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Strategic planning for optometry practices
By Bethany Fishbein, OD
Nov. 13, 2024
This time of year, many of my conversations with practice owners turn toward planning for the upcoming year.
Many practice owners set goals like “grow 10 percent” – without further discussion of why this matters, or what achieving that goal will do for the business.
True strategic planning isn’t just for large corporations—it’s essential for practices seeking to become more profitable, improve their care to patients and strengthen practice culture.
Whether it’s expanding your specialty services, upgrading technology, or refining patient care, a focused goal and plan helps you and your team identify where to invest your energy and resources in the coming year, and maybe even more importantly, where not to!
Strategic planning can feel like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. When done effectively, it can make the rest of your decision-making easier and more straightforward.
I suggest taking some time away from the office with your managers (many small offices include their entire staff) to step away from working “in” the business, and for a few hours or a full day, focus “on” the business to determine what you want from the year ahead.
Here’s a process I use to transform strategic planning from a lofty ideal into a functional roadmap.
Laying the Groundwork: The Big Picture Questions
The strategic planning journey starts with high-level questions to help identify where your practice stands, where you may have gaps and which directions have the most promise. Even if you’ve done this work before, take the time to revisit the questions to make sure your answers are still meaningful and relevant, and update anything that has changed.
Having these discussions upfront helps keep the big picture front of mind as you set your goals and plan for the year ahead.
- What are your vision, mission and values? These form the backbone of your organizational identity. Any decisions or plans for the upcoming year should reflect these guiding principles.
- What are your key products and services? Reflecting on what to develop, improve, or let go, is essential to keeping your business on the right track.
- Who are your “big pumpkin” customers, and where is your focus? Which type of patients and services are the best investments of your resources? Are there areas to de-emphasize? Eliminate completely?
- What are the SWOTs in front of you? Understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that face your practice can guide your decisions on what to emphasize and what you can safely ignore.
This groundwork sets the stage for the next part of the process—prioritization.
Setting Strategic Priorities: Focus is Key
Without focus, strategic planning can quickly turn into a wish list. Here, the objective is to narrow down the priorities that will guide the organization’s resources and efforts.
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Review (or create) your long-term goals. Where do you want to be in 10 years? Three years?
Then, work backwards. What needs to happen in the next 12 months for you to be on track to reach those longer-term goals? “When we sit here next year, what do we want to be celebrating?” is a good question to ask your team to keep them thinking ahead and focused on opportunities instead of the more negative-minded “what are all the problems we have to fix?”
You will probably come up with a whole laundry list of things you could do. Divide them into categories, combine similar items and remove any that feel less important.
Ideally, you will narrow the list down to 3-4 priorities that will define success for you. Get specific. Instead of something like “more myopia,” decide exactly what “more myopia” means, such as “having 50 patients join our myopia program.”
You can “try on” your goals by asking yourself the question, “How will we feel one year from now if we succeed at these?” and work until you can honestly answer, “Incredible!”
Why limit the number? Having fewer priorities lets you channel your energy toward the things that really matter. It’s better to make significant strides in a few areas than to have many goals with little or no progress.
From Planning to Action: Making It Happen
Once specific priorities are in place, the final step is to set action plans in place to bring the goals to life.
Metrics like revenue growth are “lagging indicators” – meaning that by the time you measure the results, the goal has already been met or not met.
By contrast, lead measures are actions you can take that directly influence the end results.
For example, if the goal is to add 50 patients to your myopia program, what can you do starting January 1 to make this the inevitable result? It might be training your staff on the benefits of myopia management, doing training to align your associate doctors or starting a monthly webinar to educate parents about the program. These proactive steps directly support your goal. Brainstorm and decide which are most likely to produce the result you desire.
Each team member can have something they’re going to do individually or as a department. Verbalize your commitments and work with your team to stay accountable to each other. Continue to review your progress – celebrate successes and course-correct when you’re falling short, always staying focused on the priorities you set.
Setting Up For Success
By following these steps, strategic planning becomes more than a yearly ritual. It becomes a practical tool that gets you thinking about what you really want, energizes you and your team and aligns everyone’s efforts to drive your practice forward.
Here’s to making 2025 a year of meaningful growth, where every goal brings you closer to the practice and life you envision!
Bethany Fishbein, OD, is a practice owner, practice management consultant and certified executive coach. She can be reached at bethany@leadersofvision.com
