39. What is your gender?
40. How old are you?
| 20-29 |
|
4%
|
| 30-39 |
|
16%
|
| 40-49 |
|
19%
|
| 50-59 |
|
30%
|
| 60-70 |
|
28%
|
| Above 70 |
|
3%
|
41. How many hours of sleep do you average a night?
| Less than 5 |
|
4%
|
| 5 |
|
6%
|
| 6 |
|
28%
|
| 7 |
|
39%
|
| 8 |
|
19%
|
| 9 |
|
4%
|
| More than 9 |
|
0%
|
42. How many hours do you typically work a week?
| 25 or less |
|
4%
|
| 30 |
|
9%
|
| 35 |
|
9%
|
| 40 |
|
38%
|
| 45 |
|
14%
|
| 50 |
|
13%
|
| 55 |
|
5%
|
| 60 |
|
6%
|
| 65 |
|
0.5%
|
| 70 or more |
|
1.5%
|
43. Do you feel you are fairly compensated for the work you do?
There is no single route to success, but a statistical picture of ECPs earning the most ($250K-plus) looks something like this: He (85% are male, despite the overall industry numbers skewing female) has a single-location private practice with a strong focus on retail in the suburbs (odds are it’s in the Southwest or West). He’s over 50. He works 45 hours a week but knows when to rest, getting 7+ hours of sleep a night. He runs a tight optical, too: nearly 60% of our most successful ECPs claim their sales team has a conversion rate of over 50%, with designer licensed ophthalmics doing the heavy lifting.
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44. Where does your creativity most express itself?
| In your handling of staff/patients |
|
40%
|
| In your business ideas |
|
28%
|
| In your merchandising/display |
|
16%
|
| In your marketing |
|
9%
|
| In your financial and tax strategies |
|
3%
|
| Other |
|
4%
|
Other responses included “In my personal life,” “Anything not optical,” “In providing excellent eyecare,” and “In the frames I make. It quickly became my artistic outlet.”
45. Where do you get most of your trade news from?
| Traditional trade media |
|
41%
|
| Traditional trade media |
|
17%
|
| A buying or benchmarking group |
|
5%
|
| A social media group dedicated to ECPs |
|
20%
|
| Your own network of industry contacts |
|
17%
|
46. If you could be president for a day, what one decree would you pass to make life easier for small-business people?
This query provoked a deluge of replies decreeing lower, simplified, flat or no taxes. Here are a few standouts from among the others:
- Medicare for all.
- Medicare for all.
- Easy small business loans.
- Small business loan forgiveness.
- Do away with Medicaid.
- Free childcare for all workers.
- Illegal to purchase prescription eyewear on the internet.
- Fire all government officials.
- No rude or entitled patients or clients allowed in small businesses.
- Encourage investing in inventory without penalizing you.
- Only one screw size available for frame manufacturers.
- Ability to hire staff without having to provide healthcare, family leave, etc.
-
- Small business month.
- All billionaires have to shop small business for their eyewear and it has to be amazing.
- Eliminate vision care plans.
- One page IRS tax form.
- Focus on work/life balance. All businesses shorten hours/work week. We’ve become too customer focused and now we can’t keep employees because we keep pushing the envelope in order to keep up with competition.
47. Writers often have the cleanest desks and sharpest pencils because anything is better than sitting down to write. How do you most often find yourself procrastinating when there’s something important that needs focusing on?
