Buying a Practice

Tripled Revenue in 4 Years With Strategic Hiring and Expansion

The EyeDocs Family Eye Care location in Brookville. Photos courtesy of Dr. Maxam.

Practice purchases lead to tripled revenue with careful strategy

By Kyle Maxam, OD

April 2, 2026

During my third year at University of Missouri-Saint Louis College of Optometry, my wife and I started searching for business opportunities. I was ready to consider many options: small practices and larger groups where the owners were looking for a partner or someone to sell to not far down the road. That’s when I met James Dickey, OD, a serial entrepreneur who had started several practices and successful businesses.

Dr. Dickey enjoyed starting practices but was nearing retirement. He was looking for someone to take over his Brookville, Ohio, office. I joined him in 2016 with a plan to take ownership, as I saw it was a small, steady practice with room to modernize and grow.

Four years later, the practice has more than tripled revenue. The largest percentage gains occurred in the first three years, and our annual growth is consistently above 25%. Since then we’ve maintained steady, intentional double-digit growth by expanding our doctor schedule, adding associates, investing in space and technology while building a team-centered culture focused on long-term sustainability.

MENTORSHIP PAVES WAY TO GROWTH

Growth wasn’t accidental. Early on I leaned into mentorship working alongside Dr. Dickey, as well as colleagues across the country. Dr. Dickey phased out his days gradually, sharing a wealth of knowledge while we made incremental changes. He helped me through refreshing the brand, while not causing too much disruption during the transition to maintain patient focus.

Dr. Dickey had grown each of his practices to approximately $400,000-$500,000 before selling. I had a goal of reaching $1,000,000, knowing that if we wanted to go somewhere we’ve never been, we needed help from someone who knew how to get there. Therefore, I began working with ACQUIOS Advisors around 2019 to help us reach this first big milestone. We also went to our first GRT Summit in 2023. It offered a new network of doctors with fresh ideas of how to keep growing. We took back interesting processes other practices had utilized that may work well in ours.

The doctors of EyeDocs Family Eye Care. L-R: Dr. Bittner, Dr. Maxam, Dr. Baughman and Dr. Wampler.

I learned that hiring associates was critical. We wanted to grow EyeDocs Family Eye Care to a point where the practice didn’t have to rely on me to operate. We added our first associate, Cara Wampler, OD, within a year after taking ownership. We strategically reduced my own patient care schedule each time a new associate joined to help them build a patient base and learn our culture. As the schedule filled, I added days back. I stepped back to help them gain momentum and give myself a chance to continue working on growing the practice. That approach prevented burnout, ensured continuity for patients and allowed sustainable scaling.

PHYSICAL EXPANSION GROWS THE BUSINESS

In 2020, we remodeled to add a third exam room. Then, in 2022, a neighboring business in our building closed and left us the opportunity to expand. That more than doubled our space to a 4,500-square-foot space to better serve our patients.

Our physical expansion also included a second office, which I consider as a lukewarm start. Germantown, Ohio has the same small-town, tightknit community feel which made it the perfect location. The retiring doctor was 75 years old and saw about 5 patients per day, doing everything from pretesting through the optical on his own. He relied on a little black book to keep track of patient contact information.

After we purchased the practice in 2025, we needed to modernize the office quickly to get it up to speed, set up EHR and set up cohesive systems between both practices. He closed his doors in June, and we were reopened by August 4 with a new look. We kept in mind the retiring doctor’s legacy to make it a thoughtful transition to keep long-time patients comfortable.

We also were proactive in hiring for this office. The doctor’s staff members were preparing to retire with him, so we hired a technician six months before we took over. This staff member started in our Brookville office until we were ready to make the switch. Standardizing equipment and workflows across locations reduced training friction and improved patient experience.

SERVICES DISTINGUISH OFFICES

Differentiation through services was another big lever. We developed a dry eye suite in Brookville right around the time we acquired the Germantown office. This dedicated care was not being offered in our area.

One of my associates, Olivia Bittner, OD, is passionate about specialty contact lens services including gas permeable and scleral lenses, another underserved need in our region. She provides these services in Germantown, the office that is closest to local corneal specialists.

To encourage referrals, we invested in relationship building: dinners, printed materials explaining our services and practical referral tools like QR codes and referral pads. Our message to referring providers is clear: we are here to work with you, not take work or patients from you. We live by the motto, “Eye Care Because We Care.”

These offerings filled a clear patient need, as we see referrals from dermatologists and corneal specialists, and created visible specialty positions within our practice.

SMALL TOWN COMMUNITY ENGAGES

Germantown location tripled revenue Dr. Kyle Maxam

The EyeDocs Family Eye Care location in Germantown.

My wife and I wanted to settle our family and business in a small town. Both Brookville and Germantown delivered, and we are so glad to be a part of these communities.

In small towns, local reputation is everything. We run free school screenings through OhioSEE, sponsor youth sports in both school districts, donate items for school events and set up a booth to participate in community events. We even met Brad Baughman, OD, one of our associate doctors at a local event. These efforts introduced families to our practice and reinforced loyalty to a locally owned clinic.

Today, we have three associates across two locations and a team that has grown from three staff members in 2018 to 16. We offer 11.5 doctor days per week between the two offices.

Our decisions—from adding new doctors to new services—are always made with the people of our community in mind. We’re always striving to provide better care for patients and a better workplace for our team, as well.

The moves we’ve made boosted the bottom line. But that was never our driving force. In addition to impacting the lives of patients, creating meaningful careers for people who genuinely care about patients has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey.

We’ve been intentional in trying to balance growing the practice and being present with my family. This has allowed me to coach my kids’ teams, be at dinner every night and go on several family vacations each year while still hitting the growth goals we have for the office.

Read more on buying a practice here.