State of ODs on Finance: 2022 in Review, and a Look at 2023!

Dear ODs on Finance Members...

It’s hard to believe, but the year 2022 has vanished in the blink of an eye.  This past year, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing ODs on Finance continue to grow and help ODs on their financial journey, whether they be new grads or seasoned veterans. 


We are thankful for your attention, your questions and your contributions.


Two tenets that hold paramount value to us at ODs on Finance are transparency and productive growth In this letter, we will highlight how our community has grown, the various methods we provide value to our community, exciting new projects/acquisitions for 2023, and a look at our commercial interests/disclosures - trust us, you’ll want to read this!

Growth and Engagement

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Our Facebook group was what started ODs on Finance back in 2018.  Our beginnings were humble, with only about 100 ODs, however in 2022 we are happy to report that our Facebook group is now composed of


15,700+ ODs, growing 25% in members annually 


In order to keep conversation productive and high level we still limit membership to ODs and student ODs.  The only non-ODs in our group consist of our vetted partners.


Based on actual metrics from Meta, the ODs on Finance Facebook group is actually the most engaged Optometry community on social media.  In fact, our group reaches a level of


92% daily engagement


This means that over 14,000+ ODs/students are either viewing or commenting on content daily! 

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Our Instagram has 2200 followers, most of whom are ODs.  Content is shared via posts and stories on our IG account and closely follows content that is seen on the Facebook group.


Thank you for following/liking/sharing ODs on Finance on social media. It really does help us spread the message.

 

Web-Site

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Our website has seen constant improvement throughout 2022 as we continue to add new features and resources to our already large directory of financial articles, resources and calculators.  On average our website receives 

34,000 views per month and 15,500 Unique Visitors per month

 

Sister Websites | ODClincials.com & Careers.ODsonfinance.com

2022 was the year we launched two sister websites which have been warmly received in our OD community.


Our clinical companion (think optometry encyclopedia) - ODClinicals  offers free clinical tools such as CL parameters, meds list, patient diagrams, billing/coding info and in depth ocular pathology breakdowns.  ODClinicals averages

4,000+ Unique Visitors per DAY with each visitor averaging 2.5 hours on the site


Our careers job board + practice listing website - OD Careers offers the ability to list OD jobs for $19/mo and OD practices for sale for $299 per listing (thus eliminating the need for a broker).  Our rates are nearly 10x less than other industry players and our reach tends to be much higher.


Hundreds of employers and thousands of employees have used OD careers since we launched in mid-2022.

Virtual Webinars & CE Events

Our virtual webinars and CE events have become a mainstay for thousands of ODs around the country on Sunday morning.  Speakers, attendees and sponsors have cited ODs on Finance Virtual Webinars as the best attended and engaged webinars out there.  


Our webinars consist of COPE accredited CE courses with topics ranging from practice management to ocular disease, as well as non-COPE high level financial based webinars. On average our webinars have been getting


1500-2500+ registrations | 800-1200+ live attendees per session | 2000+  playbacks


The mission is always to offer these high-quality financial-focused webinars all for free to ODs.

Group Buy

A new and lucrative feature of ODs on Finance that we have utilized this year have been group buys for Equipment (CHECK OUT THE LATEST DEALS HERE). Leveraging our network of over 16,500 ODs, we have been able to negotiate equipment deals from a variety of companies for substantially LESS than tradeshows and other buying groups/alliances.


In fact, throughout our various deals, we have been able to save ODs over

$3,000,000 collectively on equipment vs. tradeshows and buying groups/alliances.

New Projects and Acquisitions for 2023

We have so many exciting offerings coming through the pipeline for 2023.  Our goal is to continually provide value to both ODs and students as they journey towards financial freedom in their personal lives and in their practices.  

(1) 50 hours of COPE-accredited CE

We are happy to provide 50 hours of COPE-accredited CE through our Virtual Webinars.  Our speaker line up consists of many industry recognized experts and each of our events will cover clinical aspects of a certain topics as well as financial aspects. For a full schedule check out: https://odsonfinance.com/events/


We’ve heard from many ODs that our CE is better than everything out there, and really it comes down to four factors:


  • ✅ All CE is 100% FREE
  • ✅ CE is easy to navigate and heavily engaged (No multi-room confusion)
  • ✅ The ability to get 4-5 hours in one morning.  (We don’t spread the hours over 2-3 days like other providers.)
  • ✅ They’re always on Sunday, so no need to miss time in the office!

Sign up now for our first event in 2023! Building THE Dry Eye Clinic | Summit (5hrs FREE CE) happening on Sunday Jan 15 9am PST/12pm EST 

(2) $1 Million NET Practice Series + Possible In-Person Event

In addition to our 50 hours of FREE CE, we will also be having Parts II and III of our $1 Million NET Practice Series.  In these free events, practice owners that consistently net over $1 million after doctor salaries will talk about strategies they use in their office.  We also will have a supplemental event that will go over high level insurance billing strategies to maximize revenue.


We took a poll during Part I of our $1M Net series, and found that hundreds of ODs were interested in a live event with our $1M Net series speakers.  This event would be retreat style over a weekend in which both lectures and one-on-one personalized coaching would be given.  The event would occur in Q3 or Q4 2023.  If you are interested - please email us admin@odsonfinance.com


Sign up now for our The Million Dollar NET Practice, Part 2: How To Get to $8 Million Gross In A Single Location Practice, happening on Sunday Jan 29, 9am PST/12pm EST 

(3) Our Second Book is Coming Out in 2023! "The Optometry Student's Guide to Financial Freedom"

First of all, we are so thankful to all of our members that have purchased the 1st edition of our book, The Optometrist’s Guide to Financial Freedom.  At this point, thousands of copies have been sold and it is required reading in multiple optometry schools.


However, our work isn’t done!  We are hard at work writing another book, this focused specifically towards optometry students - The Optometry Student’s Guide to Financial Freedom.  This book will be available in print in Q2 2023, and a free hard copy will be given to every 2nd year optometry student across the country.


If you are a student or work at an optometry school and would like to be an ODs on Finance champion (hand out books to students at your respective school) - please email us at admin@odsonfinance.com.  Compensation is involved 🙂

(4) The OD Home Mortgage

Through our mortgage partners, we have helped hundreds of ODs get great rates on their primary residences and investment properties.  In 2023, we’ll be doing something a little different and much better.


We have directly partnered with one of our mortgage sponsors - Lee Raykovicz, OD, to create the OD Mortgage.  This loan will be similar to other physician’s loans, however it will be exclusive to optometrists.  Stay tuned for the official announcement!

(5) Acquisition of a Highly Recognized Online Clinical Companion

We’re acquiring a very recognized, near household name when it comes to Optometry clinical companions similar to ODClinicals.  The merging of this platform with ODClinicals will create the ultimate chairside encyclopedia for ODs around the world.  Additionally, there is some very cool, financially-focused practice management software that will be released alongside this.


Look out for our official announcement in the first half of 2023! Paperworks all signed! Just need to ink out some minor details. 

(6) Optical Lab Partnership

We have partnered with an independent optical lab (who also has contracts with VCPs) to provide your practice the lowest cost ophthalmic lens options.  We have been big fans of this lab for a while, and can’t wait to share the details in early 2023 so that you can start saving money on COGs and start seeing higher profits. 

(7) More Group Deals

Julie is hard at work wrangling together some even better deals on optometry equipment and services.  Leveraging both the size of our platform and the high amount of sales from previous deals, we should have even more savings on cutting edge equipment and services coming to you every month throughout 2023.

(8) In Person Events / Social Events

The team will be present at major conferences such as Vision Expo and Optometry’s meeting, and we will be co-hosting a social event at Vision Expo West.  Also, make sure to catch CE lectures and learning labs from both Aaron and Chris at Vision Expo as well as Vision Source Exchange in San Antonio TX on April 19-22.

(9) More Recommended Resources

As we get larger in our community, members are relying on our team to vet/research a lot of resources that are not traditionally financial-services, but plays an vital role in helping ODs improve efficiency, revenue and profitability.  Here are some of our newest partners in 2022



Here are some of the bigger announcements coming in 2023: 


We do want to touch on why we brought Vision Source which might be our most controversial partner year to date.  After interviewing all potential rock-stars owners for our Million Dollar Net Owner, a trend that we did not expect was that they were all VS doctors. So while we know that VS is not the right fit for everyone, we cannot ignore the fact that VS have done a great job at helping owners achieve max profitability.  


Please note that our vetting process usually takes 3-6 months of interviewing, reading legal documents, and the biggest factor is how many group majority in positive feedback/recommendations that was given by our members.

For all recommended, & heavily-vetted resources, click here to explore 

 

Commercial Interests and Disclosures

We are thankful for our community and immensely proud of what ODs on Finance has become.  We are always humbled by the positive feedback we get from our members on how ODoF has helped them in their financial journey - either practice or person, or both.  While negative feedback is rare, we always address it as soon as it is uncovered.


The ODs on Finance team consists of four ODs that more or less contribute to the platform on a near full time basis.  The four team members and their titles are listed below:


  • ✅ Dr. Dat Bui - CEO/Co-Founder
  • ✅ Dr. Aaron Neufeld - COO/Co-Founder
  • ✅ Dr. Julie Phan - Marketing Manager/Group Buy Lead
  • ✅ Dr. Christopher Lopez - Career & Contract Consultant/Clinical Lead

ODs on Finance is often referred to as a platform, however it’s a bit more complicated than that.  Here is a breakdown of how the ODs on Finance brand works:


  •  It is a Limited Liability Company (LLC)

  • The name and logo have Registered Trademarks

  • It is owned by a 50/50 partnership between co-founders Dat Bui and Aaron Neufeld


  • Team Members Julie Phan and Chris Lopez provide their services as independent contractors. We also have other minor team members helping with other various projects as well such as Rob Yacub with ODClinicals, Jasmine Nguyen/Jason Lam with ODs on Corporate Optometry FB Group.

  • Companion websites such as ODClinicals operate under the same LLC umbrella

  • All acquisitions of other industry companies operate as subsidiaries.  ODs on Finance LLC acquires these companies through stock purchase.

  • All partners and sponsors work through a two way contract basis

Since ODs on Finance is a business, it does generate revenue in order to pay for expenses as well as compensate its team members and speakers.  Here are all the ways that ODs on Finance generates revenue, either via flat fees or royalties:


  • ✅ Virtual webinar sponsorships 
  • ✅ Annual Partnerships
  • ✅ Perpetual Partnerships (fintech and business solutions)
  • ✅ Group Buy Equipment Deals
  • ✅ ODCareers Fees
  • ✅ Contract Review Fees

The following are disclosure statements of transparency regarding our commercial interests:


  • We currently have over 50 partners.  All are involved in the optometric industry to some degree.

  • All partners/sponsors come to us via referral.  We do not actively pursue partners.

  • All partners are selected through a rigorous vetting process that involves multiple virtual interviews, review of customer feedback and utilization of products.

  • Not all partners make the cut, in fact we have rejected more potential partners than we have active partners

  • Since we are compensated by our partners, this does present an inherent bias in our recommendation process, which we acknowledge. 

Summary/Our Thoughts:

Whew, that was a lot!


If you’re still reading this then we commend you.  And once again, we want to thank you.  Your involvement in ODs on Finance is ultimately what allows it to be such a powerful tool in advancing our industry.  We firmly believe that financial education is paramount for optometry to continue thriving, which is why we continue to push forward and expand our efforts.  


We wish you an amazing and productive 2023.  We hope to see you soon - whether it be online, at a webinar or in person.


Cheers to financial freedom.

-Dat & Aaron, Co-Founders

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About Dr. Aaron Neufeld

Dr. Aaron Neufeld is a Co-Founder and editor for ODs on Finance. He owns a group private practice in Los Altos, CA and values a debt-free lifestyle as well as serial investing in real estate and index funds. Contact him: aneufeldod@gmail.com

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