When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, Find a Journalist

AN INDISPUTABLE FACT of life is that you don’t know what you don’t know. In journalism, when researching a new story, we reach out to subject matter experts to help us get to the root of an issue and assist us in conveying the facts. We are trained to ferret out the information we need, but sometimes we don’t even know what it is we need until we start digging.

That couldn’t be truer than for our Big Story on real estate — Bricks And Mortar — on page 24. We assumed that all biz owners dream of owning the location that houses their business, and while that is certainly true of many, it isn’t without its drawbacks. We tapped a commercial real estate expert to weigh the pros and cons of ownership versus leasing; and share the realities of it from eyecare business owners on both sides.

But you can’t talk about real estate without talking about money. For our Special Feature on financial literacy, Money Matters (page 32), I brought in the big guns … because let’s just say if I were good with numbers or money, I likely wouldn’t have chosen the less-than-financially-rewarding career of a magazine editor. I discovered that there is so much to cover on this topic that we’re turning it into a regular Money Matters series starting next month.

Until then…

Best wishes for your business,

Five Smart Tips From This Issue

Staffing is hard. Make sure not to miss National Employee Appreciation day and show your staff you care. (Calendar, page 18)
You can’t escape money talk this issue. If you were hoping you had a little bit more, we’ve got some practice financing and industry-specific credit cards for you. (Better Vision, page 22)
Do you know the difference between a bookkeeper, accountant and financial planner? Well, now you do. (Special Feature, page 36)
Robert Bell is back and he’s weaving a tale about the importance of storytelling in his own singular fashion. (Columns, page 44)
Who exactly is Heath Burslem? We’re shedding a (very) little light on INVISION’s ubiquitous editor-at-large. (Sanity Files, page 62)

Deirdre Carroll

Having built a career in service journalism, Dee has been covering the eyecare industry for over a decade. As editor-in-chief of INVISION Magazine, she is passionate about telling independent ECPs stories and can be reached directly at dee@invisionmag.com.