As in any healthy personal relationship, it can take years to find the perfect person to take on a practice and its patients. On the other hand, you might be fortunate to find them in an instant.
There are multiple factors to consider: alongside the geographic location, physical premises, patient database, equipment, financials, and legals, the relationship between a vendor and vendee is vital. For a handover to be successful, there needs to be mutual respect, trust, open communication, and shared values.
mivision explored the execution of succession plans for two legacy practices – Kimber Optometry and EyeCare Plus Corrimal, speaking to the outgoing optometrists about their motivation and priorities for exit, as well as the incoming optometrists about their plans and approaches.
Six months on from exiting her Eyecare Plus practice in Corrimal on the picturesque south coast of New South Wales, Yang Wang is still processing the change, even though she knows it was the right decision to make.
Ms Wang had owned her practice for 10 years, having previously worked in it as an employee. During her time as an owner optometrist, she had completed a degree in dietetics, her husband Roland, who had initially worked with her, had become a trainee doctor, and they had started a family. With their parents in New Zealand, they were trying to juggle everything on their own.
“I liked the business; I enjoyed everything about it, but we’d moved into a different stage of our lives, and I needed to prioritise things to move forward,” Ms Wang said.
“I reached out to Philip Rose (then General Manager of Eyecare Plus) and we put some ads on mivision and Optometry Australia (websites) as well.”
Ms Wang said she wasn’t in a hurry to sell; having grown the business, watched her paediatric patients grow into young adults, and her adult patients become middle-aged, she wanted to leave it in the right hands.
“I knew there would be a bit of give and take, but I was really hoping the buyer would be someone similar to me. Someone that likes independent practice, that wants to do their own thing. I think that’s the magic about independent practice. You can lean into your passion.”
I was really hoping the buyer would be someone similar to me. Someone that likes independent practice, that wants to do their own thing.
For Michael Kimber, the third-generation owner of Kimber Optical in Sydney’s inner west suburb of Hurstville, the decision to sell was significant having held the practice in the family for many, many years.
“My grandfather couldn’t take my older brother down to the shop, but he took me down there regularly from when I was a teenager. So, he saw something in me that I didn’t see… My dad and his brother worked there as optical mechanics.”
When his grandfather retired in his early 60s, a lecturer was employed to run the business until Mr Kimber completed his degree in optometry.
“Well, I’m 70 now, I was talking with the guys from uni about succession planning and stuff like that. Some of them had to walk away from their practices and got nothing out of it; I decided I’d better start thinking.”
As a member of ProVision, Mr Kimber had spoken to Business Coach Kelvin Bartholomeusz a few years earlier about succession planning, and decided to revisit the idea.
Within just a day of their discussion, Mr Bartholomeusz had identified the perfect match in Howie Yin and Jenny Kim, two optometrists who were married and, having been practising in rural NSW for just over four years, were looking to return to the city.
“They’d been ProVision Associates for three years, and I’d met them at ODMA (the Optical Distributors and Manufacturers Association trade fair). They’d always had very good jobs regionally and been very happy,” Mr Bartholomeusz said. “And then the time came when they wanted to move to the city; they called me and I thought about my conversation with Michael. I rang and said, ‘I’ve got someone who you should talk to’.
“They called each other on the Saturday. Howie happened to be in Sydney, they (he and Michael Kimber) met up, and before I knew it, the deal was done.”
Love At First Sight
Mr Kimber, Mr Yin, Ms Kim, and Mr Bartholomeusz all described that first meeting as “love at first sight”.
“One thing my grandfather said to me when I was young was that when you treat people the way you like to be treated, they’ll always come back,” said Mr Kimber.
“And when we met the first couple of times – my wife and I met Howie and Jenny – we could tell they had the same ideals as we had, and the way we treated patients as if they were family.”
The shared approach to patient care was also immediately apparent to Mr Yin and Ms Kim.
“Our sentiments about practising, our priorities – they all matched really well,” Mr Yin explained.
Prior to being introduced to Mr Kimber, Mr Yin and Ms Kim had been considering a greenfield site but said the idea had become very difficult, primarily due to the “very expensive cost” of doing so. Additionally, the saturated market meant “finding a good location where we can practise freely was becoming more difficult”, Mr Yin observed.
“Michael’s practice already had the culture established that I would have wanted to build from the get-go. So, it was a no-brainer to just go into a succession plan instead of having to build our own database from scratch.”
Lily Wegrzynowski, General Manager at Eyecare Plus, said finding a buyer with the right cultural fit is essential to the success of the practice because it ensures that the staff and patients continue.
“While a new owner will be a different person and look at making changes over time, if the founding principles of the practice are maintained, the practice will continue to grow.
“Independent practice is all about looking after patients and treating them how you would want to be treated. That care builds trust, which builds the practice. Finding a new owner for your practice is finding that likeminded colleague who shares the same belief and will continue the legacy and care of your patients,” Ms Wegrzynowski said.
“Change will come – including with the introduction and expansion of practice specialities – however it should come with a view to expanding the care of current and new patients; retention and growth.”
In Corrimal, Ms Wang met with a few prospective buyers before finding the ideal owner of her practice: Alinta Southam-Rogers.
However, at the time of their first meeting, Ms Southam-Rogers, wasn’t looking to buy.
“I’d been working in different regions and was happy working as a contractor. But I did want to make my way back to the south coast for my son – he’s only 1.5 years and I wanted to be close to my family,” she explained.
“I’d met Yang and was considering locuming for her but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I could own my own practice.”
Having worked for other practices, it occurred to Ms Southam-Rogers that when she moved on, she left the goodwill she’d built behind her. Owning her own business would enable her to really invest in, and retain, it.
“And then I realised that having a baby had been the hardest thing I’d ever done – it couldn’t possibly be any harder to take on a practice.”
Within six months, Ms Southam-Rogers had contacted Ms Wang to express interest, and the timing turned out to be perfect.
“The other prospects hadn’t worked out for various reasons. But Alinta lived and breathed optometry and she was quietly confident about taking over the practice,” said Ms Wang. “She knew the process of running the business side, so she was very familiar with a lot of what I was talking to her about. And I could see she is a very experienced optometrist. I think within maybe half a year I had agreed to sell to her.”
Ms Southam-Rogers engaged practice broker Philip Fent to guide her through the purchase. “He looked at the books, made sure everything looked normal and the offer was reasonable, did a sanity check.
“Having helped mum over the years, I knew the lived experience of owning a practice – the behind-the-scenes things you have to be aware of – and one day, when Phil asked me if I was ready to do it, I thought ‘why not’.”
With the extra encouragement of a friend who had worked with Ms Wang, she bought the practice sight unseen and moved to Corrimal.
Helicopter or Handover
Regardless of how ready you feel to retire, handing over the business baby that you’ve nurtured for years – along with the patients whose eyesight you’ve maintained – can be emotionally challenging. On the other side of the equation, eager new owners can be impatient to put their stamp on the business they’ve just invested in and start exploring its potential by making change.
Mr Bartholomeusz cautions prospective buyers to take the approach of both parties into consideration before signing on the dotted line – or even beginning to explore the options.
“If a vendor is a little bit too full on at the meetings, it’s not a good sign. And the good thing is that’s where the coaches come in – we may say, ‘This person will have a very strong personality’, which is possibly a euphemistic way of saying, ‘Can you work with that?’. They get the message fairly quickly,” he said.
“It’s in our interest to look after both parties and not take one side or the other; really to be there for all of them. Likewise, with the current owner, we have to say, ‘Are you looking for a person that’s going to step up and take control or someone who’s prepared to listen to you a lot more? It is important to get a feel for each other.’”
For Ms Wang and Ms Southam-Rogers, the settlement was quick. Ms Southam-Rogers was ready to take over the practice, having locumed a few days prior. “My mother helped me with a stocktake. On the day of settlement and handover, I saw patients – I wouldn’t recommend that; there was so much going on, and of course a few issues to be overcome,” Ms Southam-Rogers said.
Now six months into ownership at Corrimal, and with a second baby on the way, Ms Southam-Rogers said she is happy with how her new life is panning out.
“There were things that made me nervous in those first few weeks – it’s a lot of financial outlay and uncertainty, but I rested on the fact that we’d done all the due diligence, and I had a team of people I trusted.
“The clinical transition has been smooth – having locumed and contracted, I have taken over from practitioners before, and Yang’s patients were really open to it. A lot of them knew she and Roland were retraining so they weren’t that surprised – if anything they were proud of her.
“I’ve also been pretty blessed with two really lovely and open staff members who have welcomed a lot of changes and learnt some new skills – I think they’ve been empowered to do more.”
Ms Southam-Rogers said her biggest challenge in the coming year is to turn her business into a practice that operates profitably, even when she’s not here. “I need to put systems in place so that a locum can walk in and just take over,” she said.
And for Ms Wang, who is now building her business as a dietician and raising her family, she has achieved the perfect outcome for herself and her patients. “I feel grateful for Alinta. I’m hopeful for the practice. I think she’s a great lady and I couldn’t be happier.”
We both were very comfortable in the sense that we knew that we had the same vision moving forward. So that gave me a bit of comfort
Side By Side
Back at Kimber Optometry, 10 months into the change of ownership, Mr Yin and Mr Kimber continue to work side by side, each benefiting from the other’s knowledge and experience.
And while Mr Yin feels comfortable now, he said that due to its long history of family ownership, in the early days the prospect of taking over the business was “absolutely scary, to be completely honest”.
“We both were very comfortable in the sense that we knew that we had the same vision moving forward. So that gave me a bit of comfort. I think it also gave him a bit of comfort,” said Mr Yin.
“But yeah, it is difficult, I’ll be honest. I think I’ve only just started to get more comfortable in the practice.”
For Mr Kimber, having a recent graduate in his practice has been energising, enabling him to learn new skills while also imparting hard won business expertise.
“Howie and I bounce off each other all the time. He asks me for some of my advice, and I ask him for some of the stuff that he’s done at uni that I didn’t do, like the therapeutics.”
That differentiation in skillsets has also made it easier to transition patients from Mr Kimber’s book of appointments to Mr Yin’s.
“Instead of me just completely taking over Michael’s patients, we created a collaborative care arrangement,” Mr Yin said.
“Because I can prescribe ophthalmic medications for his patients, it’s been very easy for me to just come in and go like, ‘Hey, look, Michael said you’ve got these high pressures, for example, in glaucoma. We can look after you ourselves now.’ And that has made for a very smooth handover. It also helps that he’s still around – he’s still practising four days a week.
“He’s handed me this incredible mantle, I guess, to continue the legacy. And the potential I saw was really just the way he cared for his patients. It was really like family. There’s no other way for me to put it. Essentially, our decisions are not really sales driven – more clinical-driven. And I think that’s the beauty in it. We’ve always had the sentiment of, if we look after the patients first and foremost, the patients will also look after us by coming back to us.”
