Corporate optometry can be an excellent path to having your own business.

Many young O.D.s aspire to running their own practice—and find that working as a corporate optometry sublease is a fast way to accomplish that.

But what about when you’re ready to grow?

Corporate optometry can allow you to do that, too, by having multiple practice locations.

As with any practice situation, there are pros and cons to having multiple subleases. COT! asked three successful corporate optometry business owners about their paths to multiple locations, and how they balance it all.

DISCOUNTS + OPPORTUNITIES

When you have multiple locations, vendors will provide more support for your practice and possibly better discounts for the volume that your office orders. The money “saved” through bigger discounts can be used for more marketing and growing your practice.

Those taking on a sublease do have to be ready to be a hands-on business owner in addition to being an optometrist. Having multiple subleases requires the O.D. to field many admin-type tasks, so thinking like a CEO is crucial—hiring the right talent, growing the business, and maintaining balance to have time with your family.

• PROS: “Having five LensCrafters subleases makes it easier for me to employ blanket marketing over an entire area. Plus, employees can be shared between locations, and my vendor support increases.”

• CONS: “There are some disadvantages with having to find doctors, add more staff, and time management issues.”

SHARING THE LOAD

Sharing expenses, duties, and staff among several offices can be a great benefit to an optometrist who has multiple lease locations. Staff can be cross-trained and utilized at more than one location.

This way, office duties and practice roles can be switched or adjusted according to the time of the year without putting a financial burden on the practice.

• PROS: “Your staff from your first office can cross-train the staff in the newer one. You can move staff around to cover vacations or unexpected leaves. Your revenue at your first location should be able to pay for an associate O.D. and auxiliary staff costs plus 15%.

“The boss (you) will be working at the new office, so you don’t want to be stretched too thin financially. You can delegate some things such as staff training or insurance billing to the first location (assuming you have the same EIN).”

• CONS: “The feeling that you are not giving enough attention to the first office location. You must delegate a fair amount to others at your first practice so that the transition is smooth. Also, patients becoming upset that you are not available at the first location. Overlapping patients between both offices can also be a pain if your EMR is not in the cloud.”

PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Deciding that the pros outnumber the cons….what’s the next move in being a successful multiple-location optometrist? Having an action plan to be able to handle multiple subleases is the key to your success.

So, where to start? Another one of our corporate O.D.s shares some advice.

• SOLID ADVICE: “Having a system and setting things up so they can run as autonomously as possible is really important. You need to have your staff on board and train associates regarding your expectations.

“It’s important to be very organized and consistent in how things are done. I try to foster good relationships with those I work with and, in return, they can help me with small things like supplies, cleaning, answering patient requests, ordering contacts…the list goes on.”

GO CORPORATE + PRIVATE

After you have successfully set up your first sublease and there are no options for another sublease within that brand, O.D.s who have the entrepreneurial spirit can open a private practice as an additional location (if allowed in the sublease contract).

Many optometrists have been able to balance having a private practice and a corporate practice if they have the right contract terms and are able to accommodate the hours in both their lease and private practice.

• PROS: You’ll get to expand your office demographics by being able to see certain patients who might be limited due to insurance coverage. Being able to hire your own optical staff in a private setting can be an appealing factor, as well as determining your own business hours not dictated by retail hours. The costs of private practice are usually offset by the income of the corporate location until the private practice starts to build up steam.

• CONS: Some cons are the higher expenses that are incurred in opening a private practice and the additional attention that a private office needs compared with a turnkey sublease.

There are many opportunities in corporate optometry to have multiple practices. Evaluating the benefits and disadvantages of doing so can help you determine if being a CEO is the right option for you, and help you plan your course correctly. COT!

MARIA SAMPALIS, O.D., is the founder of the Corporate Optometry group on Facebook and corporateoptometry.com . Currently, she is owner of Sampalis Eye Care in Cranston, RI, and has a sublease at For Eyes by GrandVision in Rhode Island.