Opening a Pharmacy (California)

Started by The_Rebirth
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The_Rebirth

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Hey all, I'm in the process of opening my own pharmacy. Never had my own business to be honest but I was asked to be PIC a few times at my old job and kept rejecting it since it wasn't worth it realistically. Wondering if anyone has any good advice to keep in mind, a pharmacy is obviously not the same as running Subway.
 
lord999 said:
No offense, I would have taken the PIC job purely to make the mistakes that you would have done in your business at someone else's expense.

That opportunity lost, besides the usual business drivel, you ought to go to an NCPA meeting for new owners.
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Maybe he can hire new grads at 50k to 80k and have them make the mistakes, though maybe his license would get into jeopardy too. Who knows.
 
alpha12 said:
Make sure you hire new grads. It won't cost you much.
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they will just quit after a few months when they find a higher paying job. make sure to make them sign a contract that you will pay them 60k a year but 30k of that is only receivable if they stay a full year otherwise they forfeit it to insentivize them to stay longer and reduce turn
 
I don't intend on higher any new grads/pharmacist anytime soon.

lord999 said:
No offense, I would have taken the PIC job purely to make the mistakes that you would have done in your business at someone else's expense.

That opportunity lost, besides the usual business drivel, you ought to go to an NCPA meeting for new owners.
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The relief position was way too good to become a PIC of a terrible location.
 
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alpha12 said:
Maybe he can hire new grads at 50k to 80k and have them make the mistakes, though maybe his license would get into jeopardy too. Who knows.
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In my state, owner and PIC can be different individuals. You can open an independent pharmacy, hire PIC while you work for retail as PIC. This way if something goes wrong, you are still insulated. You also can screw up at someone else’s expenses. Build your business while someone else take the risks.

If you work for chain pharmacy, you can make better money than the pharmacist you hire at the independent.
 
ornithoptor said:
In my state, owner and PIC can be different individuals. You can open an independent pharmacy, hire PIC while you work for retail as PIC. This way if something goes wrong, you are still insulated. You also can screw up at someone else’s expenses. Build your business while someone else take the risks.

If you work for chain pharmacy, you can make better money than the pharmacist you hire at the independent.
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How do you handle conflict of interest in this case ?
 
Newpharmacist said:
How do you handle conflict of interest in this case ?
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I dont see any unless cvs or walgreens has a policy that a pharmacist can't own his own business. I know many pharmacists that also own liquor stores. They work for the pharmacy full or part time and keep a fulltime employee at their store. Interesting they just don't open their own pharmacy. No conflict of interest.
 
alpha12 said:
I dont see any unless cvs or walgreens has a policy that a pharmacist can't own his own business. I know many pharmacists that also own liquor stores. They work for the pharmacy full or part time and keep a fulltime employee at their store. Interesting they just don't open their own pharmacy. No conflict of interest.
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Not sure about cvs or wags but back in the day , Walmart used to have us annually sign the “ no conflict of interest “ doc.
It did specifically mention of not owing a similar business practice as your own pharmacy..
 
Modest_anteater said:
they will just quit after a few months when they find a higher paying job. make sure to make them sign a contract that you will pay them 60k a year but 30k of that is only receivable if they stay a full year otherwise they forfeit it to insentivize them to stay longer and reduce turn
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This is what new grads are thinking:

Perception: “I can do this 60k job for 6 months to hold me over while I find a higher-paying, permanent job”

Reality: In 6 months, 50k jobs are going to be the new normal so you’re going to be stuck where you’re at.

Even if you did manage to get out, it sets a precedent for the 60k pharmacy to keep hiring at or below that salary and creates a slippery slope situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of future pharmacist positions paid $20/hr and have constant 3-6 month turnover because you can always find a replacement who will work harder for less pay. I mean, it’s not like this same model hasn’t already been tried and true (community APPEs and community residency rotations, anyone?). If a pharmacy can deal with a new APPE student or resident coming in every 6 weeks, then surely onboarding a new pharmacist every 3-6 months isn’t going to be a problem, right?
 
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Make no mistake; if you work full time retail while owning a pharmacy with someone else as PIC, you're either going to work an extra 40-60 hours on top of your retail shifts, or you're going to have to set up a system where the PIC is incentivized to do it for you

The_Rebirth said:
Location and in a medical building.
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Uh-oh-

This sounds like "a doctor/medical group approached me about opening a pharmacy and made lots of promises"
 
What's the best way to go about hiring? I'm near a University but I want reliability rather than an easily disposable person.

CetiAlphaFive said:
Uh-oh-

This sounds like "a doctor/medical group approached me about opening a pharmacy and made lots of promises"
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Uh-oh. You're wrong.
 
The_Rebirth said:
What's the best way to go about hiring? I'm near a University but I want reliability rather than an easily disposable person.
Uh-oh. You're wrong.
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The best way?
Network with the other independents in town to find out if anyone with quality independent experience is looking for employment.

You need to make friends with the other independents in town.
 
The_Rebirth said:
Hey all, I'm in the process of opening my own pharmacy. Never had my own business to be honest but I was asked to be PIC a few times at my old job and kept rejecting it since it wasn't worth it realistically. Wondering if anyone has any good advice to keep in mind, a pharmacy is obviously not the same as running Subway.
Click to expand...

Curious on your lease details!
From what little I know its all about location and patient/insurance population. In my trade area I think an independent will do well due to low health literacy and the fact that so many are unable to do mail order as they are unbanked. Lines are getting ridiculous at CVS and Walmart is cracking down on opiates.
 
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Pharm.C. said:
First things that come to mind:
-Get onboard with NCPA. Get access to their financials digest so you can compare your financials to theirs to see if you're doing things the same way as the most profitable pharmacies in the country
-Start as small as possible and don't invest or grow until there are sales to justify it. Your business and customers will change so don't start in the endgame with things you don't need.
-Don't invest money in something unless there will be demand and there will be obvious legitimate profit
-Figure out what you're competitors are doing poorly and make sure you do it well. The chains have poor customer service. Independents live and die on customer service.
-Train your staff to be incredible at their job and give them the resources and power to do their job well. What the chains don't get is that constant negative reinforcement and demoralizing employees by restricting them causes huge problems with no benefit.
-Most independents advertise very poorly. Use targeted advertising that is cheap. Do you prescribe contraceptives (younger customers)? Advertise on Facebook. Do you operate next to a long term care facility? Establish a relationship with them and host an immunization clinic and steal away competitors' customers. Is there a Walgreens down the street? Buy a billboard advertisement and market how much faster your wait times are and that you have time to actually help customers. You can probably order any OTC item next day which in most towns even Amazon can't do. Make sure your customers know that. Do customers keep asking for certain convenience items? Keep track of it and start stocking it.
-Shop at your competitors. Should your prices be higher or lower than yours? Can you mark up convenience and urgent items more?
-Vaccines are high margin. The chains don't even give their employees time to focus on them. It's kind of a joke really.
-Don't pay your bills until last minute to increase cash flow. Get paid as soon as possible. Basic accounting.
-Invest in technology. Don't be one of those independents that just orders medications when they run out. Inventory management is huge. Don't sit on assets you don't use.
-You live and die on audits. Make sure you and your staff know day supply calculations in and out.
-Don't be afraid to contact Dr's offices directly. Give them notice when you're opening. Being friends with physicians is good for business.
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Lol, my piece of advice for OP:
hide this worthless wall of text post.
 
Pharm.C. said:
Do you or anyone else on this website have anything productive to say? They're all basic business principles. "My post is worthless." Compelling argument.
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There were a troll that likes to post wall of text that sounds gibberish. He got banned multiple times. I don't think that's you tho.
 
You said you found a spot in a medical building and all I can think of how you aren't going to be able to grow that business. Unless you have a Thrive Pharmacy Solutions kind of gig going on, it ain't going anywhere.

Sparda29 said:
Don't ask, don't tell. Lie.

My girlfriend works for a pharmacy where the owner is a overnight pharmacist for CVS. He's always getting patients to transfer over to his pharmacy.
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That wouldn't fly in Texas. State board publishes where you work and your home address online.
 
Pharm.C. said:
No, but I did have a man who clearly wasn't from the United States ask me if the pharmacy carried extra small condoms. He insisted multiple times that his penis was very small and wanted to know if I thought Trojans would fit him. I told him we didn't carry any and he should call the manufacturer's number on the box. I understand the guy's question and it's not unreasonable, but he wouldn't stop pressing me for an answer as if I was going to measure his John Thomas right there on the spot and cite the dimensions of the specific product he picked out. What were we talking about on this thread again? Amazon buying Pill Pack I think?
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Y'all can't order finger cots?
 
BenJammin said:
You said you found a spot in a medical building and all I can think of how you aren't going to be able to grow that business. Unless you have a Thrive Pharmacy Solutions kind of gig going on, it ain't going anywhere.



That wouldn't fly in Texas. State board publishes where you work and your home address online.
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Wtf kind of nonsense is that? Imagine if they published police officer home addresses.
 
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Modest_anteater said:
they will just quit after a few months when they find a higher paying job. make sure to make them sign a contract that you will pay them 60k a year but 30k of that is only receivable if they stay a full year otherwise they forfeit it to insentivize them to stay longer and reduce turn
Click to expand...

You guys are savage. Look like you guys are learning a page from ruthless retailer company.
 
quickpic007 said:
Curious on your lease details!
From what little I know its all about location and patient/insurance population. In my trade area I think an independent will do well due to low health literacy and the fact that so many are unable to do mail order as they are unbanked. Lines are getting ridiculous at CVS and Walmart is cracking down on opiates.
Click to expand...

Lease wise we are doing 3 years with option for the next two years if I remember correctly.

CetiAlphaFive said:
Oh yeah, I forgot to ask:

If you're in a medical building, will they allow you to use their branding?
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It's a medical building in a medical area in the bay area. We have out own company branding.
 
Im a pic at an indie in a hospital building. Having pic experience would not have helped all that much on owning a pharmacy i dont think. How do you plan on attracting customers? I have a friend who opened one with sterile compounding near a bunch of docs offices but hes been struggling to stay afloat for almost a year. With saturated market, will you have enough funds to stay alive for at least a year without making any profit?
 
Sparda29 said:
Don't ask, don't tell. Lie.

My girlfriend works for a pharmacy where the owner is a overnight pharmacist for CVS. He's always getting patients to transfer over to his pharmacy.
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Careful, somewhere in between the grey lines of all this lies risk to your self.

There is definite conflict of interest when working for two different community pharmacies.

I'm a PIC, and I know every single patient that transfers out. It literally prints out every day.

HQ is very good at picking up trends from business analytics.

Business licenses are public information. It's not hard to find a correlation.

Being an independent business owner is league's more difficult than being a PIC.

Metrics make you money. I would do more research on third party reimbursements before moving forward.
 
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