The Optical Vision Site

Should You Hire An Eyecare Practice Management Consultant?

Photo: Intersectionconsulting.com

First I want to preface this, I have a love-hate thing about consultants. Some are very good and some are very bad, there have been times when I have walked out of offices screaming about consultants and other times I have made suggestions that they should hire a consultant because the office was so messed up. I will say this, being a consultant is very hard work even though it may seem easy. The advantages of consultants is they have a broad perspective of overall business trends and can offer a variety of services from start-ups to marketing to financial analysis, teamwork building, human resources, partnership agreements and more.

Because there are many types of consultants before you hire you should weigh in what you are looking for. If your finances are good, but staff management is an issue, maybe you need to hire a human resource consultant, maybe you need a social media consultant or just need a partnership agreement. The first thing is to write down what your issues and trouble spots and your goals. The next is to do your homework and check out consultants get references, check out their blogs and websites.

Still not sure, there are plenty of free resources on the Internet, software and through blogs. But some people are better to have a physical person guiding them through the maze of running a business and keeping them on track.

When You Should Not Hire A Consultant

1. You know everything
2. You hate people telling you what to do.
3. You will not implement anything anyway, so what’s the point.
4. Your staff will sabotage anything a consultant tells you to do.
5. You hate criticism- When you hire a consultant you have to let the ego go.
6. You think your accountant/spouse/staff has all the answers.
7. You think consultants are overpaid and it’s easy work anybody can do it.
8. You consistently step over a dime to pick up a penny.

When You Should Hire Consultant

1. You are working harder than ever and not making any money
2. High staff turnover.
3. Disorganized and can’t seem to get systems in place
4. Want to retire and sell- need to get office in working order
5. Want to bring on associate and need partnership agreement.
6. Need direction and benchmarking stats
7. Need leadership and management skills.
8. Staff is unresponsive and not doing the job to best of their abilities.
9. You are out of control.
10. You want a shortcut to business planning and don’t want to take the time to make your own mistakes.
11. Your way is not working and you need new ideas
12. Losing patients
13. Hard time making decisions

Listed below are some eyecare consultants. These are not all the consultants in the optical industry and if we missed someone apologies in advance.

Eyecare Consultants With Blogs

• Al Cleinman
• Art Gennaro’s Blog
• Eyecare Marketing Information- Jeff Lewis OD- Online marketing via email, advertising, blogs and online
• Gale Stoner
• Karlsrud Company - Selling, Teaming, Leadership
• Silkin Management Group
• Donna Suter Consulting – No blog, but good articles
• Vision Practice Management
• Waugoo Consulting Group
• Eye Coach- Robert Bell
• Consulting With Vision; Ally Stoeger

Eyecare Consultants Without Blogs

• CB Consultations- Crystal Blaker, will set an eyecare office up on social media programs.
• Gailmard Consulting
• Gil Weber
• OD Excellence
• Power Practice -
• Professional Vision Group-
• Rollins Consulting-
• Teamwork Marketing -Patrick Dundas
• DND Consulting
• Resmark Consulting
• The Williams Group

Online Sites For Benchmaking

• ODStats- $19.95 Month

Buying and Selling Practices

• Practice Concepts- Scott Daniels
• Practice Consultants- Gary Ware
• MedPro Consulting and Marketing Services
• Transition Consultants

Resources

• How To Hire A Business Planning Consultant
• 10 Reasons To Hire a Business Consultant
• Practice Management Consultants- Who Need Them (American Academy of Ophthalmology

Are We Lacking Optical Creativity?

I pose the questions of “are we lacking optical creativity?” because I just read an article in Newsweek titled “The Creativity Crisis” that claims “for the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining” and addresses the questions “what went wrong – and how we can fix it”. As I read the article, it challenged a lot of the assumptions I have about creativity especially in the work place so I thought this is a good topic for the optical blog as we certainly don’t need to be lacking creativity in the optical workplace.

I know there are always new products and new technology in the optical market place but this is more about how we do business and conduct our own every day creative process and I found it useful. I hope you do to.

The shocking claim for me was ‘FORGET BRAINSTORMING – What you think you know about fostering creativity is wrong. Here are are some of the techniques that the article claims do boost the creative process:

Don’t Tell Someone to be Creative

Such an instruction may just cause people to freeze up. However, according to the University of Georgia’s Mark Runco, there is a suggestion that works: “Do something only you would come up with – that none of your friends or family would think of” When Runco gives this advice in experiments, he sees the number of creative responses double.

Get Moving:

Almost every dimension of cognition improves from 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, and creativity is no exception.

Ditch the Suggestion Box:

If you want to increase innovation within your optical business, one of the first things to do is tear out the suggestion box. Formalized suggestion protocols, whether a box on the wall, an e-mail form, or an internal website, actually stifle innovation because employees feel that their ideas go into a black hole of bureaucracy. Instead employees need to be able to put their own ideas into practice.

Other suggested techniques are:

• Take a break – switch between projects if solutions don’t come immediately
• Follow a passion
• Explore other cultures – cross-cultural experiences force people to adapt and be more flexible

Source: Newsweek – Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

Interview with Anh Nguyen, O.D. – FirstSight Vision Services, Inc.

This is my third interview with a FirstSight Vision Services OD but I specifically wanted to talk to Dr. Nguyen as she is also the Director of Quality Assurance for FirstSightVision Services, Inc. and I know many of our readers are interested about this aspect of the business.

Anh Nguyen, O.D.

Dr. Nguyen graduated from SCCO in 2003 and went to work as an O.D. in the private practice area filling in as needed for different practices. She told me that as private practice was emphasized in Optometry School, this was her first choice rather than going to work for a chain. However, as she needed more work the chain route became a necessary option and she became an on call OD for a year at various corporate chains and often worked 6 long full days a week, sometimes 14 days straight!

Dr. Nguyen said she did not even know that Walmart stores offered eye exams and services. But then she went to work for an OD that had a Walmart practice, at first with some skepticism but she was pleasantly surprised by what she found. I asked Dr Nguyen what she meant by this and she says:

“I saw that all the FirstSight Vision doctors were subject to a Credential policy and a general Quality Assurance program with high standards that had to be met. This is what motivated me to work for FirstSight Vision Services full time.”

FirstSight Vision Services:

I followed up with some more questions about FirstSight Vision Services as follows:

Q. How long have you been responsible for the company’s Quality Assurance?

A. Since 2005 but for  the majority of my week I still see patients.

Q. What is required as far as QA by FirstSight Vision Services’ ODs”

A. Here are some examples:

• Deliver to the highest standards or above
• Lead with Quality, this is the most important aspect of patient care
• Provide a comprehensive eye exam e.g. including dilation as indicated
• Be accessible to all demographic groups which can  mean making eye exam services available 7 days a week and during extended hours at certain locations
• All FirstSight Vision Services’ OD’s are held accountable via tracking and patient surveys. FirstSight Vision Services will work with the provider to reach quality goals if they are not being met.

Q. How do other FirstSight Vision Services’ OD’s have input to QA?

A. We have an OD panel of approximately 130 optometrists and some of these are on the quality review committee which meets quarterly for input, developing new procedures etc., so we are always updating and changing for improvement purposes. We also encourage feedback from our doctors at our semi-annual doctor meetings.

Q. What do you see as the biggest QA challenges?

A. Making sure we are all on the same page as far as providing patient care and continually improving our program to enhance optical patient care.

Q. How do you deal with optical patient complaints especially when eyewear is involved?

A. We always give optical patients the opportunity to be reexamined and their eyewear rechecked at no charge. Assuming the glasses were provided by Walmart, the retail side will remake the glasses if needed and the issue will be resolved. Both sides work together to take care of the patient.

Dr Anh Nguyen:

I cajoled Dr Nguyen her into telling me little bit more about herself! By the way Nguyen is pronounced “nwin” I think! She was born in Vietnam and came here with her parents when she was a very young child. Dr Nguyen is a working mom with two children, 2 ½ and 1 ½ so I expect coming to work is a relief at times! She loves patients and would never give that part of her job up. She says the best part of her job is seeing patients get the eyecare they need.

eyeRead – The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working

I recently did a post about the need to take vacation planning for optical businesses. This book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, by Tony Schwartz was reviewed on Channel 6 this morning and one of the Top 10 tips included the need to take vacation. Another eyeRead recommendation from The Optical Visionsite.com. Another good tip is “Take back your lunch”. How may of you eyecare professionals are eating at your desk?

Thank you to for Soderberg and Walman Optical Labs for sponsoring this eyeRead post today.

Optical Employers Staying Compliant with Health-care Reform

We are following as best we can, the new health-care reform so we can help our readers who have optical employees with staying compliant. Key changes affecting section 125 FSAs (Flexible Spending Accounts) include:

• The costs for over-the-counter drugs not prescribed by a doctor will be excluded from being reimbursable through an HRA or health FSA and from being reimbursed on a tax-free basis through an HSA (Health Savings Account), effective January 1, 2011.
• Employers will be required to report the aggregate value of the benefits they provide for all health coverage, excluding medical FSAs, on employees’ W2s.
• Medical FSA contributions will be capped at the lesser of the company’s plan maximum of $2,500, starting in 2013 (not 2011, as passed in the original Senate bill).

MONEY SAVING TIP FOR OPTICAL EMPLOYERS: FSA – Flexible Spending Account

A flexible spending account (FSA) helps decrease payroll taxes by letting your optical employees set aside a portion their salary for out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision and dependent care expenses. Josh Mesirow, Chief Financial Officer for Vision West says “We are very happy that we can provide our employees with Flexible Saving Accounts as they provide considerable tax savings for the optical employee as well as decreasing Vision West’s payroll taxes”.

Source: Paychex

Vacation Planning for Optical Businesses

Thank you to the OWA and Amy Spiezio,  Managing Editor for Eyecare Business magazine for  allowing us to post this article from OWA’s One Minute Mentor. We think it will be helpful for our optical readers planning vacation this summer – I particularly like the part about staying away from your optical business email!

Yes, I wish I was here too!

Going to the beach, the mountains, or even just the back yard this summer? Good! It will help you work better in the long run.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Jay Henderson suggests in a Business Week article “”How to Take a Vacation” that vacations are a critical part of doing business. In the story Henderson says, “Vacations can improve the quality of lives and the quality of the professional services we offer if you come back focused and recharged. When I plan my vacations effectively, I’m able to return to work with a strong focus and energy level.”

Think it’s impossible for you to go away and relax? Consider these how-to tips from PricewaterhouseCoopers:

1. INFORM: Let your clients know your vacation schedule, especially when you’ll return and who your backup is. Also let them know that you will not be available during your vacation. In the office, have a policy in place that clearly states the acceptable reasons for contacting individuals who are on vacation. Finally, change your voicemail and email to reflect your out-of-office status and provide a name and number for immediate assistance to your callers.

2. PREPARE: Communicate with your manager and your subordinates about your departure plans and what is in the works that may pop up while you are away. Clean up your workspace and clearly mark any items that may be needed by others while you are away.

3. BEING THERE: While on vacation, fight the temptation to call in or sign in to your email. You are entitled to your time off and your coworkers deserve your trust that they can keep the roof from falling in while you are away. Let your vacation time refresh your spirit and boost your imagination—it will enhance your work in the long run!

4. GETTING BACK: Ease into your return. Avoid setting meetings for your first day back in the office. Instead, take the time to dig out, respond to voice mail and email, and share the stories of your adventures with your coworkers.

In a world that seems to get smaller and smaller and more connected for constant communications, vacations from it all are more important than ever. Take the time to ensure that you play as hard as you work.

Henderson notes: “Vacation is about fun, recharging batteries, creating and enhancing relationships, and trying new experiences. Our people work hard and do a great job in serving our clients in a quality manner. We want them to take the same approach and focus on their vacation experiences, because when this happens, everyone benefits.”

How To Make A Million Before You Graduate

Forbes has an interesting story about this young kid (21), Jamie Murray Wells who parlayed his 2,000 (Euro) student loan into an online eyewear company glassesdirect.com, a London based retailer that does about $5 million in sales.  The Forbes Story goes on to write about 9 other mini mogul millionaires and how they did it. The youngest was 15 years old!! Interesting reading read the full story here at Forbes

www.forbes.com/2010/02/17/make-a-million-before-graduation-entrepreneurs-finance_2.html

Eye How-Removing Your Personal Information From Spokeo

Personal information shows up everywhere. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and Plaxo and where-ever else and as much as we try to not let out too much personal information- it still shows up.  A new ‘personal information’ site called Spokeo is on the loose. When I went to check- the information was right and didn’t like the fact it said I live alone in a wealthy neighborhood. Not good.

So pass this on to your friends and families

To remove your personal information from the Spokeo.com site, following these instructions:

1. Go to:  http://www.spokeo.com/
2. Type your first and last name in the search bar at the top of the page
3. Locate your profile and click on it (the names are separated by state)
4. When your profile appears, copy the URL from your browser address bar
5. Scroll down to the very bottom of the screen and locate “PRIVACY” in the bottom right corner
6. Click on the “PRIVACY” link
7. Paste the copied URL in the text box
8. Enter your email (you’ll receive a notification email with further instructions)
9. Enter the code displayed to the right of the text box
10. Click the “REMOVE LISTING” command button
11. Go to your email and follow the instructionsorel Eyewear’s LIGHTEC Carbon submission to