How to be a great DO: Part 2

Knowing (or choosing) your audience will help you to define your practice’s brand identity

In ‘How to be a great DO’ Part 2, Rebecca Thompson looks at what to consider before taking the leap into practice ownership…

Opening your own practice is often framed as the ultimate professional milestone: autonomy, creativity, and the chance to do things your way. And it can be all of those things. But behind every ‘overnight success’ is usually a long, unseen period of planning, recalibration and learning things the hard way.

Before you sign a lease, order frames, or choose paint colours, it’s worth stepping back to consider three foundations that will determine whether your practice survives its early years: brand clarity, financial realism and emotional resilience. Miss one, and the others tend to wobble.

Brand is not a logo

One of the most underestimated parts of starting a practice is the sheer amount of time required to craft a coherent brand. Not just how it looks, but how it feels, sounds and behaves.

Brand helps people decide whether you are ‘for them’ before they ever meet you. It influences who walks through the door, what they expect, how much they trust you and, ultimately, what they’re willing to spend. That means it cannot be an afterthought, or something delegated entirely to an agency without deep involvement from you.

The most successful independent practices I’ve seen (and been part of), often spend what can feel like a ridiculous amount of time refining:
• Who they are specifically for (not ‘everyone’)
• What problem they solve better than anyone else
• How they want people to feel before, during and after a visit
• The tone of voice they use, both in-practice and online

This work is uncomfortable because it forces decisions. Choosing one audience often means saying no to another. But clarity is magnetic. Vagueness is not.

If you cannot clearly articulate what makes your practice different and why you’re worth visiting, your patients won’t be able to explain it to their friends either. In the beginning at least, the aim of the game is to get word to spread as quickly as possible.

Footfall alone is rarely enough to grow your business

Know where your audience already is

Closely tied to brand is a question many new owners gloss over: where will your patients actually come from?

There is a persistent myth in retail that if you build something beautiful, people will naturally find it. Occasionally that happens. More often, it doesn’t; at least not quickly. Footfall alone is rarely enough. Referrals take time to build. Social media doesn’t convert without consistency and intent. And paid marketing only works if the message is clear and the numbers stack up.

Before opening, you should be able to answer:
• How will the first 50 patients find you?
• The next 100?
• What will realistically convert them into regulars?

This is not about gimmicks or constant promotions. It’s about having a marketing plan grounded in reality, not optimism. One that understands conversion rates, average spend and the time it takes to build trust.

A common mistake is investing heavily in fit-out, equipment, or frame stock, and leaving little budget, or energy, to actually tell people you exist. A quieter opening with a solid, sustained marketing plan is often far more effective than a flashy launch followed by radio silence.

Numbers matter more than you think (and less than you fear)

Once brand and audience are clear, then (and only then) should you turn fully to the numbers.

You don’t need to be an accountant, but you do need to understand:
• Your monthly break-even point
• Your realistic sales capacity in the first three years
• How long it will take before you can pay yourself consistently

Stock choices should all link back to your original positioning

Many new owners underestimate how long everything takes. Patients don’t arrive in neat monthly increments. Cash flow is lumpy. And in the early stages, almost everything you earn goes straight back into the business.

This is where a financial buffer becomes crucial. Not as a sign of pessimism, but as a pressure-release valve. Knowing you can absorb slower months without panic allows you to make better decisions, avoid knee-jerk discounting, and stay aligned with your original vision.

Viability isn’t just about whether the business can work, but whether it can work on a timescale you can emotionally and financially sustain.

Don’t confuse busy with profitable

Another trap for new practices is activity without intention. Being busy can feel reassuring, but not all growth is healthy growth. Stock choices, service offerings and appointment structures should all link back to your original positioning. More isn’t always better. More frames, more clinics or more offers can dilute focus and complicate operations before demand justifies it.

A smaller, well-aligned offering that serves the right patients exceptionally well is often far more profitable (and enjoyable) than a sprawling one built on guesswork.

Emotional reality: this is personal

Perhaps the hardest part of owning a practice is that it’s not just a job. It’s your name, your taste, your decisions – and it can feel like your baby. That makes criticism harder to hear and slow periods harder to rationalise. A patient who doesn’t return can feel like a personal rejection rather than a data point. A quiet week can easily spiral into self-doubt.

Learning to separate you from the business is a skill that takes time. It requires stepping back, looking at patterns instead of individual moments, and resisting the urge to react emotionally to every dip or disappointment. Support networks matter here. Other owners, mentors or peers who understand the reality behind the social media posts can be invaluable. Independence doesn’t mean doing everything alone.

Build the foundations before you leap

Starting your own practice can be deeply rewarding; creatively, professionally and personally. But it’s not just a leap of faith. It’s a series of deliberate, considered steps.

If you invest early in clarity – of brand, audience, numbers and expectations – you give yourself far more than a chance of survival. You give yourself the opportunity to build something sustainable, distinctive and genuinely fulfilling.

And perhaps most importantly, you build a practice that doesn’t just look good from the outside, but feels right on the inside too.

Further reading

ABDO Business Hub: What to consider before starting your own independent practice
Miller D. Building a StoryBrand
Godin S. This Is Marketing. You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See
Middleton S. How to Build a Brand in 30 Days

Useful websites

British Business Bank Finance Hub
Myers La Roche
HubSpot Academy
SightCare
Start Up Loans

Rebecca Thompson FBDO is a dispensing optician, eyewear strategist, founder of Eyestyle Studio and writer of Eye Style, a weekly journal exploring the business, design and the future of optics.