Dear Jerry,

Your January 19th blog on 'The Importance Of A Good-Looking Stationery and Logo' got me thinking as I have used the "optometric caduceus" since I began practice in the mid 90's.

I purchased a practice that did not have a strong medical optometry background and chose the caduceus as a way to promote the medical approach to my patients.

But now I am wondering, has the caduceus become antiquated? I do not see it displayed much in medical marketing anymore.

What are the thoughts of you and my fellow optometrists?

Conway Cox, OD

Dear Conway,

Like you, I had to think about this one a little bit.

While the caduceus does in fact have a medical connotation, there is a problem if you choose to use it as your primary logo.

Dear Dr. Hayes,

About eight months ago, an associate left my practice on less than good terms to open an office about 25 miles away.

I just found out that he called many of the patients he was seeing in my office to let them know he was leaving and a number have decided to follow him.

I would say we are getting about 10 requests per month to transfer records to his practice.

Should I try to do anything to keep those patients? It’s starting to take a bite out of my revenue as they were spending about $500 per visit.

I was thinking about contacting the patients to ask if I did something wrong. Or, maybe send them a postcard offering $100 - $200 if they return to our office for materials.

What do you think about either one of those ideas?

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners recently looked at 959 cases of in-house fraud and embezzlement. (Source: businessbrief.com)

    • Small firms tend to be more likely to be hit by in-house larceny during periods of
      an economic downturn.

    • The median loss in this study was $175,000.

    • The typical time frame between the first act of fraud and the time someone was
      caught

In Tuesday’s blog, I wrote about my case of in-house embezzlement. 

I have not suddenly gotten cynical, but the stories I have heard since my recent experience leads me to believe that employee theft, of one form or another, is a dirty little secret going on in more offices than practice owners realize.

Unfortunately, the more trusting you are (like me),

Two years ago, I was speaking at an optometric meeting in Dallas when an OD pulled me aside during the break to suggest that we include the topic of employee theft and embezzlement in future talks.

The doctor went on to tell me how one of his key staff members had embezzled approximately $100,000 from his practice

In Tuesday’s blog, I wrote about the OD practice owner who was surprised to find that his main lab was paying his optician thousands of dollars without the OD's knowledge or consent.

I recently spoke to attorney Phillip Byrum of Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP in Chattanooga, Tennessee about the legality of key suppliers compensating your employees without your knowledge and what you can do about it. 

How would you handle this one? The mail arrives and you open what you thought was a letter from your main optical lab that is addressed to ‘Fashion Eyewear’, the name of your dispensary.

You are shocked to find that the only thing in the envelope is a tax form showing that your lab paid your optician several thousand dollars over the previous year. 

Shocked, because you didn’t know anything about it!

Whether you realize it or not, the practice of optical wholesalers, particularly labs, either gifting or outright paying key staff members based on how much business they send to a particular company, is fairly widespread in our industry. 

Dear Readers,

Thanks again to everyone who responded to our 60 Second Survey. To see the complete results for 2009 Practice Performance Survey, click here.

Comparing 2009 Production To 2008

Over half (61.6%) of the practice owners who responded to our survey said their collected gross revenues increased in 2009 as compared to 2008.

I will be publishing the results of my second annual practice performance survey tomorrow and wanted to lead off with some surprisingly good news on the general economy.

According to an article on page B3 of the New York Times, February 6, 2010 edition, a global recovery in the manufacturing sector has started and appears to be

In Wednesday’s blog post, I quoted internet marketing guru John Jantsch on his definition of a Silver Bullet.

“Find what’s working and do more of it. In fact, focus every fiber of your business being on that.” Click here to read.

I agree with John to a point.

In fact, after thinking about it, I think there is an even better Silver Bullet. In reality, it’s the starting point for every successful business, large and small.