Which may explain the inexplicable. Why, in a fiercely competitive market would you want to tie your business to a brand? In return for what? It’s easy to see what they get, your business for a fixed period during which you have no control over the price increases. This is a great strategy if you are absolutely certain you know what the future holds. Why let the brand determine your price strategy? Why can’t you (your brand) do exactly the same thing?

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity and Darwin was right when asserting it was survival of the most adaptable that explained evolution (or expressed another way-extinction).

You can click here now for your copy of Thinking Allowed which explores forty-nine different themes in an attempt to build a better optical business.

If you are not entirely happy with your JNotes® simply email julian@wiles.biz, tell me why and you will get a full refund. No questions asked and your email address will be deleted.

Get your jNotes at 0.69p each or buy the full package for £5.95

But things just went and got better.

• E-mail allowed you to talk to people as often as you were comfortable with. For free
• Smart phones started accepting emails so people don’t have to ‘log on’ to a PC
• Social Media erupted. People were making connections like never before.
• On line video exploded. You can now record one message and it can play for eternity for a one off investment
• Websites mean that in cyberspace size isn’t important in getting your voice heard by the right people. But done badly they are a colossal waste of time and money.
• Surveys continue to show the value of sight and the importance of the privately owned business model (people buy people, although Apple, Google, Starbucks, FaceBook, posh restaurants, theme park owners, sports and luxury car makers show that people will pay for ‘the experience’).
• And guess what! The rise and rise of the internet means that traditional advertising (demand driven, awareness or just ‘look at me’) has never ever been more cost effective. The local paper is desperate for your custom
• Direct mail campaigns can be run from the nearest printer at a fraction of what it used to cost
• PR or public relations are not just for big corps or celebrities. A good PR strategy in your area means that when people have an optical problem they think of you first and you make it easy for them to find you and to deal with you. To pick you.

Which is why this Information, communication and education forum has a place all to itself.  Carefully planned and executed your ICE strategy will find you new clients, it can encourage your lapsed clients back into the fold, or bring people back faster or ‘lock’ them into high levels of personal service.

The problem with all this free stuff and new opportunities is that time and content become big challenges. Which is where JNotes® become invaluable. Learn from the mistakes of others, benefit from the wisdom of successful people, take a short cut to building a better optical business.

Words are important, but it’s just as easy to use the right ones, rather than less effective ones and the cost is the same. The cost to your business of getting it wrong however.

Get your jNotes at 0.69p each or buy the full package for £9.95

As there is no one size fits all answer here you’ll discover a wide range of topics here, anyone of which may ignite growth faster than you ever thought possible. The topics here offer a flavour of what’s on offer elsewhere on this site.

One of the fastest ways to sustainable and profitable growth is to sell more to those who are already buying from you. Easier said than done, but putting your prices up, recommending a secondary pair of daywear or a primary pair of Rx sunwear are all possibilities. It’s thought that: “Do you want fries with that” are the six most profitable words in the world and it’s estimated those six words alone account for as much as 30% of the profits for the hamburger chain.

Do you know what your test/dispense ratio is? What would happen if you had a formal mechanism in place to make sure that people left your practice much better informed than when they arrived? How easy do you make it for people to buy from you?

How do you calculate how much profit is simply walking out of your practice?

The simple answer is that there is no simple answer. Your first free download will list all the skills needed. The really good news is that these can be learned, invested in and planned for. What’s critical is your mindset and your thinking in short, medium and long term.

At the time of writing we have two interesting trends: Which? Have reported for the second time that people are satisfied with their independent optician and that trust is high and at the same time the market share for independents appears to be shrinking, as commodity products flow online, to supermarket and the High Street retailer. Both positions, it would seem, are true.

The second trend is the rise of technology. It affects all businesses and we’d be naïve to think our world is any different. After all we are dealing with many of the same people and the UK has the highest access to high speed broadband in Europe. So does that mean that technology has killed your notion of ‘good, better, best’ and your fixed pricing formula? What happens when ‘the best’ can now be delivered at ‘good’ prices? There is a big prize for the people who can deliver that message in a way that is clearly understood, to the people that matter most. If you are truly autonomous changing suppliers has never been easier, but the thinking has just got a whole lot harder.

If you are here first, may we suggest you guarantee that you have all other options outlined at www.buildabetteropticalbusiness.com covered first, then selling more to those you already see will be accomplished. So what you’ll get here is an example of what you’ll find elsewhere.

Clicking on the drop down box will offer you a choice of JNotes®. Plenty of subjects to think about. Don’t worry, thinking is what you do best.

If you are not entirely happy with your JNotes® simply email julian@wiles.biz, tell me why and you will get a full refund. No questions asked and your email address will be deleted.

Alternatively, you can click here now for your copy of Thinking Allowed.

Get your jNotes at 0.69p each or buy the full package for £14.95

In an ideal world your sheer professionalism, trust, knowledge and experience should be good enough. And for years it was. For those with long established businesses it may still be. But even if you are selling the business, a proven method of finding new clients will be very valuable to prospective buyers. The good news is that you have plenty of tools at your disposal: your referral strategy, your recall recall letters, demand advertising, your social media presence, the emails you send and the newsletters you use and a vibrant industry delivers hundreds of new products every single year, your public speaking engagements (not the formal type, you speak to the public everyday), the window display and a happy smiley team. It makes sense to use them all and to make everything you can out of everything you’ve got.

Without doubt the most effective tool is the recall letter and one of the best tools out there is will be found here

http://www.opticalmarketing.co.uk/html/patientrecall.html

This site has nothing to do with JNotes®, but we cannot do better. It’s worth checking out.

Clicking on the drop down box will offer you a choice of JNotes®. Plenty of subjects to choose from.

If you are not entirely happy with your JNotes® simply email julian@wiles.biz, tell me why and you will get a full refund. No questions asked and your email address will be deleted.

Alternatively, you can click here now for your copy of Thinking Allowed.

Get your jNotes at 0.69p each or buy the full package for £4.95

Finding new clients may be the most expensive way to profitability and it may be the most difficult, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Maybe you’ve tried everything, but you will find the answers elsewhere in JNotes®. There is no right place to find new clients and no right way, but if you are struggling, you have to find a way that works for you if you want to remain privately owned.

Many ideas to find new clients will be found under the JNotes® PR section. How? Maybe you want people with pathologies, maybe your ideal clients are affluent presbyopes, maybe you want young CL wearers, maybe you want sports/hobbyist enthusiasts, maybe you only want to have children’s vision at the heart of what you do. PR (if done correctly) might help. This must be backed up with work on your website, which must be backed up by your staff and your practice and your pricing.

What follows are a few ideas that may be right for you.

Clicking on the drop down box will offer you a choice of JNotes

If you are not entirely happy with your JNotes® simply email julian@wiles.biz, tell me why and you will get a full refund. No questions asked and your email address will be deleted.

Alternatively, you can click here now for your copy of Thinking Allowed.

Get your jNotes at 0.69p each or buy the full package for £4.95

If you are not entirely happy with your JNotes® simply email julian@wiles.biz, tell me why and you will get a full refund. No questions asked and your email address will be deleted.

Alternatively, you can click here now for your copy of Thinking Allowed which explores forty-nine different themes in your quest to build a better optical business.

JNotes® are a series of articles for you and contain new ideas on important optically related business issues. JNotes® are simple, easy to understand and fast to read so helping you solve any immediate problem now, with no risk to your business.

Get your jNotes at 0.67p each or buy the full package for £39.95

It is entirely possible that you are doing nothing wrong. You won’t be the first person to scratch their head and wonder: “What next?” Your free downloads will help you to discover at least nine ways in which your business might be stuck and what you can do about it.

You’ll find some thoughts on change which are important for both you and your staff to be aware of.

It’s a recurring theme.

If you are not entirely happy with your JNotes® simply email julian@wiles.biz, tell me why and you will get a full refund. No questions asked and your email address will be deleted.

Get your jNotes at 0.69p each or buy the full package for £9.95

Download 86 questions now and print them out. Sit down with a paper, pencil and a cup of tea. Answer all 86 questions before your tea goes cold. If you can’t answer a question, move on. Don’t think about the answers’ just write your first thoughts down. When you have completed all 86 questions you will now know what (and how) you think about your business. Its quick, free and secret. No one will know, except you and those you choose to share it with. Now what do you want to do?

Clicking on the drop down box will offer you a choice of JNotes, all free.

Alternatively, you can click here now for your copy of Thinking Allowed which explores forty-nine different themes in your quest to build a better optical business.