Eye doctor: Style need not be sacrificed for function

Describe your business.

Eyes & Optics features top designer brands, a sunglass shop specializing in prescription work, a “Zeiss Expert” optical laboratory and an electronic optometry suite.

In addition to wellness and medical eyecare, the practice offers specialty contact lens designs, dry-eye therapy, refractive surgery management and custom eyewear for athletes, shooters, scuba divers, computer users, musicians, gamers and others.

Who are your customers?

I joke that half of our clients don’t know how to use a computer, while the other half have never seen the yellow pages.

Demographics suggest that our prime clients are 40- to 60-year-old women. We must satisfy them to gain access to their family and friends. We also serve a select group of eyeglass junkies who appreciate the statement that glasses can make. They’re always looking for something hip and different.

What is your business philosophy?

There is a great deal of trust placed in us since we offer products and services that are difficult to understand for the average person. We must go to great lengths to do the right thing. Our corporate mission statement is to treat everyone like rock stars and to treat rock stars like everyone else.

What is the hardest part about doing business in Las Vegas?

Optometry, like most medical care, is heavily regulated, with nearly every decision dictated by the government and by third-party vision plans and insurance companies. Our professional fees are essentially fixed for the majority of our clients, and any economic pressure to increase fees is nearly impossible when rent, power, taxes, insurance, payroll and inflation eat away at the bottom line.

The hardest part about doing business in Las Vegas is the fear that business fees, licensing, top line taxes or even a future corporate income tax will further restrict what we do. And there always will be the fear that the next bubble will collapse.

What did you learn from the recession?

I will never stop worrying about money and business again.

Nothing matters but cash flow.

Banks will help you only when you don’t need it.

I will take fewer risks and not continue to expand my business.

There will never be a pile of backup rainy-day capital to weather a downturn.

Value perception and our client’s confidence in the economy are more important than anything we can do in the store.

Once everyone felt the effects of the recession, even those with money were afraid to spend it. We were forced to change our selection and close a location in Caesars Palace. It all happened so quickly that no business could react fast enough. We learned not to be too confident, not to trust predictions or budgets and that you can never have enough working capital reserves.