It would be a mistake to treat contact lenses as a low-priced, low-margin commodity, that yields less profit per wearer than spectacles. This misconception can lead to optometrists to fit contacts only when patients request them. The result is a missed opportunity. Contact lens practice, like any business, requires a

One way of handling the appointment book is to appease every wish and just offer the next slot available. Here is an example: Tring Tring - “Sparkle Optometrists - Sally speaking” Px; “I would like to have my eyes tested.” Sally; “ We are not busy, what time would you like to come in

I have never favoured staff incentives. To me, it doesn’t make sense to pay a worker an incentive to do a job he or she was employed to do in the first place. The idea behind paying incentives can only be to motivate people to increase turnover by selling more

One of the menacing dangers faced by a solo practitioner is to  become void of objectivity and over-whelmed by subjectivity, as time marches on. Put simply, the incumbent thinks everything is fine in the practice in terms of mode of practice and appearance, except it’s not in the eyes of

Pre-amble Why would one want to plan the year ahead as an optometrist? It provides a target to aim at, which acts as inspiration to the whole team to grow the business year on year. Inflation is a constant threat to everybody’s buying power, employer and employee alike. Effectively, we will all

All too often, when I broach the subject of retiring with some of my contemporaries, the standard answer is: “I’m not ready to retire”. That may be so, but one must realise, that planning an exit that will be to your full advantage, will take time and even demand sacrifices