My Brother-in-law is a Philosophy Professor specialising in ethics and he says “Ethical and Profitable are two incompatible motivations”. Is he right? Has his living in America for 25 years, the last few under Trump, made him forget the good old British concept of trying to do the right thing? Or is it more that it is difficult to be profitable if you are ethical?

The starting point for Eyeye’s “do the right thing” approach was to be up-front and transparent about the cost of our spectacles. It is the opposite of “Ryanair pricing” in that we tell you the final price at the beginning, not at the end as a nasty surprise when all their up-sells have been added on. People who have been to other opticians respond well to this, if you like, Yorkshire pricing – buy one, get one. But, while our prices are more than competitive versus the final price you pay elsewhere, most of our competitors lure customers in with headline offer prices that you very rarely end up paying at the end. So, we need different, creative ways of getting people through our doors, like events and a bold, opinionated (polite) social media presence.

Another important feature of how we conduct our business is that we allow much longer for an eye test than others. For example, most Specsavers allow 20 minutes per appointment and we have more than double that. This allows us time to listen, understand problems, take and discuss pictures and give advice about keeping your eye healthy. The eye test is more enjoyable for the patient and the optician – it allows us time to hopefully build a trusting relationship. But, the more tests you squeeze in, the more money you might make.

We also look for suppliers who are trying to do the right thing too. We have frames made from recycled sea waste plastic, plant-based products and recycled steels. We also, use a Sheffield-based lens lab as we think that is sensible from a sustainability point of view. This contrasts with Boots who fly in four planes a day from Thailand, where their frames are glazed. These initiatives make me and loyal customers feel good, but don’t help in keeping our costs down.

We’ve been open 3 years now and are looking forward to one day getting to the point when we might have some tax to pay on some profits. We have undoubtedly attracted some customers by shouting about our ethical credentials, but we do need more if we are to keep going. In these uncertain times Sheffield is even more price sensitive than ever and the lure of Amazon “bargains” is there for all of us.

My response to the Brother-in-law in Michigan perhaps ought to be; do people really believe you can be ethical and affordable? We’re trying to be and we do like to think in our case that maybe seeing is believing.

Since I’ve opened Eyeye I have used 2 optometrists that I know and trust to provide cover when I’ve taken time off. We use them because we share values, they are thorough and our patients like them. Not surprisingly, because they are good, they don’t have much availability.

Like many businesses in the first 3 years I have not been off much but aspire to take a bit more leave in the future. So, I need to widen my pool, but I don’t believe going to a locum agency is the answer.

Why? Well, there are some great locum opticians, but there are some who I would not want working in my business and others who I would not want working in anyone’s business.

In some respects it should be easy to find an optometrist as the way we work avoids some of the key issues fellow professionals find working in many opticians. The main dissatisfactions optometrists have elsewhere are: 1. That they don’t have long enough appointments; 2. They are under pressure to “convert” eye tests into sales and up-sell additional products and services. Here we have 45 minutes with a patient (versus industry standard of 20-25 minutes) and up-front pricing with no up-selling.

The dominance of the 20-25 minute (fully booked, running late) diary, day in day out, means that some optometrists don’t know it does not have to be like that. Specsavers are so big that their way of doing things is the dominant one, but don’t kid yourselves that this means it is multiple bad and independent good. When I locumed I went to some independents that I flat out refused to go to again because of their attitude, poor equipment and over-filled diary.

Attitude is everything in this kind of work and when I am teaching under-graduate optometrists you see good and bad signs even in the early weeks of their path to qualification. In the past I have worked in optom development and observed lots of eye tests. The best optoms were always the ones who wanted to be watched and get feedback, yet many did everything possible to avoid being watched!

We want someone who is interested in our aim to do optics better. This is based on the New Economic Forum’s 5 ways to wellbeing, which are:

We take notice; We connect; Always learning; We’re Active; We give (see our website for more on each of these https://www.eyeyesheffield.co.uk/the-story-of-better

If you are in optics please feel free to share this and we’ll see who get in touch.

8 things you should expect at your eye test

1. The optometrist takes time to listen to and understand why you’ve come for an eye examination and what issues you are having with your vision in everyday life. This should include them getting a clear picture of the visual demands of your life at work, rest and play.

2. Before or during your appointment you should expect to have the pressure in your eyes measured, a visual field assessment, pictures and measurements of your existing prescriptions.

3. You should be guided through the findings of the health checks carried out. This should, at the least, include being shown pictures of the back of your eye (and ideally front too) with explanation of which bits are healthy, any areas of concern and advice about maintaining eye health.

4. The optometrist should check your vision with your existing specs (if worn) and then do tests to look at how the eyes work together at different distances and looking in different directions.

5. After the bit when the optometrist determines your optimal prescription (ideally with a modern automated device in front of your eyes – instead of the really dated, uncomfortable little frames) you should be told whether your prescription has changed and by how much.

6. You should understand what your glasses are correcting and whether you are myopic (short-sighted), hyperopic (long-sighted), astigmatic and/or presbyopic – and the implications of each of these conditions.

7. You should have all the visual correction options explained to you (specs and/or contact lenses), so you can make an informed decision with the optometrist about which ones suit the different visual requirements of your life.

8. You should be handed on to the optometrist’s colleague with a brief summary of your requirements and a choice of whether you want to look at specs or not. You should definitely be supplied with a copy of your prescription – it is the law.

And 2 things you should not expect

1. Being in and out of the room in 15-20 minutes. you can’t do the above properly in that amount of time.

2. The optometrist up-selling of lens coatings, more expensive varifocals and hearing tests.