Oh 2021, you were good, you were bad, and you sure were full of lessons. This year was my first full year of being a practice owner and I’m here to tell you a few things that really helped to make this year successful.
- Learn how to do everything in your office.
Mid 2021, my office biller of over 15 years unexpectedly gave me her 1 week notice. A tough pill to swallow when no one in the office knows how to bill, including myself. This was a huge reality check for me that as a business owner, you should know how to do everything in your office. You should know how to pay your bills, answer the phones, make appointments, order lenses, order contacts, and BILL! With a lot of trial and error, phone calls to insurance companies, and many hours of overtime, I eventually got it down and was able to teach someone I trust to take it over, but man was it a rough several weeks. Without billing insurances, money doesn’t come in and bills still got to get paid. So even if you don’t plan on doing it all (as you shouldn’t) you should still learn how to do it. Not just in case an employee leaves, but also so you can audit what’s going on in your business. Now I audit every insurance claim that is billed to be sure it is done correctly, cuz hey, we are human and make mistakes, but we don’t want those mistakes to lose money for the business, especially if they are repeated ones.
- Selling second and third pairs of glasses.
With the complex and diverse lifestyles of patients in this digital age, it’s important that we prescribe and sell them the best vision possible to meet all their needs. In the exam room I go over with my patients what their daily lives entail. What is their occupation? How many hours in a day are they on a digital device? Do they wear sun protection while outdoors? Etc. this goes for all patients at every age. Based on that, I will come up with prescriptions that will make them feel comfortable, help prevent disease, and allow them to do what they love most at their best possible visual acuity.
Two- Three pairs sounds expensive and it can be, however, I created non- insurance packages that help patients get what they need without sacrificing quality all while on a budget. By using Zeiss uncut lenses (we edge at the office), I have been able to give my patients the best quality lenses and coatings at a fraction of the costs they would get at a big box store. All of our packages come with either a Duravision platinum AR coating or their blue light protection coating included. This allows the patient to get the best available product without unnecessary glare and smudging. With our package deals, the frame is also included. Curating a fashion forward and affordable package frame board was important to me and with a few trial runs with vendors, we were able to nail it. With our new packages, we have been able to increase glasses revenue 3x this year.
- Time management
When I purchased the practice July 2020, I wasn’t ready in the fact that I wanted to be 100% present with my daughter. Isabella was under 2 years old, not in preschool, and I choose not to have a nanny be with her. This was a huge dilemma for me as being a full- time Mama was my number one priority. Owning this practice one day has been on my vision board for a decade and this was my chance. I made a pact with myself that I would devote Tuesdays and Thursdays to the office and the rest of the week was for my daughter. So, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the office and I am fully dedicated to everything Corona Vision Center. The rest of the days, I check in to the office with my wonderful staff, trouble shoot if necessary, and work on GlamBaby while Isabella naps or is in bed. Does it work out all the time? No. When someone calls out or is sick, I’m going in. Do I make as much money? No. However, having other Doctors that I love and trust there is worth it to me at this time in my life. You can never have it all, but you can try to balance things based on your priorities at the different stages of your life.
For 2022, I will no longer be seeing patients. I will still be going in for administrative work, but like I said a new stage in my life is needing more of my time. I have started IVF and decided to cut back work to focus more on my family for 2022.
- EHR
The practice has been open for over 40 years, so you can imagine the amount of paper work and CHARTS!!! there are. October we launched EHR (more on which one and pros and cons in a different post). The first two months were hell. Confusion, lots of hair pulling, and even some crying. I’m not sure what was harder, learning to bill in a week or learning EHR for the practice. Either way, we did it! We are functioning 100% paperless now and we do have our hiccups here and there but it has made things a lot easier for us.
Things to come in 2022 for the office:
- A Zeiss automated refraction lane that integrates into our HER
- Remodeling phase 3 (front office)
- New ways of marketing (ps. More on our marketing strategies that worked and failed for another post)
