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In Focus!

Operations

Operations = keeping the practice running smoothly every single day.

This is the day-to-day running of the practice.

This is the engine that keeps your practice running, the day-to-day things you need to keep on top of and continually grow and maintain. This step includes:

• Rosters for the team, making appointments, and setting up recalls
• The patient journey – from the time a patient checks in for their appointment to the time they collect their glasses and the follow up or touch points in between
• Communication, education, and marketing to your patients
• Team training and ongoing management
• Managing cash flow – invoicing, banking, ordering, and paying the bills
• The boring stuff like WH&S, compliance, security, etc.
• Ensuring consistent service and training for things like complaints

Growth

Growth = intentionally building a bigger, better, and more profitable practice.

This is when the practice becomes stable, and you start expanding your impact or income.

This is where a lot of practices hit a plateau or struggle as owners are stuck “in” the practice doing, the day-to-day things, and often don’t take time out to spend “on” the practice, which is where growth, ideas, marketing, and building can happen. This step includes:

• Being visible in the community, building your brand, and marketing your business
• Considering new services such as myopia management, dry eye, Ortho-K
• Building to a second or additional optometrists
• Improving patient retention through updated service and recall plans
• Looking at your KPI’s – not to push numbers, but to understand if what you are doing is working
• Considering additional locations
• Upgrading equipment or systems
• Ongoing maintenance and updating of the practice to ensure it looks current

Value Maximisation

Value maximisation = polishing the practice so it’s worth the most when you sell.

This is where your planning and ongoing maintenance comes to fruition. This is where I often get called in to help, usually at the time a practice is starting to consider their future. I suggest you move to this phase 5-10 years before you want to sell, to ensure you have the best form of your practice to pass on. This step includes:

• Cleaning up the financials
• Ensuring strong, predictable profit that is showing growth – not in decline or plateauing
• Upgrading equipment or fit out – if necessary
• Considering lease terms (so it is favourable for a new owner)
• Monitoring the numbers and improving results in areas such as patient retention/recalls and KPI’s centred on each patient you see
• Starting to consider who you want to buy – the sale option such as independent, partner, corporate, etc.

Sale (or Exit)

Sale = transferring the business smoothly and securely to its next owner.

This is the final transition – handing over what you have built to someone else. This is often where emotions kick in and start to impact the process. We all like to think our practice is worth more, we know how much work we have put in, but unless you have prepared well, this is often where a practice owner is hit hard. I’ve seen many deals fall down at this stage because an owner is not prepared, doesn’t agree with the offer, or is finding it hard to hear what others are saying about the business they have built. This step includes:

• Getting a formal valuation
• Preparing documents for due diligence
• Getting a prospectus prepared for potential buyers
• Making a decision about who you want to buy your practice, who you want to negotiate with (another independent, partner, or corporate, etc.)
• Deciding on price then negotiating price and terms
• Managing all of the legal and accounting requirements
• Communication with your team and your patients
• Deciding if you will have a transition period or a handover period
• Deciding on your role after the sale – stay through a transition period, work elsewhere, locum, or retire