The decision to sell my optometry practice

In 2007, after being in practice for 20 years, I was looking for something new. My boss said, ‘I’m thinking of opening a fourth practice. Do you want to go into partnership?’ I thought, ‘well, I am looking for a challenge.’

At the same time, I got a letter from Aston University, saying a remote doctor of optometry programme was launching. I thought, ‘this is exactly the challenge I was looking for.’ But we’d already signed the lease. I signed up to do the doctorate too.

Tied in

The practice consumed my whole life. Even when I wasn’t there, I was worrying about it. I know it’s normal, but I wasn’t cut out for it.

Within 10 months, Specsavers and Boots

Opticians opened. The town went from three practices to six. Then, we had the financial crash.

It was costing hundreds of pounds a day just to open the door. Some days, we’d only sell a lens cloth and make a profit of 80p. It got to the point where we had to rent our family home to PhD students.

Break clause

Four years in, I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ My partner took over for the final year, before we could enact our break clause. For me, stepping away was worth it. It’s hard to describe the relief. I hated the management and marketing. I wanted to do a good job of looking after patients. It’s hard to balance that when you’re worried about paying the bills.

I finished the doctorate in 2012. The practice’s failure drove me. Had the letter arrived from Aston a few months prior, I wouldn’t have opened the practice. I just knew that the doctorate was the start of something new, so I was channelling my angst into completing it. It was a six-year programme and I’d done it in three and a half, despite also teaching and working six days in the practice.

Lessons

The experience taught me resilience, and that, to find out what you do like, sometimes you have to work out what you don’t. It’s okay to admit you’re not good at something.

We’re now 10 years on. Almost every day, I’ll walk past the practice and think about how horrible that time was. But then, I remember that I’m not there now, on a Saturday at 8pm, trying to sort out everything that didn’t get done in the week.

Closing the practice was absolutely a positive. I can understand why people would regard it as a failure. But I don’t know how you could define stepping away from something that you hate, to move on to something that you love, as anything but a success.

Due to our expansionwe're lookingfor talented optometristswho share our passionfor patient care. At SpaMedica, you'll benefit from fantastic training and professional development opportunities and work with some of the UK's leading ophthalmologists, nurses, and HCTs.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

You'llbe GOCregistered,with at least 12 months' post-registrationexperience- we providefull training so previoushospitalexperienceisn't required.

You'llbe someonethat enjoysvariety,is calm under pressure,great at problemsolvingand is willingto go the extra mile to providethe best serviceand advicefor our patients.

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