For many of optometry’s class of 2018, school is out, and commencement is over. Now, you get to start your career in the eyecare industry. While the next chapter in your life may seem a bit scary, you don’t have to go at it alone. Below are some tips from your optometry community that you can use throughout your optometry career.

You’ve worked hard to get your optometric practice to where it is today. And while you’ve carefully hired the employees who work at your practice, selecting the best practice management and EHR software for your practice has proven to be a bit more challenging.

Growing your optometric practice by adding new patients is an important benchmark to monitor for your optometric practice. Many practices focus on marketing strategies that bring new patients through the practice doors. Unfortunately, there’s little focus on retaining your current patients, which could be costing your practice money. According to one article, it can cost five times more to attract a new customer than it would to keep an existing one.

Running an optometric practice is expensive. While most practice owners expect that they’ll incur fees for utilities and rent, there are dozens of smaller expenses that many owners don’t consider. Whether you’re thinking about opening a practice cold, or you want to get a better handle of where your practice profits are going, review the six hidden costs of running an optometric practice and see how these costs are affecting your practice.

Making the best use of your time in the eye care industry can create opportunities for you to schedule more patients or catch up on administrative work. Unfortunately, many practices are hampered by outdated processes and service-based software that creates error-prone inefficiencies in the office workflow.