How did you transition from your residency into practicing optometry?
Mid-way through my residency at SUNY, I sent letters to several doctors who I thought would be good to work for in Colorado, which is where I planned to live. I expressed that I would like to join their existing vision therapy practice or to bring vision therapy to their practice if they didn’t offer that service. I got two interviews out of that and I ended up working for one of the practices part time. I later became a full time OD at the practice and was asked to add a vision therapy program to the practice. I did primary care for two days out of the week and vision therapy on the other two days that I worked there.
How was that experience?
It was great. I learned a lot about the business aspect of optometry during my time at that practice. The vision therapy portion of the practice was booming and we ran out of space quickly. I had my first child around that time and I began thinking about starting my own practice.
What motivated you to start your own practice?
I learned a lot about myself and about practicing optometry during my time as an employee. I also realized that I wanted to do things differently than how I was able to at the time. I saw my options as either buying an existing practice, joining a practice as a partner or opening my own practice cold. There wasn’t an existing practice available that I was interested in, but I would’ve been happy with joining an existing group practice as a partner. Unfortunately, the opportunities that were available were too far away from where I lived. So I decided to jump off the cliff and go for it.
Was the idea of starting your own practice intimidating?
In a sense, yes. I felt that my residency had prepared me well for being able to treat patients, but I was a little intimidated by the business aspect of starting a practice because I didn’t have much experience in that area.
Why did you choose to open a vision therapy only practice?
I decided to have a vision therapy only practice because I knew that being a mom, a business owner and a doctor would be challenging and I didn’t want to spread myself too thin. I enjoyed practicing primary care optometry too, but I felt that narrowing my focus by choosing to not see primary care patients and to not have an optical would give me the best opportunity to be successful at that point-in-time.
How long did it take you to get your practice up and running?
Altogether it took me about a year to go from committing to the idea to opening the doors and seeing patients. I think it can be done in less time if you are knowledgeable about business and have much of the planning done beforehand.
What do you wish you would have known about business management before starting your practice?
I wish there would have been a “how to get started guide” for starting a practice, but unfortunately there wasn’t. I quickly realized that I needed to hire an accountant. I didn’t know that, as a small business, you’re required to pay taxes quarterly and filing business taxes is not an easy task for a novice.
What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of starting a practice?
Hiring was tough. I was lucky enough to have a colleague who had experience with hiring offer to help me with my first interview. He helped me develop an interview strategy. I’ve been fortunate to find great employees and I now have an excellent staff.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of starting their own practice?
I think that the most important thing is to do your due diligence before buying a practice or starting one. It’s a good idea to create a checklist to help make sure that you have the necessary skills and resources before you start. Taking courses through the local small business association would be a good place to start. You also have to be comfortable with a certain amount of uncertainty in your life. Things won’t always happen according to plan and you will have to be willing to adapt.
How do you feel about the whole experience of starting and running your own practice?
I feel like I’ve learned so much, especially about myself. I feel that I’ve grown a lot as a person. I’m much more confident about what I can accomplish now than I was before. You have times when you wonder if it’s really going to work and now I see that it is working and that I have a stable business that is doing well. I look at how far I’ve come and how much I do every day and it’s a great feeling. Having done this, I feel like I can tackle a lot of things in life.
Fayiz Mahgoub
Western University of Health Sciences College of Optometry
