Have you ever Googled “how to run a successful optician’s business?” That’s what Rachel Murray did, here’s what happened…
Rachel Murray, owner of Rachel Murray Eyecare, was working 6.5 days in her 5-month-old optometry practice. That means no full days off!
For an optical business owner, no matter where you are, what situation you’re in, we all face a lot of the same challenges. Many independent optometrists are working too many days in their businesses, and feel there is no way out.
But Rachel knew there had to be a better way to run her practice. One night she Googled…
“How to run a successful optician’s business?‘
Rachel found Conor Heaney and the Optical Success Academy and soon joined. Since then she:
- grew her revenue by 35%
- went on a 10 day holiday, stress-free, while her team achieved their second best month
- went from working 6.5 days in her practice to 5
Rachel Murray of Rachel Murray Eyecare shares:
“I opened the practice four years ago as a new startup. And we’re based in Sligo, which is a small coastal town in northwest Ireland. There’s a population of about 38,000. In the town, we also have four other really successful independent practices and Specsavers. So we had some real challenges.
So I joined the Optical Success Academy when my practice was probably just about four or five months old. I was in the practice on my own. I knew there was no reason to even catch up that evening because nobody ever actually walked through the door. I was sitting, googling how to run a successful optician’s business. And Conor Heaney popped up. I signed up.
Now, we have a real strong reputation and a great team in place. There is much less stress for myself, my staff, my family, and I have a better relationship with suppliers. My practice is a happy place and I am excited to go to work.”
So what is Rachel doing differently at her eye care business? Here’s a peek into just a couple of the many strategies she implemented from the Optical Success Academy…
1. Get your prices right and don’t be afraid to carry high end eyewear.
Are you worried about losing patients if you raise your prices? Do you think you’ll lose business if you carry expensive eyewear? In the Optical Success Academy, we teach optical business owners how to raise prices with no resistance.
It’s based on the principle of price elasticity.
Even if your practice is 80% managed care, these price principles work and will elevate how much your patients happily spend on eyewear.
When Conor Heaney, founder of the Optical Success Academy, took on the project of buying his second practice, he implemented price elasticity principles. The effect was the bottom third of existing patients magically disappeared.
All of a sudden, the practice was seeing fewer patients but a much higher quality of patient who would spend a lot more money. And then a constant stream of these ideal clients started showing up at the door. And the lower end clients simply stopped coming in.
Conor’s practice had fewer clients, but the clients they had were much more profitable than the ones they got rid of. They were able to devote full attention to doing the best job they could for their ideal patients because they weren’t busy running around serving a mass of low quality clients who aren’t profitable. And it is a lot more enjoyable and fulfilling work for everyone at the practice!
Always remember this:
Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash flow is king.
Price can liberate you and it is the fastest thing to affect your bottom line. It is critical to get your pricing right because that is where your profit and cash flow comes from.
Rachel Murray spent time getting her prices right which added more to her bottom line.
In the Optical Success Academy, Rachel Murray discovered how to easily sell more expensive (and more appealing) products.
Rachel differentiated her practice by carrying high end, independent, niche eyewear. It worked for Rachel in Ireland, it works for practices in the US, in the UK, and for practices around the world. This is the biggest untapped opportunity that exists in the U.S. to take your practice to new highs.
Rachel shares,
“We carried Lindberg for about 12 months. We were doing really well with it. We thought to increase the kind of stock we were selling; we took on Lindberg Horn [one of their most expensive lines]. We only actually took on six pieces. The day that the actual Horn arrived into the practice, I was absolutely sweating. So nervous. I looked at the invoice, I was like, “What the hell have I done?” I couldn’t even look at them.
By six o’clock that evening, our dispensing optician had managed to sell a pair!
When I first opened the practice, the most expensive frame I was selling was €320. At the time, I never even knew there was frames available over €1000. And I never thought in a small practice in the west of Ireland it would be possible to sell the frame with that value. So, Optical Success Academy really taught me that the impossible is possible.”
Are you scared to raise your prices or carry high end inventory?
At Conor Heaney’s practice, the first time they raised their prices they were anxiously awaiting the aftermath from outraged patients but it never came. It was actually an anti-climax. Conor was nervous, staff were nervous but nothing happened. Business went on as normal. Patients happily paid what was asked without question. And Conor’s practice made more money.
In the Optical Success Academy, you get the 3 most important price strategies that allow you to raise prices without making your staff nervous or losing any clients. It’s critical to know how to do this.
To learn more about the Optical Success Academy, click here.
2. Create an experience for your clients
Price is normally linked to the product. But if you study the psychology of price, you’ll find there are many ways to break that link. Optometry practice owners normally set prices based on what their suppliers tell them, or historic pricing formulas for the industry, or what the competition charges. But that’s the wrong approach.
In the eye care business, price is actually very elastic – that means the price someone will happily pay for a product or service will vary depending on the manner in which it is sold.
Price is not just tied to product. The experience is the differentiating factor. Take buying coffee for example. You can pay 99 cents for a coffee in McDonalds. Or you can pay 5 times as much for a coffee in Starbucks. Yes the coffee is slightly better. But not by enough to justify 5 times the price. You see, Starbucks understands that it is not about the product. It is about the experience. And customers pay more for an experience.
Think in terms of value, not price. Value is in the eye of the beholder. To be of service you should offer and deliver what customers and patients value.
The question to ask is not “how much will the patient pay?” The more sophisticated question is:
“How much will they pay when we present it in THIS way, with THIS environment, with THIS kind of service, with THESE differentiation strategies?”
With the correct presentation, the right environment, the right service, and the right products, managed care patients will cheerfully spend significantly more money on eyewear. Optical Success Academy members have proven this is true, over and over again, in all types of locations.
Optical Success Academy clients, like Rachel Murray, are at a huge advantage because they get step-by-step price strategies that work. They get a system that shows them exactly what to do and makes it effortless for their team to sell your products and services at higher prices.
THE MATH:
The average mark up used for eyewear is 2.6 x. That means a $100 frame will retail at $260 and generate a gross profit of $160. The Optical Success Academy shows you how you can easily get a mark up of 3.6 x or more. The same $100 frame now retails at $360 with a gross profit of $260. An extra $100 profit for the same amount of work. Do you think that would make a difference to your bank balance? In just 12 months and 1000 dispenses it translates to an extra $100,000 of PROFIT.
