How to win at independent optometry

In his new book, “We’re Not Selling, We’re Winning: The Simple Blueprint That Grew Our Practice from $280K to $4M,” Kurt Steele, O.D., offers a guide for building a successful independent optometry practice. As past president of the Tennessee Association of Optometric Physicians (TAOP), Dr. Steele says independent practice gives doctors of optometry the power to advocate for their profession—and themselves. 

“Your best investment is you,” says Dr. Steele, who owns Vision Source of Newport, a 75-year-old independent practice in rural Tennessee. “I would rather invest in myself and in this practice than the stock market.” 

Dr. Steele shares more about his book, the importance of optometric advocacy, and his commitment to independent practice: 

What can doctors of optometry expect from your book? 

This is the blueprint to grow a multi-million-dollar practice. It also shows you how to bring in other optometrists as partners to keep that practice independently and optometrically owned. 

The first part of the book is all about the team. If your practice were a car, the team is the engine. The second part is metrics, the numbers we use to grow the practice: that’s the steering wheel. And I threw in an extra chapter on how not to sell to patients. This means, how to talk to them about getting products that are best for their eye health and vision without being ‘salesy.’ 

Why is advocacy for optometry important to you and to your practice? 

If not for advocacy, we’d still just be doing glasses and contacts. But trying to change things on a federal level is like turning the Titanic. It doesn’t take days, weeks or even months. It takes years. Depending on the topic, you’re battling the insurance industry or medical associations. Those are hard battles to fight. 

We pay our AOA dues out of this office. It's in the contract that we are going to be members. We pay our state association dues, and we go to our state meeting as a team. I’m not saying that everybody has to be AOA president, but if every optometrist out there was a dues-paying member of AOA and their state association, and gave to their state and national PACs, and went to one organized optometry meeting a year, we would be unstoppable. 

Tell us about your commitment to independent optometry. 

If your practice is equity-owned, your equity group is probably going to have something to say about how much you advocate for optometry. If you want laser privileges, and you work for an ophthalmologist, they might be against you. That’s got to be awkward. 

To be independently owned means I’m in control of how I take care of patients. I’m in control of how I want to serve my community. I’m in control of everything. If I want to go to Nashville to advocate for expanded scope, I don’t have to answer to anybody but me.