Succession planning can be a daunting process for practice owners. But ProVision business services manager Mark Corduff says it needn’t be. And often the solution is right under your nose.
Transitions and succession planning are not one-way streets.
For every business owner thinking and fretting over retirement, the challenge of finding a buyer and the potential end of their legacy, they can rest assured that, more often than not, there is another person pondering how to advance their own career and grab that opportunity of ownership.
If only there was someone who could bring the two together . . .
Dr Michael Kimber was an optometry practice owner nearing the end of his career and pondering that next step for himself and his business, Kimber Optical in the southern Sydney suburb of Hurstville.
Dr Howie Yin was an ambitious practitioner, relatively fresh out of university but keen to make his mark and establish his own practice along strong clinical guidelines.
The one would eventually find the other, at a crossroads on very different career journeys.
But that union would need a matchmaker, and as we all know, the path of true love never did run smooth. Even in business. There would be twists and turns along the way.
Taking on an established practice was not high on the list for Dr Yin, who was just a year out of university and eager for opportunities.
“I’ve always been quite a clinical optometrist,” he says. “I wanted to eventually have my own practice – that’s always been my dream – not really for the money but more so that I could look after patients the way I wanted to.”
His first thought was a greenfield practice, probably in a local shopping mall.
“I thought I could build it from the ground up. I’m a bit of a niche practitioner. I do orthokeratology and advanced lenses – that’s what my interest is – these sort of more complicated situations, and I wanted to be able to serve the community in a more clinical environment.”
Luckily, he sought the guidance of professionals that specialise in the commercial side of optometry to provide advice and support around leases, ownership options and other complicated business activities.
Dr Yin had joined optometry network ProVision in 2023 as an associate. And although he wasn’t a practice owner yet, that put him in touch with business coaches and mentors Mr Kelvin Bartholomeusz and Mr Mark Corduff.
They worked with Dr Yin on the numbers behind his plan.
“I looked into the rent, into the fit-out costs, then into how the cashflow would look for the first 18 to 36 months,” he says.
“The greenfield was just too expensive and I could not fund a reasonable amount of it by myself.”
Bartholomeusz, a ProVision NSW business coach, and Corduff, the network’s business services manager, also helped with insights into the competitive Sydney market.
“Sydney is just super-saturated, so finding a new location, a new spot where people haven’t gone in and taken all of the market share as well is impossible unless you go an hour and a half away from the CBD,” says Dr Yin.
“It just wasn’t going to work out.”
That news might have been a considerable setback for others in their mid-20s, but Dr Yin at least felt some relief that he wasn’t making a poor business decision.
And it wasn’t long before his mentors presented him with another opportunity, one he had not explored before.
Bartholomeusz and Corduff knew they had a young optometrist with strong clinical interests keen to set up a practice in Sydney. They also knew they had an experienced practitioner considering retirement and pondering the next step in his succession planning.
“They put me in contact with Michael,” says Dr Yin.
He wanted to know if this would be a good fit clinically; Dr Kimber had to be sure that this young man would be a good addition to the practice over the next three years, as they worked together on the transition to his departure and Dr Yin’s handover.
First impressions sorted, “there was just a couple of months where me and Michael chatted, sort of worked out what kind of deal we wanted to do and, and after that, it was away we go”.
Dr Yin says ProVision was the matchmaker – “like Cupid” – the winged infant’s bow and arrow replaced with business calculators, contracts and plenty of helpful advice.
Corduff chuckles at that comparison.
“Often it’s about connecting the retiring optometrist and the younger one who’s ambitious, then bringing them together and helping with that fit,” he says. “This is a big part of how we assist both parties at ProVision and is extremely rewarding for all involved.”
He says those arrows hit the mark with Drs Yin and Kimber.
“I think they will be a great fit those two, they got along like a house on fire. Then it was just about them going through all the steps to execute it.”
That execution is not always easy for practitioners considering succession planning and the sale of a long-held business.
“It’s because it’s the first time and last time most people do it,” says Corduff.
“So when you’re considering your plan, we always recommend looking three to five years out, because, number one, you’ve got to make sure your practice is profitable and ticks all the boxes to launch to the market.”
That’s when Cupid sometimes needs to administer a little tough love.
“Profitability that can be clearly demonstrated is king,” says Corduff. “Often in longer term succession plans, we find some opportunities to increase profitability.
“As you would appreciate, these take time to embed, so identifying these things can make the practice more profitable as well as more appealing to a larger pool of buyers.”
Appraising the value of a business can be difficult for both buyer and seller.
Corduff says he and his team can help with that. ProVision is also working on a tool to help all parties better understand the value of the business transaction they are considering.
For the most part, he prefers to steer people away from greenfield projects and sometimes complex and costly shopping mall leases.
He believes the best union is often a partnership between professionals like Drs Yin and Kimber in an established practice.
“That’s always the first question I ask: Is there anyone in your practice that’s the perfect succession plan or is there someone in our network worth reaching out to? Because if you’re going in cold, it can be a longer process.
“If you’ve got a bigger practice with a few optometrists in there, it’s about finding the right time, having the conversation, just explaining, ‘hey, look, I might be nearing retirement. You’re a great optometrist and an asset to the business. Would you be interested in potentially buying in or buying me out in the not-too-distant future?’.”
ProVision can then facilitate and support that transition, for both buyer and seller.
Corduff says that helps to keep independent optometry thriving, which is ProVision’s “north star”.
“If we assist in selling a practice that doesn’t remain within ProVision but remains independent, that’s still a huge win,” he says, “just to make sure that the industry continues to thrive.”
Dr Yin represents that future.
He’s 27, has taken on a business himself but is learning from an experienced practitioner and supported by a strong optometry network.
And he’s loving it.
He’s a one-man show as he talks with Insight; someone has rung in sick so he has to jump up a couple of times during the interview to answer the phone.
As well as his optometry duties, he’s taken on more of the management role, which means looking after pricing, HR, accounting and payrolls.
“A lot of little knick-knacks that you don’t normally expect to do as an optometrist.”
Far from daunted, with the support of Dr Kimber and his mentors, Dr Yin is enjoying his deep dive into business.
“I could not be any happier.
“The barrier to entering a practice was inconceivable, and ProVision really broke down those walls.”
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