Page 47 – Eye Care Business Canada

Webinar: Should I Stay or Should i Go? Exit Strategy Considerations for ODs

On Monday June 4th 2018 Canadian Eye Care Business Review hosted a panel discussion entitled: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Exit Strategy Considerations.

Drs. Jeff and Tina Goodhew, independent practitioners from Oakville, Ontario, guide the discussion an expert panel of Canadian Optometric opinion leaders actively involved in optometric practice transactions. Panelists included:

Dr. Daryan Angle – VP Business Development IRIS (Part of the NewLook Vision Group)
Dr. Paul Gray – Director and President of the Member Relations Committee, Optometric Services Inc.
Jackie Joachim, Chief Operating Officer, ROI Corporation
Grant Larsen, CEO, Eye Recommend
Dr. Al Ulsifer, CEO & President, FYi doctors

The webinar provide a comprehensive discussion of factors that indpendent optometric practice owners ought to consider as they approach the important decisions around exiting their practice. Topics covered include planning, use of a business broker, importance of assembling a trusted team of advisors, various valuation methods and the roller-coaster psychological aspects of a sale transaction.

The countries two leading practice aggregators,IRIS and FYi doctors, provided the benefit of their perspectives as did the two leading independent OD networks, Optometric Services Inc. and EyeRecommend.

The webinar is packed with solid practical tips and information: essential for any practice owner that has selling their practice even remotely on the horizon.

You may watch the video slide show and audio above, or listen to the audio only from the links below.

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Luxury Eyewear Retailer Oliver Peoples to Enter Canada with Multiple Stores

Practice, Products | Services | Industry News

American luxury eyewear retailer Oliver Peoples will enter the Canadian market this year with its first standalone stores. The popular upscale brand has stores in some of the world’s leading luxury shopping destinations, as it positions itself as a premium retailer for those who can afford its pricey offerings.

The brand’s choice for its first two Canadian stores is keeping in line with its premium real estate selection, choosing to locate its first Toronto store at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in a 700 square foot space near luxury brands such as Montblanc, Piaget and Van Cleef & Arpels. A Vancouver location will also open on Alberni Street in the heart of the city’s burgeoning ‘Luxury Zone’ — both locations will open this fall, according to the company.

Oliver Peoples is the latest international eyewear retailer to enter the Canadian market. Over the past 24 months, Canada has seen more international eyewear retailers enter the country than at any time in our history. Other popular names include Warby Parker, Illesteva, SEE, Bailey Nelson, Ollie Quinn, Mujosh, Optical Center, and Acuitis — all of these have recently opened their first locations in Canada, and they’re now in expansion mode.

Los Angeles-based Oliver Peoples was founded in 1987 with a boutique in West Hollywood, and it is now sold in its own boutiques as well as in upscale multi-brand retailers that carry eyewear. Its designers are in Los Angeles and frames are manufactured in Italy and Japan. Oliver Peoples was acquired by eyewear conglomerate Luxotticain 2007.

Frames are “anti-logo” which the company says “appeals to refined consumers”. Prices can be well into the hundreds, which differentiates Oliver Peoples from brands such as Warby Parker, SEE, Bailey Nelson and other recent entrants that offer more in the way of value pricing. Oliver Peoples’ frames are known to be worn by celebrities and the brand has an impressive following on social media.

Oliver Peoples appears to pick premium locations for its stores and in some instances, it’s very clear that the brand is going after a wealthy shopper. In Houston, Texas, for example, the retailer has a store at the prestigious River Oaks District — one might otherwise expect the store to be at the busy nearby Houston Galleria (which also has plenty of luxury stores). In Chicago, Oliver Peoples is located amongst luxury stores on Rush Street just south of Oak Street and the retailer has opened stores on premium streets such as Sloane Street in London, Ortega y Gasset in Madrid, Grant Avenue in San Francisco and Madison Avenue in New York City. Premium mall locations include top names such as South Coast Plaza in Orange County, King of Prussia near Philadelphia, Westfield Valley Fairin Santa Clara California, and others. Oliver Peoples has over 30 stores internationally, according to its website.

Next month, Oliver Peoples will open a location in one of the top malls in the United States — NorthPark Center in Dallas, which is known for its white brick interior as well as a roster of luxury brands that includes the top-selling location for Neiman Marcus.

CRAIG PATTERSON

is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider. He’s also a retail and real estate consultant, retail tour guide and public speaker.

Follow him on Twitter @RetailInsider_, LinkedIn at Craig Patterson, or email him at: craig@retail-insider.com.

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Should I Develop a Specialty Within Optometry?

Differentiation | Business Strategy, Practice, Resources, Specialty Practice

Many optometrists have found success offering a specialized service such as vision therapy, sports vision, or care for low-vision patients. What are the benefits, and challenges, to creating specific niches within optometry?

The primary question every business must answer is: Why should a customer (patient) do business with you rather than your competition down the street? Most of the time the answer is that you have better service or a better product.

In the eyecare business, where the majority of us are all selling the same products (i.e.: glasses, contact lenses, healthcare treatment) from the same companies, is it enough to focus on service to give the answer to the primary question? Having excellent service is essential, but we think that creating a niche for your practice gives you a step up on the competition.

Click the image above to read “How One OD Maintains a Profitable Sports Vision Specialty.”

A common mistake that many small businesses make is trying to be the best at everything. It is next to impossible to be able to achieve that business goal. Your chances for success drop dramatically if you are just trying to be the same as every other practice in town. That makes a fundamental key to success being choosing a niche that your competition has overlooked.

When you choose a niche it makes it easier for you to answer the primary question to your potential patients, and, at the same time, it gives them the answer that they can tell their family and friends why they chose you out of the sea of eyecare practices available to them.

Since the majority of practices focus on healthy eyes with 20/20 vision, we chose to carve out our niche as: There is more to vision than 20/20 acuity. We started by offering specialized services that fall under the umbrella of vision therapy. Our original target audience was children. We believed, and it proved to be true, that if we were able to get the children into the practice, then we would be able to attract everyone around the children – immediate family, extended family and friends.

Word of mouth is still the number one way that most practices find new patients – current patients telling potential patients not only where to go for care, but why. And that takes us back to answering the primary question – why should someone choose you rather than the competition down the street?

In the article “5 Steps to Carving Out a Niche Business,” Step 3 is to put your specialty to the test using the SPAN method. The SPAN method is:

Subtopics – Does your niche require an expert?

Pain – Does your niche help people in pain? (Let’s define “pain” as a “need” that merits attention.)

Attainable – Can you actually provide the solution to the pain?

Numbers – Is the market big enough to matter?

Once you’ve defined your niche, then you must price your services and products. If you are an expert, then you should charge appropriately. A common mistake is to think that if you price your services and products the lowest possible, then you will be attractive to more people. Let’s be honest here, if you have heart problems, are you really looking for the lowest-priced cardiologist? If you want to go skydiving, are you really looking for the lowest-priced parachute packer?

Once you’ve established your pricing, then next steps become:

1) Creating systems in the practice to deliver care with quality and consistency.

2) Hiring and training doctors and staff to work the systems.

3) Putting in place quality-control mechanisms.

4) Marketing to let your local area know about your niche.

Creating a niche practice is the key to success in today’s crowded eyecare marketplace.

References
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240812

MARK WRIGHT, OD, FCOVD

Dr. Wright is the founding partner of a nine-partner, three-location full-scope optometric practice. As CEO of Pathways to Success, an internet-based practice management firm, he works with practices of all sizes. He is faculty coordinator for Ohio State’s leading practice management program.

CAROLE BURNS, OD, FCOVD

Dr. Burns is the senior partner of a nine-doctor full-scope optometric practice that she built with her husband, Dr. Wright. She is also the COO of a state-wide nursing care optometry practice. Dr. Burns lectures nationally on practice management and staffing issues. Dr. Burns authored the Specialty Practice section of the textbook, Business Aspects of Optometry.

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How to Measure Staff Productivity

Finance|Wealth, Human Resources, Practice Metrics & Benchmarks, Resources

We met with an industry expert recently and something he said struck us: “No one ever regrets hiring too soon. In fact, employers never hire soon enough!” We often hear concern from our clients that the employees that they have now aren’t working enough, and they resent the idea that they have to hire another employee to increase productivity in the office.

“Productivity” in industry is defined as the effectiveness of effort measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input. The metric we use to measure staff productivity is Revenue per Staff Hour. Basically, we are evaluating how much gross revenue is generated for every hour of staff time that is logged. For every staff hour paid, a healthy range is between $110-$130. If the staff is not generating this, it is an indicator that either the office is over-staffed, or that the staff is unproductive. If the office is generating more than this, it is an indicator that the staff is over-worked and in order to increase productivity, it is time to hire more team members.

We also want to evaluate the productivity of each department in an office to ascertain where the gap is. For instance, the office may be well staffed on front desk but short staffed in the dispensary.

In a primary care office that offers optical services, the optical should be generating 30 sales per month per staff member working in this department. If you have a part-time member, use 15 jobs as the guideline. Ultimately, the idea is to gather information that will help you make decisions to increase productivity. If 1 ½ staff are generating 50 or more sales in a month, it is time to consider moving up to two full time staff in this department. If two full-time staff are only generating 50 jobs per month, you may want to evaluate their individual performances and offer coaching and tools to help strengthen their sales skills.

Productivity of the pretesting staff can be evaluated by looking at the percentage of patients visiting for a full exam that have additional diagnostics taken. When 60% of full visit patients are opting for diagnostic testing, there needs to be a staff member dedicated to each doctor with this result.

There are a number of indicators of front desk productivity. If this role is being done well, the no-show rate should be less than 2%. Further, every doctor in the practice should be averaging a similar number of new patients.

Lastly, as a rule, happy and appreciated staff are generally more productive. It is worth the time and effort invested in team building activities, continuing education opportunities and staff incentives. To prove it, measure the productivity before and after implementing any of these activities and you will see a marked difference in productivity.

KELLY HRYCUSKO

is the co-founder and managing partner of Simple Innovative Management Ideas (SIMI) Inc. and expert Practice Management contributor for Optik magazine. She can be reached at info@simiinc.com.

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How One OD Maintains a Profitable Sports Vision Specialty

Differentiation | Business Strategy, Practice, Products | Services | Industry News, Resources

Patients have diverse lives that go from board room to beach–and sports eyewear should be part of the mix in serving those varied needs.

With knowledge building of the importance to protect eyes, and increase comfort both indoors and outdoors, sports eyewear offers practices an exciting opportunity. You have a chance to not only protect patients’ eyes, but increase their enjoyment, and their performance, of their favorite activities. My practice has made sports vision a niche that includes the rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury patients, sports vision therapy and sales of sports eyewear.

Sport sunwear in Dr. Shidlofsky’s office. He says it’s well worth both prescribing, and selling, sport sunwear in your own office.

I work with three professional sports teams: The Allen Americans (ECHL), The Texas Legends (NBA D-league) and FC Dallas (MLS).

We generate about $50,000 annually just from sports vision therapy. In addition to professional and everyday athletes, I often find sports vision opportunities when I do my back-to-school examinations, and the patient plays competitive sports. I always do a King-Devick test baseline, and educate the parents that if the child sustains a head impact with symptoms, to bring them by the office the next day to determine if they may have had a concussion.

I also generate revenues by prescribing and selling contact lenses to patients whose sports activities make glasses sub-optimal. This includes basketball and football, players, where glasses could easily get smashed into their eyes and face.

Depending on the type of sports vision therapy required, I see patients 15-25 times in total.

We sell sports eyewear from Rec Specs, Nike, Adidas, Oakley and Maui Jim. Revenues from sales of these products amounts to $50,000-$60,000 per year .

Invest in Instruments for Sports Vision Therapy
We use the Senaptec Sensory Station, as well as the Senaptec Strobe. We also use FitLights and RightEye. We are in the process of adding Binovi by Eyecarrot for home, and on-field, training. These tools range from $15,000-$30,000. We use most of these instruments, not only on our sports vision patients, but on our traumatic brain injury patients and developmental vision patients, so with the shared value, recouping the investment took us less than a year.

Begin Young with Sports Vision Patients
Teenagers are my most frequent sports vision patients, as parents are already investing heavily in athletic training specific to their sports, supplements, and other elements, to give them the best opportunity to succeed. However, minor league and college athletes are also great patients as they want to get to the next level—and certainly great vision and great vision skills gives them the edge.

Market Your Services
We publicize sports vision on our practice web site, and our practice is sometimes advertised, with a link, on the web sites of the sports teams we have relationships with.

A practice that has not yet established relationships with sports teams can advertise sports vision services on social media, like the practice’s Facebook page, and through e-blasts to patients showcasing new sports eyewear, along with information about the sports vision therapy they provide.

Develop Referral Relationships
I work closely with neuro-psychologists, who monitor concussion treatment for my patients who have experienced a traumatic brain injury. I also work with the athletic trainers on the teams we have relationships with, and I coordinate my work with team physicians. In addition, I work closely with functional neurologists (chiropractors) for several of the teams. Once I prove my value to the medical team and trainers—which sometimes takes time—the referrals to my practice then flow much more easily.

CHARLES SHIDLOFSKY, OD, FCOVD

is the owner of Neuro-Vision Associates of North Texasin Plano, Texas. To contact him: dr-s@dr-s.net

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Should I Stay or Should I Go? Live Webinar on Exit Strategies for ODs

Webinar

Join Drs. Jeff and Tina Goodhew, Co-Editors in Chief of Canadian Eye Care Business Review, as they host a live webinar on practice exit strategies for Optometrists. They will be joined by five panelists:

Daryan Angle, OD (IRIS The Visual Group)
Paul Gray, OD (Optometric Services Inc.)
Grant Larsen (Eye Recommend)
Al Ulsifer, OD (Fyi doctors)
Jackie Joachim COO (ROI Corp)

Like many optometrists, your practice is your most valuable asset, representing a significant portion of your retirement savings. Once you decide to sell your practice what do you do next?

This webinar will cover the key things you need to consider when selling your practice, including:

Planning in advance
Determining the value of your practice
Finding a buyer
Structuring the Sale
Tax planning

The webinar will be held JUNE 4^th, 8 PM EDT.

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How Will Artificial Intelligence Change Your Practice?

Differentiation | Business Strategy, Practice, Technology

Artificial intelligence has a long way to go to become a fixture in healthcare, but there already are hints of what’s to come.

Harvard Business Review has summarized recent findings. “Consider three issues that get a lot of attention: the use of medical records, the “human touch” in medical care, and the future of jobs in the industry. On balance, are people more glass half-full or half-empty? Our research points to an optimism that may surprise expert observers,” H. James Wilson and Paul Daugherty write in HBR.

The Use Of Medical Information
Patients want their healthcare data protected – and we are required by HIPAA law to do that – but patients will voluntarily share their medical data when it’s in their best interest to do so. Consider the data produced by wearable devices as more people are utilizing wearable healthcare devices.

A recent Accenture survey gave these results showing people are willing to share their medical data with healthcare providers or even health insurers.

• Eighty-eight percent of people are willing to share data from their wearables with either their doctor, nurse, or other health care professional.

• Seventy-two percent are willing to share their data with health insurers.

• Only 38 percent are willing to share their data with employers.

It’s estimated that more than 75 million Americans would use an activity tracker by the year 2021. As we see an increase in wearable devices capable of transmitting medical data we need to consider how we can utilize this information in our patient management protocols. This is important because even though the use of wearables has more than doubled in the U.S. in the last two years, it’s estimated that only 15 percent of doctors say they’ve discussed wearables or health applications with patients.

Wearables give the ability to continuously capture data such as heart rate, sleep patterns and glucose levels. This produces vast amounts of data. Contrast this with a single reading taken on a single doctor visit. Comparing the data taken from wearables with readings taken at a doctor’s visit raises the issue of the accuracy of the data. Wearables do not yet have the accuracy of the gold standard measurements taken in the doctors’ office. This will improve over time. AI gives us the tools to sort through the mountain of data and extract pertinent trends.

The “Human Touch” vs AI In Medical Care
Anyone who’s been frustrated by an automated phone tree when calling a tech company for support, knows how much we desire to talk to a human, but research done by Wilson and Daugherty showed that convenience and efficiency often trumps “Human Touch” care. Their survey revealed:

• Seventy-five percent of people said that AI technological advances (including mobile apps, wearable monitoring devices and smart scales) were important to help them manage their health.

• Sixty-six percent of people said they would use AI-based after-hours services.

• Sixty-three percent of people said they would use AI agents to help them navigate the health-care system.

• Fifty percent-plus said they would use AI-based systems to diagnose their symptoms and to receive emergency advice.

Clearly, patients feel there is a place for the use of artificial intelligence when it provides convenience and efficiency.

The Future Of Jobs In The Industry
There are at least three ways that AI will impact our practices.

1) AI has the ability to analyze copious amounts of data. Consider these two uses of AI.

a. The ability of AI to read the patient record in real time and suggest differential diagnoses, as well as suggest additional tests to administer.

b. The ability of AI to analyze the new drug you want to prescribe and evaluate it for incompatibility against all other pharmaceutical agents the patient is taking, all nutraceuticals the patient is consuming, and all supplements the patient is using, plus considering the patient’s history of allergies.

2) AI has the ability to interact with people through novel types of interfaces such as voice, emotion, or gesture recognition. AI can be used to remind patients to take medication. Chatbots can used to triage patients calling into the office. Machine learning tools can used in the diagnosis and treatment of visual problems such as amblyopia, convergence insufficiency and low vision.

3) AI is able to extend people’s capabilities beyond their natural limits. Robot-assisted surgery is a good example of this in the eyecare world. AI can eliminate involuntary tremors while a surgeon utilizing robot-assisted surgery is operating on the retina.

Click HERE to watch a short video that shows the potential power of AI for conditions like autism, Parkinson’s and epilepsy.

AI is already here. The power of human-machine collaborations is amazing. AI is causing us to re-imagine our work processes. We are excited to see what the near future holds for AI and its use in health care.