promote it in store.
  2. Inform your current patients of this convenience. Unless you spend money to elevate your search ranking, the bigger online players will  appear first.. You might be unwittingly pushing your patient to be crawled by bots on the internet and potentially taken out of your channels by Clearly and other online players.
  3. Make it easy to navigate and order online.
  4. Offer direct to patient delivery. Many manufacturers are still offering free delivery.

The Secret Sauce:

Keys to Successful Contact lens Sales:

 The doctors and ECPs need to approve the wearing of fitted contact lenses. Let the patient know that you have great pricing on contact lenses before the hand off to the optician or dispenser. A confident word from the doctor that buying from your practice really goes a long way and is in the best interest of the patient.

  1. Ensure that per box pricing is competitive. Be aware that patients will Google the brand and immediately compare pricing  from online retailers.
  2. Consider fitting brands that are ECP exclusive or “channel protected”
  3. Partner with manufacturers that give you the best margins while also making future purchases from your office more likely.
  4. Everyone approved for contact lenses should leave with a contact lens quote even if they are determined to buy from another source. The quote should include a per box price and a per month subscription price.

Good luck prescribing contact lenses and retaining your patients!

 

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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The War for Talent is Winnable

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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It is more important than ever to win the war for talent

The press lately is flooded with coverage of the talent shortage and hiring crisis, and it’s an ugly picture for any organization that runs on people. Until the robots rise up and free us all up to do higher value work, we still need a workforce to keep the wheels turning (literally).

All executives are abundantly aware of this crisis, but few truly know what to do about it.

Traditional recruitment approaches are dead. Truth is, they have been dead (ineffective, damaging, costly) for a long time, it’s just in our face more than ever before. Attracting qualified applicants requires a more strategic approach. You can weather the storm and win the war for talent – you just need to act differently than your competition.

The secret to hiring (and retaining) great employees is not what most people think it is.

Good hiring does not start with screening pools of resumes. Period.

If you (or worse, an AI in your Applicant Tracking System) are relying on the resume as the ‘admission ticket’ to decide who you’ll look at and who you’ll ignore, you’re missing out. Credentials, education, and experience may be non-negotiable qualifiers for a small handful of your open positions, but they are not reliable predictors of how an employee will perform for you or how long they will stay. The degree to which an employee is engaged in their job determines how long they will stay, how productive they will be, how happy your customers will be, and how much money they will make you.

So, how do you go about finding people who are going to be engageable? Well, you can’t mandate it or even ask for it. Engagement itself is the outcome of fit, and the best predictor of how engaged a person will be is fit across four different levels.

Fit between employee and their direct manager
This is self-evident and well documented, but most organizations pay little or no attention to getting it right, opting instead to throw people together and hope they jive.

Fit in their role
How much of an employees’ time will be spent drawing from their strengths, performing tasks that interest them and for which they have a natural affinity?

Fit with their coworkers, internal or external customers, and others
Will the employee enjoy interactions with key people, or will they find them stressful?

Fit with the company’s culture, values, and mission
Does the employee feel they are contributing to something worthwhile, and that they are in a place that’s right for them?

Here’s the real secret – if you don’t place a premium on (and invest resources in) getting the fit right, and if managers aren’t focused on using the tools at their disposal to build and nurture productive relationships with and between each of their people, you’ll never achieve and sustain the levels of engagement that are required to achieve your turnover, productivity, satisfaction, and financial targets.

Hire right, right from the start.

This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

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

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