Key Takeaways

• Saving early and consistently creates a foundation for both personal and practice success.
• Owners must measure true profitability by paying themselves fairly and keeping clean books.
• Long-term planning, from insurance coverage to succession strategies, protects both the practice and the families who depend on it.

Adam Cmejla, CFP® is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER

Optometry practice finances are often the deciding factor between a thriving clinic and one that merely sustains itself. In this Defocus Media conversation, Dr. Darryl Glover welcomes financial planner and podcast host Adam Cmejla to unpack the seven most common financial mistakes optometrists make, especially from the business owner’s lens. The discussion blends owner-specific guidance with advice any associate can apply, focusing on actionable steps that build resilient, profitable practices without getting lost in hype or complexity.

The throughline is simple: plan early, measure what matters, and protect the income engine that powers your life and team. Along the way, the episode challenges assumptions about “top line” worship, tax-driven purchasing, and trendy “passive income” detours reminding owners that consistent execution beats clever strategies almost every time.

Table of ContentsKey Takeaways1: Save Sooner Than You Think2: Profitability: Pay Yourself Fairly (and Measure It)3: Succession Planning Starts Now4: Insure Your Greatest Asset: Your Income5: Know Your Balance Sheet (Before Buyers Do)6: Don’t Let the Tax Tail Wag the Debt Dog7: Spend Less Time Chasing Pennies, More Time Earning Dollars8: Keep Investing Simple (and Sensible) 1: Save Sooner Than You Think

The first mistake is waiting too long to build savings habits. Owners often burn their early thirties and beyond buying or launching a practice, which delays consistent saving just as life becomes more complex. The compounding engine needs one finite input, time. Every year you delay forces larger future contributions to catch up, right when personal and business expenses tend to spike.

Put it into practice
Automate a baseline monthly transfer to a diversified brokerage account before “leftover” spending.
Tie increases to milestones such as every 10 percent revenue gain equals plus one percent owner savings.
Teach your team the same mindset to normalize financial wellness across the clinic.

Takeaway → Start small, start now, and protect compounding time owner or associate.

2: Profitability: Pay Yourself Fairly (and Measure It)

Owners wear two hats, clinician and shareholder. Many “mask” profitability by underpaying themselves for clinician work, inflating what looks like a healthy bottom line. Ask: What would I pay an outside optometrist for my exact clinical schedule plus benefits such as malpractice, CE, retirement match, paid leave? Book that as a real expense. The remainder is true owner return for taking business risk.

Put it into practice
Calculate a market-rate OD comp for your hours and benefits.
Recast your P&L with that figure and track Net Operating Income (NOI) separately.
Review monthly: “What gets measured gets managed and improves.”

Takeaway → You don’t want to “own a job.” Pay clinician-you fairly and manage owner returns accordingly.

3: Succession Planning Starts Now

Every owner exits on your terms or someone else’s. A light-touch valuation every two to three years keeps you grounded in the predictability of future cash flows, which ultimately drives sale value. Life happens, injury, disability, or a career shift, so don’t wait to understand what you own.

Put it into practice
Keep clean books and an updated KPI dashboard.
Build a simple 3–5 year capital plan so buyers see stable cash flows, not swings.
Document processes such as scheduling templates, handoffs, ordering, because buyers pay for systems.

Takeaway → Treat valuation as a vital sign and check it periodically to guide decisions long before a sale.

4: Insure Your Greatest Asset: Your Income

The most powerful wealth-building tool isn’t the “perfect ETF” it’s your income. For owners, that’s the combined value of clinical work and equity cash flow. Protect it. Own-occupation disability insurance tailored to optometry and adequate level term life insurance are the baseline. The goal isn’t to carry coverage forever, it’s to stay insured until your balance sheet makes you effectively self-insured.

Put it into practice
Work with an independent broker to shop multiple carriers.
Align benefit periods and elimination periods with your emergency reserves.
Re-evaluate coverage after major life or business changes.

Takeaway → Insurance isn’t flashy, but a disability or untimely loss can derail decades of planning.

5: Know Your Balance Sheet (Before Buyers Do)

Owners often keep a decent P&L but a messy balance sheet. Debt, owner draws, and basis adjustments if misbooked confuse lenders and buyers and can shrink net proceeds at exit. In asset sales, you sell assets, not liabilities; your debt is still yours on closing day.

Put it into practice
Have an optometry-savvy bookkeeper clean historical entries and reconcile debt schedules.
Produce a monthly owner’s equity roll-forward and debt amortization calendar.
Stress-test sale scenarios: offer minus debt payoff minus broker fees minus taxes equals your real number.

Takeaway → Clean balance sheets build buyer confidence and protect your net, not just your gross.

6: Don’t Let the Tax Tail Wag the Debt Dog

Buying equipment only to reduce this year’s taxes is a classic trap. If it doesn’t move clinical capacity, quality, or pricing power, you’re trading today’s tax relief for tomorrow’s depreciation recapture and extra leverage right before a sale.

Put it into practice
Approve CAPEX only when it expands billable services, shortens cycle time, or improves case acceptance. Preferably two of three.
Require a simple ROI brief for any purchase over $5,000.
Forecast tax with and without the purchase; choose the better business outcome, not the lowest short-term tax bill.

Takeaway → Don’t let the tax tail wag the debt dog. Buy for ROI, not for write-offs.

7: Spend Less Time Chasing Pennies, More Time Earning Dollars

You can only cut to zero, but revenue is uncapped. Many owners spend hours shaving basis points that net less than one percent of revenue while leaving growth levers untouched. These include schedule density, fee architecture, clinical scope such as dry eye or myopia management, capture rate, and second-pair strategy.

Put it into practice
Audit schedule utilization and standardize visit types.
Calibrate fees and payer mix quarterly and test packaged pricing for premium services.
Train the team on doctor-to-optician handoffs and scripted education.

Takeaway → Control costs, yes, but prioritize the levers that move the top line and margin.

8: Keep Investing Simple (and Sensible)

“Passive income” trends can distract owners from the most passive asset of all: a diversified brokerage account fed by consistent contributions. Real estate can fit, but lead with your why, your time constraints, and portfolio design, not social media momentum or tax angles.

Put it into practice
Document an Investment Policy Statement with goals, risk, allocation, and rebalancing rules.
Automate monthly funding and rebalance on schedule, not headlines.
If you add real estate, ensure it complements rather than over-concentrates risk exposure.

Takeaway → Boring is beautiful. Simple, rules-based investing compounds while you focus on patient care.

Optometry practice finances improve when owners plan, measure, and protect. Start saving now, unmask true profitability, value your practice periodically, insure your income, clean the balance sheet, deploy debt only for ROI, prioritize revenue levers, and keep investments simple. Next best step: build your sounding board, an advisor, mentor, or mastermind who knows your context and helps filter good ideas into great decisions.

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