Elkton Eyecare, Part One

I've always wanted to own my own business. In fact, I think that's one of the things that attracted me to optometry in the first place. My father had his own business and the thought of working my way up the corperate latter, possibly changing jobs every 5-10 years, and ultimately not being able to do my own thing didn't appeal to me. So, I discarded my plans to be a chemical engineer and pursued optometry from day one of college (which decision was reaffirmed to me as I struggled through my organic chemistry classes).

Now the way in which I was to obtain my own business was not clear, but as we began optometry school we took the recommendation of a certain neighbor to start listening to a radio program that in large measure would change our financial leanings and ultimately my core business philosophy. That radio program was none other than Dave Ramsey.

We had already been seriously pursuing a military scholarship to pay for school. Iraq was not going away and troops were starting to go to Afghanistan. It looked more and more likely that I would be deployed if I joined. Nevertheless, when doubts set in weather we really wanted to do it or not, acquiring as little debt as possible and a lot of prayer really gave us that extra courage to go for it.

Our time in the Army was wonderful, and professionally it was just what I needed. I was busy seeing patients from day one and always had an optometrist and an ophthalmologist just down the hall if I ever needed a second opinion. I really enjoyed my time in the military, but I knew that it wasn't what I wanted long term.

The Army was great, but ultimately Ruth and I wanted to own our own business and find a community where we could settle down and stay for the rest of our lives. Since my profession allows me to work in any community where the people have eyes, it became a challenge to find a place to which we both wanted to move. Our desire to make this move a one-time deal made it even harder to know which place would be best.

I researched just about every place imaginable and had lengthy conversations with Ruth about the pros and cons of many of them. Ultimately, we felt drawn to the Shenandoah Valley area via fasting and prayer. After driving through both Charlottesville and Waynesboro we decided we liked Waynesboro better.

Due to the fact that I wanted a debt-free business, I knew that I would need to work for somebody before I would be able to buy into a practice, and/or buy/start my own. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a doctor in Waynesboro that was in a position to hire an associate. Nevertheless, I did meet a doctor that would lead us to the opportunity we really wanted, but had written off as improbable considering our desire to not borrow any money to start up a business.

Dr. Leeth of Waynesboro told us of a Dr. Downey in Elkton VA that had retired and closed his doors the year before. Elkton was a very small town just 30 minutes north of Waynesboro. I didn't call him right away, again, because I wasn't in a possition financially to buy a practice. As time drew nearer, and the few job opportunities we had were not looking like what we wanted, I decided to give Dr. Downey a call. The rest, as they say, is history. Turns out his business had been closed for close to 2 years and he had all but given up hope of finding another doctor to come in and buy the business. When I called, all he wanted was somebody to buy the actual assets (equipment, frames, and furniture). This was something we could manage, and what we couldn't, we would pay him over a set period of time.

In May of 2011 we started making preparations. I got a lawyer and had an LLC registered with the Commonwealth of Virginia and established as Elkton Eyecare LLC. We enlisted the help of our brother-in-law Mike Erekson to design a website and Jeff Heit to design a logo. Both the website and the logo can been seen here: www.elktoneyecare.com

By June I was starting to shop for and buy some essential equipment that I knew Dr. Downey either didn't have, or was so out of date it was obsolete. The main ones being an non-contact tonometer, Goldmann applanation tonometer, slit lamp, and a more modern phoroptor. As time got closer and money got spent, I decided to forgo a new phoroptor and hoped I'd learn how to use the old one. I started to design ads for the paper and flyers (mailers), and of course got started with my Medicare application. I had made the decision to not take any vision plans, but I did want to take Medicare and some other major medical plans (BCBS, UHC, etc).

I contacted his last two employees and enlisted them to work for me. Luckily they were both still available and excited to come back. Sounds pretty good so far right? Well, the down side was the practice was old. I mean, REALLY old. The building the office is in is very old, and the decor has not been updated in more than 30 years. Most of the equipment is obsolete and most if it has not been updated in 20 years. To top it all off, the office was on the second floor. Oh yeah, one more good thing, and it's a deal-maker, this was the only optometry office in the area and served more than 15,000-20,000 people spread out over several small towns! The closest eye doctors were in Harrisonburg, just over 20 minutes away. Unfortunately, that is also where we would be going to church, so that was a little disappointing. We decided we'd make up for it by living close to work and school (which wouldn't be hard since the office and the elementary school were less than half a mile away from each other).

To complicate things, a nice practice in Harrisonburg called me up and wanted an interview. I met with them and they wanted to hire me (part time for 6 months then full time after that). It seemed like a great opportunity to try both places out. In the end, however, the larger practice wasn't willing to have me work at their place AND in Elkton as they felt it was in their "compete zone". Another tough decision...well, it seemed like it at the time. They were offering me a very generous pay, but the drawback would be working on Saturdays, commuting to the practice's various locations, and poor hours. At the time, anything with a "generous" salary seemed better than the unknown of Elkton Eyecare. After of few days of thinking about it and several long discussions with Ruth, we decided that what we really wanted was to be close to work, have our own place, and no weekend hours...all with the intent, or purpose of having more family time.

As time got nearer for us to move, we found ourselves without a place to live. Two places we had thought about turned out to be "below standard" and one that we did like (a lot) was above budget. We tried to make a deal with the landlord (which he did consider) but he did not accept. With just under a week to go, we called him back and said we'd take his original offer, but unfortunately it had been rented. The weekend before we moved Ruth found a house online that had been for sale, but recently put up for rent. It was pretty good and at a fair price so we went for it. Turns out there were several people wanting it so we had to submit an application and wait until Sunday night to hear if we were going to be able to get it or not.

We got it.

Monday and Tuesday we packed up and cleaned and on Wednesday we drove away. It was definitely a sad day to leave our home and all our wonderful friends at Fort Leonard Wood.

Friday morning we arrived in Elkton VA. I went to the bank and opened up a business account and went to the office to meet with a frame rep. Later that evening we were blessed to have 3-4 brothers from the church come by to help us unpack. We got it all done in just an hour to two, including our mammoth piano. I think we'll try and sell it before we have to move again.

Stay tuned for my next post - "Starting Up".

Here's a few pictures of the place when we first saw it in May. It had been closed down for 18 months at that point.


Front of building - we are on the second floor.


Optical


Exam lane - has become the new waiting room...pictures to follow!!


Exam lane #2 - this would become my lane.

P.S. - now we're looking at a different location, so in the end, we may not even stay in this building. Again, more to follow.