Starting an Optometric Practice: Checklist Part 3
Three Part Checklist Series
Starting an optometry practice requires careful planning and execution. This three-part series will provide you an important framework for organizing your thoughts and plans for starting your own private practice.
Our expert teams of MBAs, CPAs and business consultants are trusted, experienced and knowledgeable in all aspects of practice start-up. We are ready to help you achieve a business that is not only profitable, solvent, and patient centered, but one that will provide you a lifetime of pride and financial rewards!
Let’s finish with Checklist Part 3 as a follow-up to our Part 1 and Part 2 Checklists:
Marketing & Patient Acquisition
- Competitive Advantage: Determine and define what makes you and your services unique and how it solves your patients eyecare needs and concerns.
- Brand Identity: Develop your brand identity by creating a brand name/ tradename, logo, color scheme, and tagline that reflect you and your practice’s personality. Be sure to register your tradename with your state.
- Marketing Calendar: Develop a plan to create interest in the community about your new practice. Educate and inform consumers of your services through digital marketing, traditional advertising, and promotions.
- Signage: Plan and budget for external signage and internal signage to promote your services.
- Marketing Materials: Develop brochures, business cards, and promotional materials. Consider your marketing calendar and marketing budget.
- Practice Website: Create a professional website with details about you, professionally, and your services, hours, location/map, contact information and accepted vision and medical insurances. Optimize your website for local search terms related to optometry to improve online visibility.
- Social Media Presence: Set up social media profiles to engage with potential patients and promote special offers.
- Networking and Community Engagement: Build relationships with other healthcare providers and service referrers in your community. Participate in community events. Offer educational seminars or screenings to increase your visibility.
- Grand Opening: Plan a grand opening event or special promotion to announce you are ready to serve new patients and their friends and families.
- Online Reviews: Encourage satisfied patients to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and health-related review sites.
Hiring, Staffing & Training
- Employee Handbook, HIPAA Manual: Establish your processes, procedures and protocols for staff training and education. Create documents outlining practice policies, expectations, and legal obligations, ensuring you are in compliance with HIPAA regulations.
- Job Descriptions, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Ensure your staff understands their roles, customer service standards, and company policies. Create written standard policies for job duties and expectations, as well as training materials for patient flow, exam procedures and office protocols.
- Staffing: Recruit, select and hire staff based on job descriptions and practice need. Your cash flow projections will dictate your staffing levels. Utilize recruitment tools to assess positional and personal fit.
- Compensation Structure, Payroll and Benefits: Establish a pay structure aligned with your compensation and benefits plan. Choose a payroll company and an administrator for your benefit package.
- Training: Train your staff on office procedures, diagnostic instrumentation, practice management software systems, schedule management, medical records management, optical and contact lens orders, invoice processing and revenue cycle management. Include your expectations for patient interactions and standards for your patient’s experience.
Operations and Ongoing Considerations
- Utilities: Set up electricity, water, internet, phone, and other essential services for your business.
- Vendors and Suppliers: From laboratories to contact lens suppliers, from bookkeeping services to property contents and liability insurance, choose your vendor partner and suppliers wisely. Williams Group has the vendor and supplier connections you need for best business outcomes, profitability and solvency.
- Financial Performance: Track your financial performance by setting up accounting software to track collected receipts, expenses, and net income. Regularly review financial statements and cash flow to ensure profitability.
- Accounting, Tax and Payroll Support: Stay on top of business taxes by filing them on time. This includes sales tax, income tax, and payroll tax. Williams Group provides a one-stop shop for optometric bookkeeping, tax preparation and payroll services to streamline your ongoing operations. Allocating these administrative duties to a trusted third-party partner frees up your schedule for more patient care and/or time doing what you enjoy.
- Daily Operations: Establish processes for inventory management, customer service, product delivery, and key operations. Create systems to monitor regularly. Understand practice metrics and utilize them to make appropriate management decision.
- Patient Quality Control: Develop systems and processes to track patient satisfaction, monitor patient outcomes, and adjust operational practices to maintain your high standards of patient care and patient experience.
By staying organized and dedicated to the process, you can lay a strong foundation for your new business and increase your chances of success. Look to Williams Group for guidance as you begin your journey to private practice ownership. We have been the industry’s trusted source of guidance for decades.
Tammi Sufficool, MBA