20/20 MONEY: The Business of Optometry

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is Jordan Clarke. Jordan is one of the Vice Presidents of Charles M. Moore Insurance just outside of Bowling Green, KY and has an extensive career in in the insurance profession. I asked Jordan to come on the show to talk about a daunting and obscure task that the health insurance companies have seemed to obfuscate for business owners and th...

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is…me! This is a different solo episode of sorts, because it's actually the interview that I did for IDOC's Focal Point Podcast , hosted by Dr. Steve Vargo, OD. If you're interested in subscribing to Focal Point Podcast, the link is in the show notes of this episode. On this episode, Steve asked me to talk about how business and personal pla...

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is Nathan Hayes of IDOC . Nathan joins us to talk about something that is oftentimes discussed towards the end of the year and the beginning of the next year: budgeting, specifically budgeting your business expenses. Even though this show isn't coming out until the spring, it's still worthwhile to discuss, because as you'll see throughout th...

On this episode of 20/20 Money, I share one example of why it's important to ensure that your portfolio has a well-rounded asset allocation and the importance of including all different asset classes in your portfolio—not just the most popular and well-known indices like the S&P 500 (and I'll share some actual numbers to substantiate this thought process). As a reminder, you can get all the inform...

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is Dr. Steve Vargo. Steve joins me on the show to discuss a challenge and stepping stone that practice owners may eventually find themselves reaching: how to step out of their business and delegate leadership-type tasks and responsibilities to someone else on your team. Steve's experience not only as a practicing OD but also as a leadership...

Dr. Wesley is back on the show to talk about a topic that I think might seem taboo to ODs out there, and that topic is around sales. Gina talks about her journey on how she got comfortable selling from the chair and you'll very quickly hear in our conversation how and why it doesn't even seem like sales…which is the point altogether! We talk about why sales get a negative connotation, how you migh...

On this episode of 20/20 Money I talk about a new way to think about asset allocation and diversification as a practice owner and how a twist on the concept of asset location can have a significant impact on the overall value of your retirement portfolio. As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today's conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on th...

On this solo episode of 20/20 Money I will be explaining the process of gifting of assets to your children, strategies to employ including an UTMA account, and the impact those gifts will have on you, both now and 5-10 years down the road. As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today's conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Cente...

Welcome to another episode of 20/20 Money! My guests on today's show are Dr. Gina Wesley and Nathan Hayes. Gina owns her very successful private practice in Medina, MN and Nathan is the practice finance consultant with IDOC , and I'm really excited for this conversation for multiple different reasons. Today's show is taking on the format of a case study. Specifically, the subject of today's show i...

On this episode of 20/20 Money, my guest on today's show is Dr. Jeremy Ciano, owner and founder of RevolutionEyes in Carmel, IN. Jeremy's been on the show in the past and episode #11 of 20/20 Money (back when it was called "The Dose") is still in the top 10 most downloaded episodes (link below). Jeremy joins us back on the show to talk about how his practice not only survived, but ended up thrivin...

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is my good friend Josh Bannerman, (a.k.a. the "OG" from the Stacking Benjamins podcast). Josh and I were talking the other night about the craziness that is going on in the markets recently. I got to thinking (after the conversation) that what we were just talking about would have made for a great episode for 20/20 Money. So, as good content...

Jennifer runs a very successful private practice and also a successful sports vision practice in Connecticut. Long-time listeners will know that Jennifer's been on the show in the past and I was excited to have her back to talk through how she thinks about the KPIs (key performance indicators) of her practice, specifically around how they've increased their capture rate and second pair sales. In t...

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is Dr. Chris Lopez, OD . Contrary to what you might believe, picking the right investment is not your greatest wealth creating tool. It's your income! Make sure that you know how to negotiate the right way and land the right job while also ensuring that it's a win for the owner of the practice. In this conversation, practicing OD and career...

Welcome to the first episode of 2020 Money in 2021! On this episode, I'm going to share with you how I've implemented Strategic Coach's Entrepreneurial Time Management System and how I believe ODs can also benefit from this time management system, including how to think about the financials of your practice based on how you've budgeted your time throughout the year. As a reminder, you can get all...

On this episode, I talk with Dr. Ted McElroy. Ted has owned his practice for the last 27 years and is also a Vision Source Administrator for the southern part of GA and north-central part of FL. In today's episode, we use one of our clients as a case study that kicked off the process of hiring an associate in your practice—and hiring an associate that STAYS in your practice. Ted shares with us how...

Hey everyone, before we get into today's show, I wanted to let you know about an in-depth write-up I did on our website about the recently passed COVID-19 stimulus package and how it impacts optometrists. While at the time of this recording the Act has yet to be signed into law by President Trump and there seems to be a bit of volleying back and forth between the two branches of government about p...

On this episode of 20/20 Money, my guest is Dennis Moseley Williams. Dennis is one of a few certified experience economy experts and his sincere passion and mission is to help business owners understand the importance of the customer experience and why it's increasingly influencing where consumers spend their dollars. In this far-reaching conversations, Dennis explains why it's so important to und...

On this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today's show is me! This is our AMA episode where my wife Andrea interviewed me on a variety of personal and professional questions that listeners of the show emailed us. We had originally planned on doing this as a way to celebrate the 100th episode of 20/20 Money but given where the timing of the episode fell in relation to the time of year, I opted to...

On this episode of 20/20 Money, my guest is Nathan Hayes. Listeners of the show will recall that Nathan was just on the show a couple of weeks ago, but this was a topic that we both believe is really important for optometrists to get clarity on at all points of their career: what's your number? We're defining "your number" as the amount of money that one should be saving to build towards financial...

On this episode of 20/20 Money, my guest is Kim Hockaday . Kim is an experienced mortgage loan officer with Ruoff Mortgage . In the historically low interest rate environment that we're in these days, I wanted to bring Kim on the show to talk about mortgages and how optometrists should think about all aspects of home financing. We talk about three things that are different as a buyer in this envir...

My guest on today's episode of 20/20 Money is Nathan Hayes of IDOC. Nathan has been on the show in the past and I was excited to have him come on the show and talk about a topic that I find myself discussion with ODs regularly: how much cash to keep in your practice. In today's discussion, we talk about how we define expenses and how many months of practice expenses to keep in the practice. We als...

While having a conversation with a friend recently, we got talking about Dave Ramsey's personal finance philosophy and how great it is for the vast majority of people that follow his principles. But it got me thinking about how those principles apply to optometrists. Given the financial circumstances that ODs find themselves in right out of graduation, I wanted to share some insight on which of hi...

Today's episode will discuss a couple of updates around PPP forgiveness and how to think about the taxation of PPP funds along with an additional perspective on the EIDL loans that so many optometric practice owners have taken out as a backup cash reserve. I'll also share some thoughts on why it's important to understand the role that our entire government plays in relation to the platforms that p...

It's the week after Halloween, and while we're all coming down from the sugar high we earned by stealing our kids' candy (no judgement here, I do it at a felony-level rate) I thought I'd cover 5 scary financial decisions that optometrists make that can prevent them from becoming wealthy or keep them broke. In this episode I highlight 5 areas where we've seen optometrists make mistakes with both th...

The concept of talking to kids about money can be both a taboo and ambiguous process. For optometrists that own their own practice, there's an added variable of owning your own practice and using it as a vehicle to not only be in a position of paying your kids but also the generational wealth that can be created by you. In this episode I'll share a number of ideas and tools to consider when teachi...