Jessica Trichel, OD, and her husband, Mike, were in Fayetteville, Arkansas, for an Arkansas Razorback football game in the fall of 2022 when she found inspiration to open her own private practice. “We had taken our oldest daughter with us this trip and decided to stay in Bentonville—a quirky, fun town near Fayetteville,” she says.
While in Bentonville, Dr. Trichel and her family were walking the town square and passed by a storefront named Eyes on the Square. The unique style of this clinic drew her in.
“I don’t normally go in other offices, but it was cute with a hipster vibe,” she recalls. “I walked in and said, ‘This is going to sound strange, but I am an optometrist from Texarkana, Texas, and I was hoping I could look around?”
Seated at the front desk was owner Matt Howell, OD. He graciously welcomed Dr. Trichel and shared his own experiences about opening a practice just out of optometry school. She says that visit was just the push she needed to finally pursue ownership herself.
PURSUING OWNERSHIP
Dr. Trichel always considered practice ownership as a future path. Following her 2012 graduation from IAUPR School of Optometry, Dr. Trichel worked for a large private practice for two years before accepting a position with her former undergrad employer, Charles Lyon, MD, a retinal specialist in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dr. Trichel has previously worked for Dr. Lyon while in undergrad at LSUS as a technician, assisting with patient work-ups, intravitreal injection prep and research. It was an hour-long commute each way four days a week.
Once she got married and her family grew, she looked for other options to be closer to home. Dr. Trichel found a local job with a cataract surgeon, where she worked for seven years.
The trip to Bentonville and meeting Dr. Howell made Dr. Trichel pause and reflect. Dr. Trichel says she realized was not quite in the place where she wanted to be. “I always wanted to come back home and have my own business,” she says.
With the wheels turning, she found the perfect place. Dr. Trichel secured a 1,500-square-foot space in a strip center located in the town of Nash, Texas. She is thankful to Dr. Howell’s recommendation to work with iCare Advisors. The team was phenomenal to work with in many aspects, she says. They assisted in analyzing demographics, traffic areas, incomes and market saturation to zone in on the best location.
BUILDING A BUSINESS OF HER OWN
Nash Eye Care opened in January 2024. Dr. Trichel recreated her own version of that modern, warm vibe she saw at Eyes on the Square in Bentonville. She incorporated details such as warm wood-toned floors, creamy white walls and black doors. “I like the design to be minimal to not overwhelm the patients when they come in,” she says.
Dr. Trichel says that having roots in the area has helped her get her patient base up and running quickly. Her husband grew up in Texarkana, which surrounds Nash, and she lived in a nearby town 20 minutes away. “I’ve met so many people through him who are super kind. They want to support us.”
The location on the west side of Texarkana is also growing. It’s bringing in a wave of new patients coming in with their families now, too.
STRONG NETWORK BRINGS REFERRALS
For now, her patient base is primarily patients ages 55 and up. “My favorite patients are the oldest in the community,” she says. Her reputation has grown with this demographic thanks to working for Dr. Lyon in Shreveport, which is an hour south of Texarkana. He also had a satellite office in Texarkana, Texas, where Dr. Trichel worked for him for three years.
Dr. Lyon also continues to send patients her way when it’s a good match for everyone. “With that relationship of trust, he refers a lot of his stable patients to me to manage retina care,” Dr. Trichel says. “We are way ahead of where we thought we would be at this point. It is most definitely better than we deserve. I cannot help but to thank Dr. Lyon for part of this.”
LOOKING AHEAD
LOOKING AHEADAs she approaches her second anniversary, Dr. Trichel has many ideas for the future. There’s an acre of land across the street from her practice that is owned by the city of Nash. She hopes to acquire that property and build a larger clinic with its own dry eye suite.
LOOKING BACK
Dr. Trichel reflected on the experience of opening her practice. “I had almost given up on opening my own private practice. It was a dream. It felt safer for me to have a ‘secure’ job while my husband had his own business,” she says. “Did we (my husband and I) really want two businesses? How would that affect our marriage? My kids were—and still are—young. How was I going to juggle more responsibility?”
She spent time thinking about what was her happiness was worth, she says. All of these big questions lingered in the back of her mind for years. She shares the guidance she found in Ecclesiastes 3:1—”For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the heavens.”
“My prayer every day is that our Lord does his work through me, through my eyes and through my hands,” she says. “Sometimes it is a simple as a smile, a listening ear or a hug. The optometry part is easy for me. What matters most is connecting with people, meeting them where they are and, hopefully, helping them.”
Connect with Dr. Trichel and Nash Eye Care online:
Instagram: @nash_eye_care
Facebook: Nash Eye Care
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| Interior doors: Sherwin Williams Tricon Black (6258) |
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