SightCare’s annual conference was held at the Telford International Centre in Birmingham on January 27, where 284 attendees from the independent eye care sector gathered to learn and share knowledge.
The conference held 12 breakout sessions covering a variety of topics, with many hosted by SightCare’s business coaches. This included clinical-based sessions on dry eye clinics and treating visual stress; business-led areas such as buying and selling practices and employee ownership trusts; as well as talks on retail merchandising and frame styling.
A well-rounded exhibition was available in the large hall space all day, where attendees were able to browse at will.
In a rousing welcome speech, newly appointed CEO Emma Rawlings introduced the day with the importance of being there for your community in the everyday moments and continued with some statistics on SightCare’s progress. She promised to carry out her role to lead SightCare and support independent practitioners with ‘unwavering dedication, working tirelessly to support SightCare members’.
Rawlings referenced the dedication and commitment of the late Queen Elizabeth II as her inspiration for business leadership: ‘[The Queen] reminded us all of the power of showing up, no matter what the circumstances. And it is in the same spirit of commitment that I pledge to you today, like Her Majesty, that I will show up for you, not just when it’s easy or convenient, but every single day.
‘You deserve nothing less than someone who is fully present, fully invested and fully committed.
‘Just like Queen Elizabeth illustrated throughout her life, true leadership isn’t about the title, it isn’t about the spotlight. It’s about the service. It’s about showing up and it’s about giving everything you have got to those you support.’
SightCare chair Martin White opened with the group’s new logo ‘Independent but not alone.’ He thanked sponsors and supported CEO Emma Rawlings’ entrance to the role, saying: ‘No doubt that SightCare is in great hands and that we will continue to adapt to support you in the best way possible.’
Rawlings giving the welcome speech
Team Management
Organisers said the most popular break out session was Peter Greedy’s ‘Confrontation matters: How constructive debate builds better teams’. SightCare business coach and locum optometrist Greedy advocated for practice teams to foster an environment where issues can be addressed openly through constructive debate and by putting listening at the forefront of communication skills. He emphasised that healthy debate will help find the best solution by enabling innovation, creativity, diversity of thinking and relationship building.
Greedy highlighted that vulnerability is a key building block for trust, better understanding your tone and body language, and allowing yourself as a manager to be open to delegation and trial and error.
‘Vulnerability is a trust superpower, especially as the boss. It’s okay to let them fail. It really is because both of you will learn. So, it [delegation] does involve uncertainty, risk and a bit of emotional exposure.’
Greedy also advised that teams practise dealing with difficult customers through role playing scenarios.
In the morning, David Samuel, business coach, mentor and former practice director, presented ‘Setting the course: Defining goals and tackling challenges together’ to kickstart non-members’ view of business planning, future ambitions and goal prioritisation.
The workshop engaged practitioners from all stages of their careers and gave them a chance to reflect on what success looks like to each of them. Participants shared their business goals, with words like ‘mortgage-free’, ‘retirement-preparation’, ‘organised’ and ‘optimistic’ being common, while challenges included purchasing first practices and relocating practices.
Samuel highlighted the ‘Success Iceberg Illusion theory’, illustrated by artist Sylvia Duckworth, and how practitioners need to acknowledge the ‘hard work, persistence, sacrifice and failure’ below the surface of successful endeavours.
Practice owners buying and selling
Founder and CEO of the Business Buyers Club, Guy Bartlett, teamed up with fellow business coach and entrepreneur Simon Morris to present a session exploring how practitioners should consider financial investment decisions, tax benefits, as well as preparation and methods around buying or exiting practices early in the stages.
Methods discussed included selling to management, employer ownership trusts (EOTs), selling to a trust, buy-in management buyout and hybrid models.
He said: ‘Management buyout is always my number one start point, whether I’m buying or selling a business because if you’ve got a great team, logically, they’d be the people to sell to because they know the business, they turn up every day and they know the customers.’
Bartlett advised that practice owners prepare evidence for selling their business as early as possible by ‘paying attention to your balance sheet’, conducting a full evaluation of the business’ product base, best products and most popular market demographic, and creating a target business value to work towards.
‘Whenever you plan to exit, even if you don’t have a date in mind, start thinking about your business in the context of when you meet a buyer, and what kind of things they are going to be looking to see.
‘If you organise the information in your business as if you were doing due diligence, it will save you a ton of time and stress when it comes to the day that you want to exit [and need this information],’ he said.
Bartlett emphasised that there should be equal balance of risk and reward for the buyer and seller, and buyers will often prefer staff to be retained and business management to continue for an agreed period – known as ‘phased exit’.
Bartlett cautioned that EOTs can benefit the seller more than the buyers, as employees are then trapped, he noted: ‘They can’t exit the trust the way that you’ve exited the business... the choice of method depends on if you want more of a cooperative than a business that the team can grow and sell in due course.’
However, director of EOT experts RM2, Richard Cowley, held the talk ‘Selling your business to your colleagues’, which spotlighted the benefits of this method for sellers, including capital gains tax relief; reducing the risk of seller remorse; speed of sale; and a gentler transition for staff as operations do not change.
Many attendees were keen to receive further coaching in these business areas, and CEO Rawlings affirmed that growing business coaching topics in conjunction with members’ needs is on their agenda for 2025.
Rawlings (centre) with some of the SightCare team
Building Dry Eye clinics
A clinical session with senior contact lens optician and dry eye clinician Rosemin Mussa shed light on how practitioners establish and integrate effective dry eye clinics into their practices. The presentation gave an overview of the key considerations into business aspects, over-the-counter essentials needed and clinical process guidelines to follow.
Attendees discussed recommendations for dry eye disease (DED) products and treatments, and the importance of making DED assessments a part of contact lens clinical checkups. ‘Dry eye assessments are now commonly included in our eye exam [at Optitech Opticians].’
In Mussa’s opinion, the whole team needs to be behind the dry eye products for them to sell and gain patient compliance. She also advanced that contact lense opticians (CLOs) are under-utilised for dry eye clinics. ‘CLOs are already trained in DED treatments and they’re very eager for opportunities to join,’ she added.
Success is failure
In the keynote speech, Olympic gold medallist 400m hurdler, Sally Gunnell, reflected on the positive impact of mental strength, and said: ‘The people that achieve things are those that can control their negative inner voice.’
Throughout Gunnell’s story of winning the 1992 Olympic gold for the 400m hurdle, she summarised that a winning mindset is built on persistence, discipline, adaptability and surrounding yourself with a team that believe in your vision and encourage positivity.
Gunnell said that the race that drove her to become a gold-medallist was also her biggest failure but it gave the toughest learning curve and the adversity she needed to improve.
‘It’s about how you build that resilience, how you step up, how you move on. Make small changes to be able to get there but never lose sight of where you want to be in three years’ time.’
SightCare Awards winners
- Independent Practice of the Year sponsored by Hoya Vision Care ¬ Simon Berry Optometrist
- Clinical Excellence sponsored by CHEC ¬ Martin Smith Opticians
- Customer Service Excellence sponsored by SwitchAdvisor ¬ Christopher Young Opticians
- Community Practice of the Year sponsored by Insight Hearing ¬ S Walton Eyecare
- Frame Styling Practice of the Year sponsored by Wolf Eyewear ¬ Respectacle Company
- Practice Team of the Year sponsored by The Body Doctor ¬ Webb, Lucas & Stubbs Optometrists
- Environmental Practice of the Year sponsored by Optiswiss ¬ Woodhouse Opticians
- Members’ Choice sponsored by SightCare ¬ Harris Rundle Optometrists
