You have had the dream since you were in optometry school to have a private practice with your name on it.  You enjoy the social accolades of being known within your community.  You like that everyday you drive into the parking lot and you see your name in lights.  We all like to be known.  Being known is an inherent piece of our genes, for some there is a more dominant expression of this gene then for others.  Even if you are not one that wants to be known, it is still the easy solution in naming your practice.  Here are a couple of reasons why you should lean towards naming your practice anything other than your name or a name of a doctor in the practice.

1. Successful transition to Buyer – When an eye doctor decides that it is time to hang their career up and sell the practice, most eye doctors want to pass on the practice to the next generation and leave a legacy.  The practice will be much more successful long-term if the practice does not revolve around one individual.  When a practice is solely dependent upon Dr. Smith, then when Dr. Smith goes, his or her patient following goes.  It makes no rationale sense, but patients leave the practice when their doctor leaves.  To make a practice more likely to succeed after the key doctor exits, build the brand of the practice around the practice, not around Dr. Smith.  Then when the practice is transitioning to a new associate or new ownership, the brand appearance of the practice does not change.  When the practice transitions and the naming changes, the patients can tend to be confused and confusion is not good for business.  They may ask, “Is Dr. Smith retiring” or “If Dr. Smith is no longer here, then I am going to a place closer to home.”  Whether these thoughts are communicated or just thought by the patient, this is not good for practice.  A new owner will greatly appreciate the advantages of taking the baton and continuing to run, instead of rebranding the practice resulting in confused patients.
2. Constrains your Freedom – Daniel Pink writes a book, Drive, about what drives the latest generations in the workforce.  A company like Google capitalizes on one of the findings in Pink’s research.  Generation X and Y value autonomy more than they value the traditional 9-5 p.m. work time.  What this means is that Google gives their employees the freedom to work whenever they want and however little or much they want, as long as the work meets standards and deadlines.  When an optometry practice is associated with a particular doctor’s name, there is an expectation that the named doctor will be in the office the majority of the time.  When patients associate their eye care with a name like “Vintage Eye Care” then the name remains constant no matter the doctor working or who owns the practice.  Then when the practice is sold or the owner wants to reduce days in the practice, the transition is much smoother.
3. Hubris – Dictionary.com defines hubris as having excessive pride or self-confidence.  According the Jim Collins and his book How the Mighty Fall talks about how hubris brings down the most successful companies.  The leadership of the company becomes so filled with pride that they ignore trends of slowing down and are resistant to others opinions.  We have all seen the great companies that have fallen secondary to a leader that is blinded by their own hubris.  As a practice grows and succeeds it becomes easy to be blinded that you have been the one that has created all the success.  Jim Collins also writes in Good to Great that level 5 leaders are humble and give credit for success to everyone but themselves.  Be proud of your hard work and accomplishments but also protect yourself from the downward spiral of hubris.
4. Google Rankings – You say that you want your practice to be number 1 on Google ranking when patients search for your services.  When a patient is already your patient then they search by your name (ie – the name of the practice).  However, if a potential patient is searching for a new eye doctor they will most likely use one of two keywords, “optometrist” or “eye doctor.”  If your practice name does not have a common keyword that is searched in Google then you are at a disadvantage for being on top.

You might think that I am making a big deal out of a simple name.  Imagine if Apple had named the company “Jobs.”  What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Steve Jobs.  Innovation, forward thinking, creative, and unfortunately, no longer the CEO of the company.  His legacy will live on, but you and I are no Steve Jobs, and our practice is not Apple.  Even though we are neither Jobs nor Apple, consider the branding consistency when a name can be carried on with new associates and partners.  Powerful.