What equipment do I need?

**CME4SPECS** · 09-21-2005, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by shellrob

It wasn't offensive...it stated the truth and sometimes that's hard for some to take I guess.

Thank you both! Forums are for sharing different views.

**35oldguy** · 09-21-2005, 04:26 PM

Yes if you are not sure what you are getting into it would be wise to either hire a consultant with a optical background or find a young optometrist that needs your money to start a practice.

Or find someone that wants to sell their practice. They may want to retire. Then hire a couple of optometrists and a business manager to run it for you. Buying an existing business would be must easier than starting from zero.

Originally Posted by Jason Carruthers

musinnom:

I'm going to take a wild guess and say this is your first business. My advice, buy a franchise. Or find a doctor with patients and be partners.

**ken@foothills** · 09-21-2005, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by optowalt

With questions like these, are you sure you are ready to start a business?

You are probably doing this person a favor, I had my own place for four years and two months, and every month I was very close to going belly up. I probably lost $30,000.00 dollars not to mention I could have made more money working for someone else. I finally sold the business (Thank you Jesus), the individual who bought the business closed shop 13 months later.

**Johns** · 09-21-2005, 05:33 PM

I think it's great that everyone that ever started an optical business knew everything there was to know about the field before they ever opened their own places. I often buy practices that have crashed and burned from very able opticans and ODs that don't have an ounce of business sense. They thought they could buy it (such as hiring people that knew something, or a franchise), but found out you can't. If you're needing guidance, a franchise will be more than happy to guide all your money into their bank account. I suggest you call Pearle and say "Hello, I have a lot of money and I want to open an optical, but I don't know anything about it." Musinnom obviously has the confidence, and I asssume the skill, or he/she wouldn't be embarking on this venture.

I think on of the best ways to learn is to jump in and do it. Nobody is going to get into without any knowlege of the field, and asking about OD equipment just says that there is a lack of knowelege about ODs. I've got 2 MDs working at one of my new locations, and the first thing I asked them was what kinkd of equipment they'd be wanting to use. I've been in business for 20 years and feel no shame in admitting I don't know it all.

Yes, you can get a good lane ofr under $6000. I buy them all the time from guys that know it all.

**ken@foothills** · 09-21-2005, 06:01 PM

[QUOTE=Johns]
I think on of the best ways to learn is to jump in and do it.

Yes, but some of those lessons can be pretty expensive!

**35oldguy** · 09-21-2005, 06:52 PM

Owning ones own business is a wonderful dream. Working for the other guy is just what you will have your whole life just a salary. Working at something you like to do is worth a lot. Go for it, is my advice. Be your own boss!!

One of our former Presidents once said "It is better to fail, than never to have tried!"

[QUOTE=ken@foothills]

Originally Posted by Johns

I think on of the best ways to learn is to jump in and do it.

Yes, but some of those lessons can be pretty expensive!

**Joann Raytar** · 09-21-2005, 08:05 PM

So go buy a griddle and a fryer and try making a living flipping bugers and making frys!

Nothing is wrong with the truth but folks don't have to turn every thread into a brawl. The Just Conversation forum is one thing but the optical forums are another. Statements such as the one in the deleted thread are making some quieter folks afraid to post anything on OptiBoard, even optical questions and that defeats the whole reason Steve started these forums.

The optical forums are for education and information. We can't jump on people and beat them up over things like the topic of this thread and what a tonometer does and expect people not to be scared off.

I'm sorry if you don't like the thread being edited but there has to be a balance between debate and outright brawl. If folks want to brawl, then take it outside.

**890890** · 09-21-2005, 09:15 PM

All in all, we see most people think subconsciously that they don't want another potential competitor to get in their field.... well, it's just normal. see what optometrist thinks of optician? and what optician thinks of optometrist? then let's see what some people think of a guy who wants to open an optical shop here?

**DPalmer** · 09-21-2005, 10:16 PM

Thank You Jo for setting them straight

**Johns** · 09-23-2005, 08:20 AM

Ken@foothills:

You bet lessons are costly! I started a woodturning business about 9 years ago. I bought high speed production lathes and the whole nine yards. 2 1/2 years, 13 stitches in my hand, and $135,000 later, I had to admit that I wasn't the guy that should be running that type of business. As the trucks were rolling out of our shop yard, loaded with all my equipment bound for new owners in Oklahoma, my dad asked how I felt. I told him that it was just another one of the many masters degrees that I've earned in Trying (and Failing). I never could have learned everything I did, plus experienced the thrill at the POSSIBILITY of success if I hadn't tried it. I'd still have been saying "I'll bet you could make a ton of money if..." Well, now I know I can't, but it was worth every penny to prove it to myself. To me, starting your own business is the one type of schooling where you are both the teacher as well as the student.:)