Mentoris writes: Fail to plan, plan to fail

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, over 89% of UK businesses were trading again as of August 2021. As I travel around the UK now, although there are some regional variations, most businesses seem to be open, and that means the flow of money will be increasing as the economy returns to ‘normal’.

Although many optical practices have been doing well in terms of revenues, this has been caused by seeing only those patients who need or want new eyewear. Added to this, for many practices the revenue per patient has increased, which has offset the fact that the volume of patients seen has decreased. For many practices going back to the pre-lockdown method of seeing as many people as possible is an unattractive proposition. Practice owners have realised that spending more time with patients has enabled them to understand more about their patients’ needs and problems, and that this leads to an increase in the dispensing of office lenses, sports eyewear, fashionable and vocation specific issues.