Starting a new business is unpredictable, tumultuous, and in these uncertain times, some may even say crazy. However, the idea of “new normal,” shouldn’t hinder you from starting your own business. In fact, more products were launched in 2020 than the two years prior: 7% more than in 2019 and 18% more than in 2018.
This prompts the question whether you, as an optometrist, should start an eyecare practice in 2021. These “uncertain times” may not hold business owners back after all. Let’s look at what some real business owners have to say.
Should you start a new eyecare practice during 2021?
What Real Eyecare Practice Owners Say
Dr. Matt Stanley, a practicing OD at Eyecare Associates of Manhattan. P.A, achieved 34% sales growth during the midst of the pandemic. His practice was in the middle of relocation when the pandemic hit and their new practice had to comply with social distancing mandates. This was something every business owner wasn’t prepared for, and for Dr. Stanley, this added an extra headache on top of moving equipment, setting up new workflows and processes, changing addresses, and informing patients. Despite these difficult times, they managed to achieve a significant amount of growth in 2020.
Dr. Stanley credits this growth to different strategic moves and tools, with one of these being Uprise. Uprise allowed Dr. Stanley’s practice to run more efficient workflows from every point of the patient journey. This benefited him financially because it allowed him to see more patients, and increase sales in result.
He also saw his process of billing claims himself as time-consuming and impractical. Dr. Stanley utilized RCM to take billing claims off his hands, which was advantageous to his practice because it empowered him to remove himself from the business aspect of his job, and opened up the potential to take on more patients.
Dr. Stanley credits his significant growth to three notable conditions:
- Although you wouldn’t consider dashboard aesthetic to be a major deal-breaker, Dr. Stanley admits it’s an important aspect to consider when you are choosing a software for your practice. He likes Uprise because it’s intuitive, user friendly, and nice to look at all-day, every-day.
- Streamlined EHR is another aspect that contributed to Stanley’s growth. The implementation was easy because his practice received a solid knowledge base from VisionWeb’s implementation and RCM team. They were given webinars and best practices to help educate his team and set them up for success.
- Employee turnover is a challenging hurdle most practices face, however, teaching the new systems to employees was easy for Dr. Stanley. Streamlining workflows, effectively communicating with his team, and education were huge components to his success.
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