Dialing for dollars: How to reduce costs

by | Jun 3, 2015 | Day in the Life, Manage with Excellence, Management, Practice Growth, Pursue Growth, Time Management, Uncategorized

Photo of a telephone and dollars over a white background

In the past several years, staying profitable in an optometric business has become a battle. Reimbursements continue to decline while cost of goods and general optometry practice bills increase. Expenses will quickly eat up profits if you don’t proactively control your costs.

The bite that hit our practice recently was the corporate “family plan” for our mobile phone and device costs. I was amazed how the plans had changed, without even a courtesy call to inform us of the rate increases. One phone call this morning saved us $100 per month ($1,200/year) in data usage.

To be proactive in keeping your costs as low as possible, make the following a yearly habit:

4 steps every optometry CEO should take yearly

1. Collect all reoccurring bills into one folder.

2. Review the costs of the bills and what services are included.

  • Examples – mobile/device, telephone system, internet, trash, general insurance, electric, cleaning, lawn services, snow removal, IT company, data storage, shredding of hard drives, service agreements, software, website company, etc.

3. Highlight all the numbers that represent each company.

4. Call each business, asking the following questions:

  • Is the office currently receiving the best rate for the services that we receive?
  • If we were to switch to a different company, should we expect to receive the same offer coming back to you?
  • What other services do you offer that could potentially save us money?
  • Would we receive a better rate if we committed for a period of time?

Many variables impact the rate that each company gives you. One thing is for sure, all companies have different rate plans and those plans change to adapt to their competitors.

For example, we have been with SolutionReach for three years and the agreement includes a no-rate increase as long as we continue with them. This loyalty benefit allows us to control costs as the practice grows.

Many optometrists say the time required to do this is not worth the savings involved. I respectfully disagree, as they are usually the ones who wonder why their practice net continues to slowly erode. Don’t be surprised if the yearly exercise saves you between $1,200 to $6,000 per year.

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