Here’s something they don’t teach you in medical school but is something we all learn sooner or later- so I hope the young ones out there take my advice and learn it sooner.

Here’s a good example. I was once hemming and hawing at the Academy meeting over whether I should buy an HRT. $32,000 was a lot of money, I thought. The salesman looked at me like I was insane. “Doc!” he said, “If you lease this machine, it’ll cost you about $700 a month. You’ll get about $100.00 each time you use it. Don’t you think you’ll use this more than seven times a month?” “Of course”, I said, “probably closer to thirty”. “So what’s yer problem, doc? That’s at least $$2,300 profit a month.”

That’s when I realized how clueless I was about business- don’t focus on how much something costs. It’s almost irrelevant. Focus instead on how much money it will make for you! That’s ROI.

Thinking of hiring an optometrist for your offfice? He might cost you $50,000 a year- is that worth it? Well, if an optometrist frees up, say 15% more time for you to see more patients, then you might increase your income 15%, and therefore the optometrist pays for itself. Again- don’t look at the cost; look at the ROI for each scenario, and you’ll make much better business decisions.