Seeing as ANY opinions over a matter on the internet are by definition slanted toward negativity, I thought I would take time to put in my two cents....
I am a graduate of Nova and have been out now for 7 years. I co-own a small practice in NH, and I figure I owe it to young people reading this to tell you another side to things. I am not giving an antithetical argument to the previous in this forum, just my own perception.
When I graduated, I became one of the aforementioned corporate optometry foot soldiers. I worked at 2 Costco's, saw far too many patients a day that I could responsibly care for, and really did not feel like I had signed up all this. I worked 6 days a week, including a 6 hour stint on Saturdays that made me feel cheated by what I had done with myself....but I did have a plan.
I made (you all want numbers, I got'em) 83,500 dollars my first year out, and this was as I said, working at times 50-60 hours a week. I lived in a one-bedroom apartment for 3 years after I got out with my girlfriend and later fiance. I drove a 1988 ford with 200k on it.....this, ladies and gents, was "dr me" at 27 years old. Big pimpin'.
I put, and I can know count it, almost 70% of my income into my school debts, which totaled 173k. After 3 years I had made about 250k, and let my contract w Costco expire. I was 28, newly married, did not own a home, and drove a car that looks as if it might dumb the tranny on the interstate at any moment.But, and here is where it starts to look a little better; my debt was now down to just over 40k. That, finally, meant I had some freedom....I spent 3 months traveling w my new wife on the savings from my last few months at Costco. We saw a lot of that stuff you are supposed to see if you are a successful person that I went to school to be. During that time, I did my job searching with online correspondence, and when I returned started to look for the big fish that I went through all of that hell to land.
Long search short, 2 months later I accepted a position as a full-time OD for an existing practice in Vermont. I signed on without any stake in the business, and to put it bluntly, the place, as well as its second affiliated location in NH, were a shambles. It was Costco without the efficiency, but nonetheless without the corporate drumming to do things a certain way. A Co-owner of the two places had decided to pull the plug, and put the practices up for sale. Myself, along with 3 others I knew from school and Costco, bought the both of them for next to nothing. They were both in small rural areas that had seen better days. Initially, we tried to just step in and run it as it was. That was a disaster. I remember having an entire week where we had a total of 28 patients come in the door. 3 months after we young bucks took over, we closed the doors for good. I was in more debt, had 3 partners in even WORSE debt, and had 2 decrepit buildings with stands from the 1970s in there. Optometry sucked.
I spent the next summer with a partner of mine (2 of them got out entirely), trying to figure out how to revive all of this .in one way, it was what I always wanted: A chance to run a clinic MY way. We reopened the doors to one office (the other was pretty much storage at that time) that fall, complete with new equipment (that I bought refurbished mainly), a new name, and an all new way of doing things. I wont leak out my business model, but I can say that what we did has worked. We re-opened the other office a year later, hired 2 new ODs, and expanded past our 1 staff member that we re-opened with initially.
Now, I own a small house on over 100 acres. I have 2 young kids that I have seen grow so far, and a wife that I am actually still seeing enough of to still be in love with. Overall, I would say that optometry has done well by me, but I had to pay that beast for awhile before she let me in. So, I guess here is what I would say to someone considering this field:
1) Oversupply is real, but it is almost universal, and it is not insurmountable by offering a better product. I have seen 2 new practices open up with 20 miles of my place recently and my patient numbers have gone up. I simply provide a better atmosphere, have better patient recall, etc. I charge $110 dollars for my basic exam. Think that is impossible? You are part of the problem then .
2) This is not like being a dermatologist. You are NOT an MD .BUT, you also didnt go to school until you were 32 either. A typical ophthalmology residency will run you 5 to 6 years after med school. Spend that time paying off your debts, increasing your business acumen, etc.
3) There are a lot of people that do this that have no business know-how at all. Again, you are not a simple clinician. Simple clinicians are still back at my Costco. The difference between my partners and them had nothing to do with grades, a board score, how well you can spot a glaucomatous nerve, etc. It had to do with having an infectious personality that my patients empathize with and feel empathy from. It is about knowing how to refine your P&L sheet. Dont buy the hype that you are some mystic spiritual sight-giver. You provide a service, and it happens to be one that makes peoples lives markedly better. Do not lose sight of that P&L though.
4) Think outside of the box when it comes to your practice, if you ever get one. You want high def TVs with satellite TV in your waiting room? Do it. (I did) Think that you should binocular balance every patient? Think VT is the next frontier? Think aneisekonia (if you are new, just skip this part) is the scourge of modern civilization? Build your practice around it. We have become a legion of copy cats. We are the Mexican restaurants where you pick your meal by number that are on every block. Use your imagination. Make a brand, not just a business.
And last one ..
5) Most people you know that go into this field will NOT be singing its praises for their entire lives. Many of them will toil away at their own Costcos indefinitely, unsure of how to get out. Accept it. This is a hard field to make a name in, and if all you ever do is what they are already doing, you will end up in the same place. Dont do that. There is nothing more meaningless that the average salary, or work hours, or environment, etc. The average OD is running a corporate lens mill or bleating on about how our oversupply is eating away at their bottom line. The average MD works 60 hours a week for an HMO and never sees his/her family. Medicine, manufacturing, retail, etc; none of these are what they used to be. Your average patient coming in that door has less money, adjusted for inflation, than they did 30 years ago. Demand for everything is in the tank (i.e. the recession). You are going to have to stomp the competition, not squeeze past it, to make it for the time being. Accept these things. No field is perfect. Engineers are part of the 99er club. Dentistry competition has seen wages decline. MDs compensation for almost everything has been cut. We all have our own succubus. Optometry is not special in that. Learn our weaknesses well (i.e. my nearest competitor charges $50 per exam and sees a third the numbers, classic misunderstanding of customer demand) , and eventually you will see how to get around them. I hope some of this helps. Good luck to you if you choose this field. It has made my life a dream, if also an adventure at times.
Ok Debbie Downers ..do what you do best. 😛
I am a graduate of Nova and have been out now for 7 years. I co-own a small practice in NH, and I figure I owe it to young people reading this to tell you another side to things. I am not giving an antithetical argument to the previous in this forum, just my own perception.
When I graduated, I became one of the aforementioned corporate optometry foot soldiers. I worked at 2 Costco's, saw far too many patients a day that I could responsibly care for, and really did not feel like I had signed up all this. I worked 6 days a week, including a 6 hour stint on Saturdays that made me feel cheated by what I had done with myself....but I did have a plan.
I made (you all want numbers, I got'em) 83,500 dollars my first year out, and this was as I said, working at times 50-60 hours a week. I lived in a one-bedroom apartment for 3 years after I got out with my girlfriend and later fiance. I drove a 1988 ford with 200k on it.....this, ladies and gents, was "dr me" at 27 years old. Big pimpin'.
I put, and I can know count it, almost 70% of my income into my school debts, which totaled 173k. After 3 years I had made about 250k, and let my contract w Costco expire. I was 28, newly married, did not own a home, and drove a car that looks as if it might dumb the tranny on the interstate at any moment.But, and here is where it starts to look a little better; my debt was now down to just over 40k. That, finally, meant I had some freedom....I spent 3 months traveling w my new wife on the savings from my last few months at Costco. We saw a lot of that stuff you are supposed to see if you are a successful person that I went to school to be. During that time, I did my job searching with online correspondence, and when I returned started to look for the big fish that I went through all of that hell to land.
Long search short, 2 months later I accepted a position as a full-time OD for an existing practice in Vermont. I signed on without any stake in the business, and to put it bluntly, the place, as well as its second affiliated location in NH, were a shambles. It was Costco without the efficiency, but nonetheless without the corporate drumming to do things a certain way. A Co-owner of the two places had decided to pull the plug, and put the practices up for sale. Myself, along with 3 others I knew from school and Costco, bought the both of them for next to nothing. They were both in small rural areas that had seen better days. Initially, we tried to just step in and run it as it was. That was a disaster. I remember having an entire week where we had a total of 28 patients come in the door. 3 months after we young bucks took over, we closed the doors for good. I was in more debt, had 3 partners in even WORSE debt, and had 2 decrepit buildings with stands from the 1970s in there. Optometry sucked.
I spent the next summer with a partner of mine (2 of them got out entirely), trying to figure out how to revive all of this .in one way, it was what I always wanted: A chance to run a clinic MY way. We reopened the doors to one office (the other was pretty much storage at that time) that fall, complete with new equipment (that I bought refurbished mainly), a new name, and an all new way of doing things. I wont leak out my business model, but I can say that what we did has worked. We re-opened the other office a year later, hired 2 new ODs, and expanded past our 1 staff member that we re-opened with initially.
Now, I own a small house on over 100 acres. I have 2 young kids that I have seen grow so far, and a wife that I am actually still seeing enough of to still be in love with. Overall, I would say that optometry has done well by me, but I had to pay that beast for awhile before she let me in. So, I guess here is what I would say to someone considering this field:
1) Oversupply is real, but it is almost universal, and it is not insurmountable by offering a better product. I have seen 2 new practices open up with 20 miles of my place recently and my patient numbers have gone up. I simply provide a better atmosphere, have better patient recall, etc. I charge $110 dollars for my basic exam. Think that is impossible? You are part of the problem then .
2) This is not like being a dermatologist. You are NOT an MD .BUT, you also didnt go to school until you were 32 either. A typical ophthalmology residency will run you 5 to 6 years after med school. Spend that time paying off your debts, increasing your business acumen, etc.
3) There are a lot of people that do this that have no business know-how at all. Again, you are not a simple clinician. Simple clinicians are still back at my Costco. The difference between my partners and them had nothing to do with grades, a board score, how well you can spot a glaucomatous nerve, etc. It had to do with having an infectious personality that my patients empathize with and feel empathy from. It is about knowing how to refine your P&L sheet. Dont buy the hype that you are some mystic spiritual sight-giver. You provide a service, and it happens to be one that makes peoples lives markedly better. Do not lose sight of that P&L though.
4) Think outside of the box when it comes to your practice, if you ever get one. You want high def TVs with satellite TV in your waiting room? Do it. (I did) Think that you should binocular balance every patient? Think VT is the next frontier? Think aneisekonia (if you are new, just skip this part) is the scourge of modern civilization? Build your practice around it. We have become a legion of copy cats. We are the Mexican restaurants where you pick your meal by number that are on every block. Use your imagination. Make a brand, not just a business.
And last one ..
5) Most people you know that go into this field will NOT be singing its praises for their entire lives. Many of them will toil away at their own Costcos indefinitely, unsure of how to get out. Accept it. This is a hard field to make a name in, and if all you ever do is what they are already doing, you will end up in the same place. Dont do that. There is nothing more meaningless that the average salary, or work hours, or environment, etc. The average OD is running a corporate lens mill or bleating on about how our oversupply is eating away at their bottom line. The average MD works 60 hours a week for an HMO and never sees his/her family. Medicine, manufacturing, retail, etc; none of these are what they used to be. Your average patient coming in that door has less money, adjusted for inflation, than they did 30 years ago. Demand for everything is in the tank (i.e. the recession). You are going to have to stomp the competition, not squeeze past it, to make it for the time being. Accept these things. No field is perfect. Engineers are part of the 99er club. Dentistry competition has seen wages decline. MDs compensation for almost everything has been cut. We all have our own succubus. Optometry is not special in that. Learn our weaknesses well (i.e. my nearest competitor charges $50 per exam and sees a third the numbers, classic misunderstanding of customer demand) , and eventually you will see how to get around them. I hope some of this helps. Good luck to you if you choose this field. It has made my life a dream, if also an adventure at times.
Ok Debbie Downers ..do what you do best. 😛
