Tuning up or overhauling your frame mix

With International Vision Expo West fast approaching it is the perfect time either to tune up or totally overhaul your product mix. It's critical to map out a plan as to what your needs are before you hit the show floor to avoid emotional buying. Let's do a quick brush-up of some very basic but useful tips to managing your inventory like a business.

Fact: The optical dispensary is retail-driven, and you need to pay close attention to retail buying strategies in order to maximize profits and balance your cash flow. View your dispensary as a profit center that can generate up to 60% or more of the annual income for a practice. A loosely managed or poorly planned inventory can affect the bottom line directly in a negative way.

Do your homework

To help you plan and determine inventory needs, you'll need to gather information that will help you design a customized business approach to buying.

Start the process with some basic-yet-necessary questions:

This exercise will help determine an appropriate product mix based on the demographics of your current and target customer base and run your dispensary like a business.