Optometrist Analyzes Eight Locations to Determine Best Practices

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Ryan Powell, OD, the owner of Insight Eyecare Specialties, applies principles learned outside optometry in managing eight locations with 10 optometrists. To understand how your entire business is doing, he explained, examine the individual performance of each location. See what’s working well, and then replicate that at under-performing locations. Also, maintain standards across all locations, but be flexible in allowing each location to define its own practice culture.

Analyze Performance for Each Location
Ryan Powell, OD, started as a solo practitioner in 2004 and now owns eight locations. In acquiring multiple locations, he also found it necessary to acquire business knowledge on the fly.

After acquiring a third location, Powell hired a business manager to help run the practices and achieve economies of scale. Membership in Vision Source also was enormously helpful in maximizing volume-based discounts on inventory and in handling other expenses.

Another key element came in the form of mentoring from a business owner outside of optometry. Powell was advised to keep detailed profit-and-loss statements for each location and then compare those P&L statements to determine which locations were performing best. From that analysis, he applies the lessons learned at high-performing locations to those that are not performing as well.

In addition to P&L statements, Powell uses software systems such as QuickBooks, and his accounts payable records, to determine the spending needs and profitability of each location and how much money should be devoted to each.

Maintain Common Standards, Allow Differences in Culture
Each of the eight locations in Powell's group conveys a message that it provides both a great selection of eyewear as well as outstanding services in diagnosing and treating medical eyecare conditions. However, beyond the consistency of that message, and a commitment to patients, each location is given flexibility in defining its own culture.

Powell said he quickly noticed the striking cultural differences between the locations in metropolitan areas, those in suburban settings, and those located in rural communities. It is important to allow for these cultural differences in staffing and in the tone of each office.

Also, Powell noted that it may take a year, or even longer, for patients to adjust when an office is staffed by a new doctor and staff.

The key to each location's success, according to Powell, is recognizing the type of patients you want to attract and how best to serve both their medical eyecare as well as their optical and eyewear needs.

Source: Review of Optometric Business
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