As I’ve mentioned before, my daughter has recently joined the ‘glasses club’, as she calls it. As we’re out and about, this can sometimes start conversations with other people. Usually, they’ll say that she looks cute in her glasses, and the conversation about eyewear moves on from there. As a side note - people never tell me that I look cute in my glasses - what’s with that? … [Read more...]
Happily Ever After?
Building a lasting relationship with your lab. Everything you wanted to know about your lab, but were afraid to ask. As optical professionals, its critical to have a great relationship with our patients. A relationship based on understanding and caring. Inter-office relationships are also crucial in providing the best possible care through cooperation and unity. But let’s … [Read more...]
You Can Make It
With all of the uncertainty that we have going forward in this industry, your best hope for survival is really down to one person - you. I’m sure you knew that lesson was coming. When it comes down to it, these are business decisions that you need to make, and you need to make sure that you’re well-informed about the way things are, and where they could go. To … [Read more...]
Survival Guide: Frames
If you’re currently in a situation where you carry a large number of big-brand frames, what can you do to get yourself out of there? Obviously, you don’t want to just swap to any frame line - you need to research what your options are. When doing that research, however, what kind of things do you need to be concerned about? You want to make sure you’ve asked the right questions … [Read more...]
Winter is Coming
For those of you unfamiliar with Game of Thrones, allow me to give a very brief summary of the plot-line, as I feel it is startlingly similar to what's going on in the optical industry at present. Picture it: you have one extremely wealthy and powerful family (or company) that is seeking to rule everyone else. In their quest for that, any competing families are either bought … [Read more...]
The 12 Ways of Business
Budget-based marketing ideas for your small business Tis the season for reflection and contemplation about many things in life… which could/should also include the life of your small business. This time of year can certainly be challenging for a number of reasons, as it pertains to sales and growth. The majority of shoppers are in other retail and merchant outlets searching … [Read more...]
Social Networking or Social ‘Not-working’?
Make a few simple adjustments so that you can spread some holiday cheer this year! One of the major themes of this time of year is ‘spreading cheer’ which, in my opinion, is much more difficult today than it was years ago. Technology has made many of us, strangely, both more social and antisocial at the same time. It’s much easier to sit and chat online and text than it is to … [Read more...]
Rescue Mission – opt Services
So you’ve seen all of the stuff we’ve been talking about in this issue, as well as some of our previous issues of OPT Magazine. After (hopefully) reading all of the things we’ve talked about, like logo redesign, branding, and all that other good stuff, the question in your mind is, hopefully, “Now what?” − Giving you all of these great ideas and suggestions, but not having a … [Read more...]
It’s A Wonderful Lab
Why Would You Ever Want To Run an Optical Lab? The words bounced around in his brain. “Nobody makes money in a lab,” he could still hear what they had told him years ago. They might not have been wrong. George sat, staring down at the contract in front of him. He was tired. So tired. He’d spent so many hours behind this desk, sitting in this chair - checking work, filling out … [Read more...]
How the Grinch Stole Who-tometry
In his cave, just north of Who-ville, the Big Optical Grinch sat, with his newly-acquired lapdog, Max. Now, the Grinch hated all of the Whos down in Who-ville. But there was one thing that he did love, which was all of their lovely Who-money. He wasn’t sure what it was about it, but he wanted to get more of it. He knew that the biggest shopping day of the year was approaching, … [Read more...]