Even before she ever saw the place that would eventually become Jackson Eye, Danielle Jackson, OD, had already committed some of it to paper. While she was working in a corporate location, she began dreaming and doodling. “If I hadn’t been an eye doctor, I would have been something creative and artsy,” she says.
She used a computer-aided design to place equipment and furnishings, without knowing the dimensions of the space she would ultimately find in Fairburn, Georgia. She designed her own logo, incorporating her favorite color, purple.
She did find her space, about three years after her 2012 graduation from the University of Houston College of Optometry, in a 1,400-square-foot space in a strip mall anchored to a popular grocery store. She put her plans into action, and she built the frame boards she had designed. She pushed “purchase” on the items she had shopped for over the year preceding. “I knew what my vision was,” she says.
Now in her fourth year, Dr. Jackson is calling on her creativity to help push through the plateau that many practices reach after early years of growth. “As optometrists, we struggle with how to compete with online retailers and how to boost our revenues,” she says. She joined Vision Source®, and that helps bring new ideas to her business management. She’s also given herself time to think—and some of the ideas she has come up with include reshaping her optical with less common frame lines and promoting these unique designs on social media, as well as offering an eyeglass protection plan. “It’s not something that we sell to the patients, but it benefits them and they appreciate that we offer this level of services as a premium. The response has been great,” she says.
She’s also thinking of adding an online optical, perhaps specifically for current patients who want second pairs. Since the practice already has all the measurements, fulfilling those orders would be relatively easy. “I love the convenience of shopping online, so I know that patients do too,” she says. “I still enjoy going to the mall, but having to come back into the office for a second pair of eyeglasses may keep patients from buying them here.”
