New Office Photo - Couple of Eyes

Just received this photo of a new office that I designed right here in my home town, Portland, OR. The practice is called "Couple of Eyes," owned by husband and wife optometrists. When they first came to me they were thinking of leasing 2,000 square feet for their very first practice, opening cold. I advised them to scale down to 1,500 square feet or less to keep their initial construction costs and overhead down.

They wanted a very contemporary interior with a minimalist style and colors that would reflect their Asian heritage. I had to do a bit of searching to find just the perfect shade of brick red for the back wall. The reception counter is faced with metal laminate. Natural slate flooring in the entry provides rich texture and color.

Although the look is very "hip" we did not want patients to think all the frames are higher priced. Simple locking frame bars signal that the optical has moderate priced frames as well as high fashion frames. The contractor, Norwest General Contractors, did a great job and actually finished on time. That doesn't happen every day!

Display fixtures: Catalog or Custom?

Q. Should I buy display fixtures from a catalog or have my local contractor make them custom?

A. There is an upside and a downside to both approaches. You must weigh the choices and decide what is best for your particular situation.

CATALOG FIXTURES - Most fixture manufacturers will do a free dispensary layout for you and give you an exact price for the whole package. Fixtures can go with you if you move to a different location and it's easy to add more pieces in the future by just placing an order from the catalog. However, display fixtures are fairly expensive and some people want their office to have a different look than what can be achieved with pre-made fixtures.

CUSTOM FIXTURES - Your local cabinetmaker can build your dispensary fixtures if he has a well-detailed set of plans from a designer or architect experienced in optical design. The cost of your dispensary can vary greatly depending on how much custom cabinetry is required and you won't know the actual cost until the plans are done and you get the bids.

The quality of the work can vary also. It's up to you to choose the contractor wisely and refuse to accept any sub-par work. With custom fixtures your office will be one-of-kind and could cost less than if you bought all fixtures.

Many offices have a combination of the two. Free-standing showcases with built-in lighting and locking doors are complex pieces best left to a specialty manufacturer who builds them all day long. Your local cabinetmaker may not be able to give you the high quality you need in a showcase. However, much of the other cabinetry in the dispensary can be handled by a good local cabinetmaker without a problem.

How Long Will Construction Take?

How long will it take to build my new office?

Interior build-outs should take about 6 - 8 weeks, but always add another two weeks or more on to whatever date your contractor promises. Contractors rarely finish on time, even the good ones!

For the average small to medium size professional building a good contractor can do it in 6 months or so, but don't be surprised if it takes longer.

Do I Need A Building Permit?

Q. Do I need a building permit?

If you are doing minor cosmetic changes without any effect on the structure of the building or changes to the plumbing, heating or electrical systems, you probably don't need a building permit. If you are building walls, adding or moving electrical outlets, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, etc. you DO need a permit.

Q. What if I just go ahead with the work anyway without getting a permit?

In small towns and rural areas, the building department is usually more lenient than in a big city and you may be just fine. But in larger cities and towns the building department is more likely to come down hard on those who try to get away without a permit.

They can actually shut down your job and stop any work from progressing until you get a permit. They can make you tear out the drywall to see if your electrical outlets have been installed according to code. It simply is not worth the risk and aggravation. If you suspect you need a permit, go to your local building department, discuss your project with one of the planners or inspectors and find out for sure.

The worst case I ever saw a client go through involved having to enlarge and upgrade a restroom to meet current ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) requirements. Against my advice this client did extensive remodeling to an existing office on the second floor in a professional building WITHOUT a permit.

They opened for business and all went well for about 2 months. Then a city official stopped in and asked for their business license, which they did not have. When they applied for the business license, the city figured out that there was no building permit issued for this new business. They were caught!

They had no certificate of occupancy, which you get with your final inspection approval. The city shut down the practice and made them apply for a permit and do the restroom upgrades, which I had included in my plans. I knew the restroom had to be upgraded but they didn't want to believe me.

Don't let this happen to you. Get a permit!

How Long Does It Take To Get Plans Done?

Q. How long does it take to get plans done?

A. For an interior build-out a complete set of architectural plans takes an average of 6 - 8 weeks for your architect or designer to complete. It can take longer depending on how many revisions it takes to get your approval on the final drawings.

For a building it can take 4 months or more depending on how long it takes to get preliminary approvals on the site plan before the actual construction drawings can be started.

Determining Size of Optical

From Ask The Expert:

Q. I'm planning a new building about 4,000 square feet in size. I want to have an optical of about 700-800 square feet with four dispensing tables and 1500 frames. We'll have two doctors and four exam rooms to start, possibly adding another exam room or two in the future. What do you think about the size of the optical?

A. A good rule of thumb for the ideal size of the optical is 15 - 25% of the total square footage. Yours calculates out to 20%. In my experience your optical is a good size (actually larger than average) for a two doctor practice. Most other offices in this size range of 4,000 SF have six exam rooms, often with a somewhat smaller optical area than yours.

If you plan to do a lot of serious marketing specifically to increase your optical sales you might think about making it larger. However, I’ve learned from my clients that the physical setup of the office can usually handle more patients quite easily. The thing that can limit growth is lack of space for the increased number of staff members required to handle the higher volume of patient traffic.

This has to be a decision based on your overall vision and plan for your practice. Do you think those four dispensing tables will be adequate during busy times? How many opticians will you have working at the same time during peak hours? Will you provide space for more work stations for additional staff people in the future as the practice grows?

If you think you’ll need five or six dispensing tables, then you probably need a larger optical. If the four tables you are planning will be enough, then you probably don’t. Another idea that you could consider is having a separate delivery counter with frame warmer and tools in addition to your four dispensing tables. Then those tables can be used exclusively for styling and selecting frames.

Of course all this has to fit in to a realistic construction budget. If you enlarge the building and then can't qualify for the larger loan required, you will have lost a lot of valuable planning time and effort.

Some of my clients "hedge their bets" in this area. If your building lot is large enough you can plan for a future addition if and when it is needed. In this case, we layout the floor plan for the future addition and create an easy way to connect the old with the new when the time comes. If you build for now but plan for the future, then you will not be spending more money than necessary on initial building costs.

I think that this will give you plenty to mull over. Take the time you need now at the beginning stages of your building project to consider your options and their financial impact carefully.

Opening First Practice

From Ask The Expert:

Q. I'm opening my first practice cold and I found a location I really like, but it's a little over 2,000 square feet. Is that too big? If it is, can I build most of it now and do the rest later?

A. The ideal size space for a first practice is 1,200 - 1,500 square feet. If you take a space too much larger than that you could end up with with monthly overhead costs that are too difficult to meet in the first year or two. If you are going solo, 2,000 square feet is really more than you need to start your practice.

Successful solo O.D.'s usually start in a small office under 1,500 square feet and build up their practice gradually until they are "bustin' at the seams." Then they move up to a bigger office between 2,000 and 3,000 square feet or so. They don't move until they know they've got a good patient base and the cash flow to handle a larger monthly outlay.

When you first start out, it's vital not to bite off more than you can chew! Find a smaller space in the best location possible. Get yourself enough of a construction budget to build an office that gives you a professional image in the clinical area and some retail pizazz in the dispensary.

If you take a larger space and leave some of it unfinished, it doesn't save you a whole lot of money in construction costs. The higher rent could seriously hamper your chances of making it a success, not to mention the extra stress it would cause.

Be conservative with your first practice and then you will get to move up to a larger office when the time is right.