BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Are You a Unique Plant?

How to be a kick-a$$ female entrepreneur, Part 1

hello, I’m Tanya Gill, O.D. I started this column because I wanted to share my journey from optometrist to entrepreneur. When you’re in school, you learn how to be a doctor, but not necessarily how to run a business.

By definition alone, an entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater-than-normal financial risks in order to do so.” Are you the one who comes to the rescue when there’s a crazy person in the lobby? Do you break out in cold sweats at night because you may or may not have enough cash flow to cover payroll? Technically, does your bank own your practice and not you?

Well, this is entrepreneurship. It’s the best thing in the entire world, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. In this six-part series I want to share what makes this journey worthwhile—and how I continue to create my dream practice every day.

Am I a Big Tree or a Unique Plant?

The thing about running a business that makes it a challenge is that it actually has to run like a business. Back in 2013, I signed up for an online class called “Grow to Greatness.” It was a life-changer.

In the course description, there was an image of a person holding two handfuls of soil with a little seedling plant growing out of the soil. That was me. All I had was two handfuls of soil and my little business that I wanted to grow into a million-dollar practice. But how? Where to even start?

After a few weeks, I had my answer. Have you ever had that moment when the clouds part in the sky and you put down your wine glass because you’re about to face palm, because the answer is so…simple?

When it comes to growth, am I a big tree or am I a unique plant?

Tanya N. Gill, O.D.

Frames on display on plywood at Oakland Vision Center Optometry

Let me rephrase the question: Am I a big tree that attracts all the sun, or am I a unique plant that attracts the unique hummingbird?

The answer was quite annoyingly simple.

Because I wasn’t in a Costco or a Walmart or a LensCrafters, I was not a big tree and I should stop trying to be one. All signs were pointing at the obvious, and a unique plant is what I had to become. I had to become a niche player.

Hmm…now, how to become that unique plant as it relates to optometry? I’m thinking brightly colored flowers, aren’t you?

What follows are the three major, strategic moves I made to create a plant with brightly colored flowers to attract local hummingbirds. It worked for me, and it can certainly work for you.

Frame inventory. The products you offer have to be different from what the big-box stores offer. Price becomes less of an issue with unique products; they offer value because they are harder to find. My goal was to carry only distinct, independent frame lines. This way, I could stop competing with big-box stores and start creating my own niche.

To get there, we targeted our worst-performing frame collection and sold it down until we reached the magic number of 12. We put those 12 frames in a special discount area and brought in a new, distinct frame line at a similar pricepoint. I repeated this process over and over until we got to where we are today.

Website. A smart person once told me that a website is a fancy, glossy brochure to get people to make contact with you. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, in 2013 I designed a glossy, digital brochure: our website. More than 80% of our new patients come from the Internet, and they often volunteer how much they love our website.

Websites matter—a lot.

Writing a business website is basically like writing a profile for Internet dating. Keep it short and sweet, and, if you add amazingly flattering photos, you should get a ton of replies.

If you’re not an Annie Leibovitz, no problem. You can purchase beautiful, high-resolution stock photos for just $10 each from a stock photo website like Shutterstock.com. Here’s another important tip: if you are going to add staff photos to the site, make sure they are all from the same photographer so there is a cohesive look.

Office remodel. Imagine if you saw a website with beautiful photos, then went to the practice to find outdated carpet and peeling wallpaper. It would just feel disconnected.

That was our problem. In 2014, it was time to remodel our 1,872 square feet of office space, which was also known as “That ’70s Show.”

The best place to get inspiration for an optometry practice remodel is from a non-optometry-related business. I happened to be in a Chipotle when I noticed the plywood perforated walls. That was my inspiration for frame displays.

Customers want the look and feel of a special experience—why not give it to them?

After creating that new plant with brightly colored flowers, the hummingbirds will come and your plant will start to grow. Happy dance.

But we don’t want weeds, nor do we want our flowers to attract wasps. An entrepreneur must avoid distraction and maintain laser focus on the core goals at all times. At all times.

—Tanya N. Gill, O.D.

Tanya N. Gill, O.D., is the owner of Oakland Vision Center Optometry in Oakland, CA. Dr. Gill is obsessed with ocular surface disease, kick-a$$ female entrepreneurship, never saying never, eating vegetables daily, and brightly colored sneaker pumps. She lives in Oakland with her husband and is the founder of We Love Eyes, a company that makes natural cleansing products for the eyes.