I have also switched from pharmacy to optometry. If you want to open your own pharmacy, you will have to either practice in a rural area or do compounding pharmacy. You could also become a decentralized pharmacists in hospital, which allows more one-on-one interactions, but you still have to get everything approved by a doctor (and toes often get stepped on). However, you do have a better chance making more money owning your own optometry office, than running your own pharmacy. Most independent pharmacists that I know also have to run a medical supply store to stay afloat. But that could also be because Lubbock is getting to large (~200,000) to support privately owned pharmacies). But I personally switched to optometry because you get more one-on-one patient interactions, better hours, more freedom in how you run your practice, and because I am fascinated by the eyes. I also like the idea of running my own practice or at least becoming a partner. I think a lot of running a successful optometry office is to make sure you have good business sense and knowledge about running a small business (which no matter what kinda of small business takes alot of work). All of the optometrists I have talked to, who own their own practice, suggests that I should start a group practice with about 3 other optometrists, that way you can share the costs, work load(business paper work), etc. I think that is my goal because there seems to be a lot of benefits from having partners.
