This Month's Newsletter Highlights:

• Product Spotlight: A Briot Edger to Match Your Needs
• Financing News: 2010 Capital Equipment Tax Benefits - Clock is Ticking
• Ask the Tech: Tips on Edging Polycarbonate Lenses
• Briot News: Year-end Briot Equipment Specials
• Practice Notes: Selling Multiple Pairs, a Win-Win Situation

A Briot Finishing System To Match Your Needs

You've made the smart business decision to edge in house. Your next step is to find the finishing equipment that best fits your practice goals and budget.

Today's in-office edging options span the gamut from feature-loaded systems like the Briot Alta line to the all-in-one Briot Accura line that lowers the cost of entry. In addition to your budget, important selection factors include your long-term business plans, office space and employee skill levels. For example, machines with built-in automated functions require less optical training to operate, providing greater staffing flexibility in your lab.

BRIOT ALTA: The fully automatic, user-friendly Briot Alta line provides the greatest versatility, speed and ease of use to process all of today's popular eyewear including high base curves, custom rimless shapes and premium lens materials.

If your current or future plans (keep long-term strategies in mind) are to offer trendy frame styles and lens materials, then Alta's features are ideal for your practice. For example, the Alta Pro edger can tilt up to 30 degrees automatically to process high base curves easily. The Alta XL tracer-blocker can center and block lenses automatically, eliminating steps that once required greater processing skill.

BRIOT ACCURA: If space or budget is a primary consideration, the Accura line can remove these start-up barriers and get your lab up and running. Acura's all-in-one design combines core functions - tracing, blocking, edging and polishing - in one space efficient machine with the smallest footprint available.

The fully loaded Accura CX and Silver Plus models add automatic grooving and safety beveling to the list of automated features that make edging easy and accurate. With optional Digiform software, these systems can also customize rimless frames. The Accura Silver model offers an economical price-point along with Briot's smart engineering features like pre-set edging cycles for Trivex, poly and slippery coated lenses.

To save you time and effort, Briot's knowledgeable sales consultants can provide a comparison of available equipment to identify the system that's right for your needs. Check our website for more information and call for an in-office consultation.

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Year-end Briot Equipment Specials

Whether buying your first edger or looking to trade in your current one, Briot has year-end deals that could make this the best time to buy. We'll work with you to customize an equipment purchase plan that fits your budget and business requirements. And don't forget...all of our new finishing equipment comes with our industry leading 2-year warranty on parts and labor. We can also help you learn more about the new VSP In-Office Finishing Program now rolling out regionally, and how it can increase your profits with VSP patients. So call today before December slips away!

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Selling multiple pairs – a win-win situation!

Selling multiple pairs of eyewear to a patient will increase practice revenue, especially with an in-office lab to maximize profit margins on those sales. But equally important, providing multiple pairs will satisfy important patient needs and enhance customer satisfaction, making this a win-win situation.

There are numerous ways in which patients can benefit from a second or third pair of eyeglasses. Prescription sunglasses are the most common purchase, but there are other applications that will protect or enhance vision. However, not all patients are knowledgeable about the benefits of eyewear for sports or work safety, or for improved vision during various everyday activities.

Ask Lifestyle Questions: Asking the right questions during the eye exam is a good way to probe the need for second pairs. A simple question such as, "do you play sports often?" can open the conversation in a friendly way. Or, you can ask, "are there times when your eyeglasses aren't working as well as you'd like?" The answers often raise concerns or interest in eyewear for activities where their everyday frames may not be the best choice.

There's nothing "pushy" about probing for a better understanding of your patient's lifestyle needs and preferences. It enables you to determine how the eyewear you prescribe can better meet their visual requirements, a service to your patients. Your recommendations can help them see better when they are working at the computer, or when they are putting that golf ball for the championship game.

Identify Eyewear Needs: As you discuss a patient's activities, it will become evident that some activities are not well suited to wearing his or her primary pair of eyeglasses – usually designed for daily wear in work or social settings. An analogy that drives home this point is that people do not dress the same way for playing tennis or mowing the lawn as they do for work. Likewise, their eyewear may require a change as well, both for safety as well as durability.

Function and Benefits: Once you've identified the activities that warrant special eyewear, explain the function of the eyeglasses in sports and work settings. Any sport involving a ball or flying object (i.e. hockey puck) is considered a hazardous sport requiring protective eyewear. If your patient is a do-it-yourself type, talk about the eye injuries that result from even the most mundane tasks such as mowing the lawn, painting, sawing wood and using power instruments. At work, professionals like electricians and carpenters face potential eye-related hazards on the job.

Take the lead in mentioning various lens technologies and/or frame styles that are available today to support your patient's vision needs in specific situations. Your dispensary staff can go into more detail about the specifics, but having you mention the options that are available is an important introduction. You are the expert in eye care and your recommendations underscore the benefit message.

Multiple Pair Strategy: Importantly, make selling multiple pairs a part of your business model. Set aside time periodically to review this goal with all of your staff members, so that it becomes a part of interacting with all patients on an on-going basis.

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There's never been a better time for independent ECPs to benefit from in-office finishing. Optical practices with an in-house lab are in the best position to maximize revenue and profits in the months ahead, even if the economic recovery sputters. Here's why.

An in-office lab can save you hundreds of dollars in outside lab fees each month. Briot's sales consultants will do a complimentary Profit Analysis customized for your practice to show you exactly what your savings would be - and the numbers tell a convincing story. Most practices cut their lab costs by one-third to one-half or more, and the savings can cover monthly lease/loan expenses and increase profits from day one of edging.

Equally as important, an in-office lab enables you to improve customer service in a number of ways. First, you can provide faster job turnaround – including same day service – a marketing benefit in today's world of instant access. Your practice can be more competitive with large chains.

Secondly, an in-office lab gives you direct control over the quality of the eyewear your office dispenses, to ensure that customers are totally satisfied. You set the quality standards that build your reputation, and generate the repeat business and referrals you want to keep your business growing.

In addition, having your own lab also eliminates the administrative time required to get job orders to and from an outside lab, making your office staff more efficient so they have more time to spend servicing customers. Faster turnaround also means faster receivables, to increase your cash flow.

Finally, capital equipment purchased by year-end qualifies for significant tax benefits – as described in the Financial News below. Call us today to learn more about the benefits of in-office finishing.

Matt Cevasco

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2010 Capital Equipment Tax Benefits: The clock is ticking...

If you are thinking about buying a Briot finishing system, there is still time to take advantage of tax benefits associated with the purchase of capital equipment in the current tax year. But you need to move quickly because the equipment must be placed in service by December 31, 2010 to qualify for 2010 tax deductions.

Here's how it works. Section 179 of the Tax Code allows businesses to deduct against their gross income the full price of qualifying capital equipment that is purchased or financed (including leases) during the current tax year. This means that rather than depreciating the equipment, the code allows you to deduct the full purchase amount in the year in which it was purchased and put into service. Recent legislation also raised the total purchase cap to $500,000 for year 2010 to stimulate business investment.

Talk to your tax advisor to determine the exact tax implications for your business. But don't delay. You have just a few weeks to purchase and set up your Briot equipment to qualify. Univest Captial, Briot's financing partner, is offering some of the best leasing programs in the marketplace and can help you develop a financing plan that works. Call us today for more information.

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Q. How can I avoid problems when edging polycarbonate lenses, especially if AR coated?

A: With the proper machine and handling procedures, you can avoid the warping or scratching associated with finishing poly. First, always check with the lens manufacturers for their protocols on finishing these materials and follow their recommendations. For example, with AR-coated poly, they may recommend using special tape underneath the leap pad and block to avoid off-axis failure.

When edging, chose either the "poly" or the "slippery lens" setting for AR lenses to get the proper chuck pressure and torque required to avoid cracking or crazing. If your edger lacks these settings, run the machine at a slow speed; some techs oversize the lens initially, check sizing and re-cut as needed. Another concern with poly is swarf, the chunky debris shed when cutting the material. A wet-cut edger like Briot uses water spray intermittently while processing to help clean off the swarf during the cutting cycles, eliminating debris build-up on the bevel or in the groove.

Whether wet or dry processing, it's important to make sure your edger has been properly calibrated and that the cutting wheel is sharp. Briot provides preventative maintenance guidelines and PM visits to ensure that machine parts are in optimum operating order.

Is there something you'd like to ask the Tech? Send your questions to: info@BriotUSA.com

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