Today’s Optometrist™ - PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Since this may be my first chance to get to know you, I want to take the opportunity to give you a sense of my own background and the purpose of Vision Practice Management.

I have been building my five successful practices in Columbia, South Carolina, for more than 20 years. Prior to that I started first as an associate, had my own private practice and several other arrangements. Whatever your style of practice is, I’ve probably done it.

During the first 10 years I found myself struggling with challenges I didn’t like - staff issues, marketing failures, turn-over, patient retention, training weakness, financial shortfalls and more. When I began mastering the skills of management, I found that I could successfully overcome these challenges and grow my practice with far less effort than I had imagined. At this stage of my career, while I still see patients when I’m in town, I have built a strong team so that I have not been involved in the day-to-day running of the practice for several years.

This offers me the freedom to see patients when I wish, as I enjoy that. But I can travel, spend time with family and pursue my other goals while enjoying a good income whether I work or not.

I find that a lot of optometrists had this level of freedom in mind when they started, but very few have achieved it, even though they are good-hearted and work hard.

So I’ve teamed up with David Sanders and the other pros at Vision Practice Management to introduce as many of my colleagues as we can to the magic of good management so that they can experience similar gains to mine.

You see, it became crystal clear to me a few years into my career as an optometrist that, like it or not, I was also a businessperson. It was that skill set added to my skills as an optometrist that really produced the money and success. And perhaps like you, I had no training in how to run a business so I was trying to do it by the seat of my pants. I eventually realized that if I really wanted to achieve my goals, I needed to learn to be a very skilled practice manager, and that is what I set out to do.

One can always find ways to justify a belief. If you believe you are going to have slow periods, you’ll have them. People don’t focus, plan and work hard to achieve something that they “know” is impossible. Don’t fall for that one, and achieve more.

That’s when I started searching for management programs in earnest. It took me years to find how to consistently produce happier patients. I learned that however great I did in the exam room, my staff could drive patients away. But efficient, well trained and willing staff members were vital to a prosperous practice. There is a lot to know about how to bring that about that we didn’t learn in optometry school or trial and error.

I have surpassed my aspirations as an optometrist, and now I want to give others the same opportunity. Our purpose at Vision Practice Management is to help you have happy patients and a prosperous practice.

It can be done. Not the least of advantages that I enjoy, and one that I would like you to enjoy, is the ability to be free of my practice when it suits me. Whether this is your goal or not, I encourage you to work in this direction. Imagine being able to have the peace of mind to leave your practice for several weeks at a time and not have to worry about revenue or upset patients. Isn’t that really the test of a well-run practice?

You can find more of my story at www.practice-management.com. You can gain even more insight by listening to the CD of a 15-minute interview I did in July, 2009 “Why Not Learn from My Mistakes.” This CD is my gift to you. You can receive a copy. Just fill out the form on the left side of the screen.