The office of Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO. Dr. Sorrenson says it’s important to identify the tasks that you are avoiding and tackle them, so you can improve your patient care and profitability.
Success strategies for optometric practice management
By Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO
Nov. 6, 2024
I recently came across an article on Inc.com: “The Secret to Success Lies in What You Avoid.”
The article, by Tommy Mello, the founder of A1 Garage Door, struck a chord with me. Mello highlights a fundamental truth that I think often goes overlooked: success is not just about the things you do, but also about the things you consciously choose to avoid.
Wow! Right? This principle is incredibly relevant to running an optometric office, where the decisions we make—or choose not to make—can significantly impact our practice’s growth, patient satisfaction, staff engagement and overall success.
This article inspired me to think about the following things that I believe are pertinent to running an optometric office.
Avoiding Delegation/Automation/Simplification/Elimination
I see doctors not delegating tasks to their employees which could take their practice to the next level and even make their employees enjoy their jobs more.
Like what? Contact lens insertion and removal (and training), troubleshooting contact lenses (including multifocals), performing light therapy procedures, blephex, zest, cover test, confrontations, dry eye options discussions, etc.
You may not be comfortable with delegating all of these tasks, but maybe pick one and try it for three months, then see how you feel about it.
I also see owners not taking the time to figure out what they can eliminate that they don’t really need (think preliminary tests, history questions, paperwork, etc), simplify what they have (lens options, contact lens trials, etc) and automate functions (online scheduling, lens packages, notifications, direct shipping, etc).
Have a meeting with the appropriate staff/doctors and brainstorm what you can delegate, eliminate, simplify or automate.
Avoiding the Financials
It is hard to improve your business if you are avoiding tracking and managing your financials. This is everything from cash flow analysis to metrics.
If you know you are avoiding tracking metrics…pick one and start tracking it. Get your staff to help you with this.
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With Google Sheets, your staff can have access to, and enter, data so you don’t have to. If I had to pick two metrics, the first two I would recommend would be:
- Receipts (receivables, cash in the bank) Divided by # of Clinical Hours (Calculate by using one hour after your last appointment as your final hour each morning and afternoon).
- Receipts/Full Refractive Exam.
But before doing these two metric calculations, I would organize your profit and loss statement into categories.
I teach that you should organize your profit and loss statement and cash flow reports into 7 categories:
- COGS
- Staff salaries and expenses
- Occupancy expenses
- Marketing
- Equipment
- Miscellaneous(office overhead expenses that don’t fit into the other categories)
- Doctors’ Compensation.
Avoiding Implementation
Whew! Isn’t this the hardest? In my lectures, I always talk about “Whole Ass One thing, Never Half-Ass Two Things.”
Implementation is tough! I think we are pretty good at it, but it is almost always a huge challenge. However, ideas don’t make you any money or make your business better, only actions do!
As a leader, you have to remember to tell your team the “why,” not just once, but repeatedly because you are implementing something new.
I call myself the CRO “the Chief Reminding Officer,” as implementing things well means lots of reminders and follow-ups. This is not in my DNA, so I need systems that enable me to do this such as calendar reminders for myself to follow-up and scheduled text and e-mail reminders to go out to our team. Persistence counts!
What do you know you should do, but you aren’t doing? Be honest with yourself and go do it now.
Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO, is president of Lakeline Vision Source in Cedar Park, Texas, and the Professional Editor of Review of Optometric Business (ROB). To contact her: lsorrenson@gmail.com.
