Call me crazy, but in the middle of a pandemic, where more than half of Americans have been laid off, many small businesses have either closed or significantly decreased in business, I decided to purchase my first practice. As if I didn’t have enough on my plate… running a social media company for the Optical World, running GlamBaby on my own, being a full- time Mom, and homemaker. But when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn’t say no and I thought that it would all work itself somehow.
In May 2020, right before lock down was to be lifted, I got a text from the Owner Doctor. He was ready to sell and wanted to do so in 3 weeks and retire. I had to think fast and hard about the decision I was about to make, ultimately I went all in and here’s why….
History
Corona Vision Center has been established for 39 years in the city of Corona, California. A town located in Southern California, next to Orange County. The office has been in the same location and the area has seen many, many changes as you can imagine, but CVC always stayed true to its patients and commitment to Eye Care. My Mom started working at the practice as an associate in 1983, the year I was born, ( yes, I’m 37.). She was working part time while she also had started her own practice, which she sold 5 years later.
My Mom has been working there ever since and loves every minute. She has watched her patients grow, move to college, marry, have children, and now examines their children! Basicly its generations of eye care. When I started pre- school, my Mom and I would drive together the 20 miles to work. Behind the office (literally), now track homes, was the Montessori school I went to for a few years. I remember our fun car rides, with 80’s music in the background, signing my favorite songs, like Baby, Baby by Amy Grant, and enjoying those bonding moments with my Mom. Sometimes when I was sick, I’d go to work with her and hang out in the back office and chill because my Mom is one dedicated Doctor. She would always say that if she didn’t go to the office, patients would have to be cancelled and it was her responsibility to be there for the office. Basically, Corona Vision Center has always been a staple in my childhood and a place for fun and positive memories.
Fast forward to 2010 when I graduated Optometry School. The Owner Doctor, who I’ve known since the day I was born and am very fond of, offered me a day at the office. I was thrilled! One, I had work, two, I already knew my way around the office, and three, it was as if I was working with family. No better place in the world to start your career. The other days I would split my time in other private offices, nursing homes, and Lens Crafters. On and off for 10 years, I have spent practicing at CVC and have grown as a person and clinician over the years. My goal was to always purchase the practice when the Owner Doctor was ready to retire, I even had the photo of the practice on my dream board. So now you know why I couldn’t let the practice be handed down to just anyone. CVC had to continue its presence in the community and serve its patients with one of their own.
The Purchase
The purchase was a private sale between the previous owner and I. Because of a signed NDA I can’t get too much into the details but I will give some tips at what to do as far as due diligence if you are thinking about purchasing a practice.
- Hire a third party to help you examine what the practice is truly worth before you settle on a price. If you need help finding one, email me and I can give you the number to someone I spoke with. I didn’t end up doing this myself since working there, I knew what the practice was bringing in and based on the Profit and Loss statements, made sense.
- Hire a lawyer!!! Thank goodness I did, because all the legality stuff was way over my head and there were many things in the purchase agreement that I didn’t understand and my lawyer was able to guide me. Not only that, but it’s best to have a person who is not emotional about the sale to look out for what’s in the best interest for you as a business owner. I truly admire and respect the previous Owner Doctor and it was nice to have our lawyers do all the negotiating on our behalf. I hired a lawyer who specializes in practice purchases.
- Lock down your lease before you sign anything and make sure you secure an option to extend.
- As soon as you start the process establish your corporation so it is ready at the time of purchase. You’ll need this for business licenses, insurance panels, vendors, lease agreement, and hiring of employees.
- Have the previous owner terminate all employees under the existing corporation and then hire them under your new corporation. This will protect you for liabilities.
- Apply for insurance panels. Now this was difficult for me as it was such a quick sale. But the previous Owner Doctor has allowed me to use the current accounts until mine are established (more on this later)
We closed about a month and a half after our initial conversation. On July 1, 2020 I became the new owner of CVC.
The first week
Overwhelmed, out of my element, not knowing squat about running a practice, and extreme anxiety from the amount of clean up that needed to be done– Pretty much sums it up.
The staff found out about the new ownership on a Friday, and the take- over was the following Wednesday. Luckily, I know all of the staff, not just know, they are like family. They had a feeling something was going on, but were surprised by the quick turnaround. We had a lot to do and got right to it! First thing we did was declutter and I signed up for ADP payroll. Anything that didn’t serve the new practice we either donated or disposed of properly. For the heavy duty stuff, like extra furniture, I hired 2 people to come and haul them away. Every drawer was emptied and organized, every cabinet was sorted, and expired contact lenses were properly disposed of as well as fitting sets that our new practice wasn’t going to use. I had plexi glass installed at the optical stations and front desk, bought a thermometer to take temperatures on everyone who entered the practice, and scheduled to re- do the floors. We did all of this without closing a day of patient care.
The same week I started to inquire about getting onto insurance panels. With everything going on at the office and still working on GlamBaby and social media, I knew it was too much for me. I hired a friend of mine who specializes in Optical insurances (including medi-cal and Medicare) to do this for me. It’s not cheap, but well worth it. I knew that by putting my trust into her to get it done, I could focus on other things that needed my attention. (side note: if you need help with this, I would be happy to share her information via email.)
The second day of ownership, I contacted HEA. Healthy Eyes Advantage is a preferred purchasing and practice solutions partner. The previous owner had an account with them and had many benefits from being a member, so I decided to see how they could help me in my new business. My HEA rep, Dave Halverson, reached out right away and let me know about the membership. Signing up was free and once I was signed up, he sent me applications for contact lens vendors, frame vendors, and lens vendors. This saved me much time in researching where to get the applications from. My optical manager was in charge of filling the applications out and sending them out to each vendor. Tip: Delegate, delegate, delegate.
As the new vendor numbers were issued, I would report them to Dave and he would link them to my HEA account. The beauty of having all our vendors under HEA is that I get one monthly statement and discounts!!!! And by discounts, I’m talking significant ones. For example, being an HEA member and new vendor to Zeiss we were able to get lenses at half off for the first 6 months… yes, 6 months! This is huge for a new practice/ownership and we used this to our advantage in creating special frame/lens packages for our patients (more on this later) to increase our revenue. I also want to expand on that one monthly statement I mentioned; HEA consolidates all of my billing for all the vendors that I bill through them into a single statement. I write one check to HEA, and they take care of paying the individual vendors. This is just the kind of time saver that all practices need! An added bonus to being an HEA member is the CE’s they offer. I am able to get special rates on virtual learning, since there are not in – person ones available due to the pandemic. The whole process was so easy and Dave was there to answer all my questions quickly and I had many!
As the week moved forward, my next task was the patient schedule. Although the office has OfficeMate, it was not utilized for scheduling. The patients were scheduled in a paper book. This was limiting for a few reasons: If the phone was answered anywhere but the front desk, the staff member would have to walk to the front to schedule. Pre appointing was very difficult, and setting up a reminder system in the very near future impossible with paper. So everything with scheduling was transferred to OfficeMate and now can be accessed on every computer.
To be continued…..
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