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How Hiring One Optometrist Unlocked £60k a Month in Stalled Revenue

Diagnosing the real bottleneck turned a hiring decision into a £60k/month growth lever

By Rod Solar 10/15/2025 4 min read

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Rod Solar
Most ophthalmologists hit the same wall at some point. The patient demand is there. The equipment is there. The rooms are there. But the diary still has empty slots because there aren’t enough clinicians to deliver the care.

That choke point – lack of optometrists – keeps practices small. It caps revenue, frustrates patients stuck on waitlists, and overburdens ophthalmologists with work they shouldn’t be doing. Many clinics try to “market their way out,,” when in reality, the ceiling isn’t demand. It’s supply.

That’s the problem I aim to solve in this article: helping you decide whether - and when - to hire an optometrist, and how to do it without prolonging the process or second-guessing the ROI.

I’ll illustrate it with a real conversation I had with an ophthalmologist facing this exact decision. Then I’ll unpack what I did, and provide you with a framework you can use every time you consider hiring.


The conversation:

Ophthalmologist: Rod, I feel like we’ve stopped growing. Marketing used to fill the diary, but now it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Maybe I just need more ads?
Me: Quick question - if marketing doubled your appointments tomorrow, could your team actually fulfil them?
Ophthalmologist: (pauses) Honestly, no. We’d bottleneck fast.
Me: So, it’s not a demand problem. It’s a supply problem. Let’s dig into what that means.
Ophthalmologist: So if it’s really supply that’s the problem, then maybe I should think about hiring an optometrist?. But I don’t know if I can afford another hire.
Me: Let’s go one question at a time. First - what’s your actual target?
A) Full-time
B) Part-time
C) Locum to clear backlog
D) Patchwork of part-timers
Ophthalmologist: A. I’d prefer a full-time optometrist for our London site.
Me: Great. Let’s quantify the upside so it’s not a feeling – it’s math.

  1. How many dry eye patients are you turning away or delaying each week?

  2. What’s your average revenue per patient in the first 90 days?

  3. How many treatment rooms/devices can run at once?

Ophthalmologist: 10, £1500, 3 rooms.
Me: So, you’re leaving around £15k/week on the table. £60k/month. Hiring isn’t a cost. It’s unlocking blocked revenue. Your bottleneck isn’t demand - it’s supply.
Now, how many patients per day can one optometrist treat using those 3 IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) machines?
Ophthalmologist: Easily 12 per/day.
Me: That’s 60 patients a/week. Even just clearing your current 10 /week backlog is £15k. That’s why this hire is urgent.

Here’s how we’ll do it:

  • Build a hiring pipeline like a lead gen funnel

  • Create an offer that they feel dumb saying no to

  • Sprint it. 14 days. Rule of 100 actions/day. One block. All in.

Let’s talk compensation - here are 3 models:

A) £60–70k base + £25–40 per IPL + 90-day ramp guarantee
B) Higher base (£75–85k), no bonus, 4-day week option
C) Start as locum (£450–550/day), convert to A

Ophthalmologist: I want performance-linked comp.
Me: Strong choice. That aligns incentives.

Now, your channels. Pick three you can do daily:

A) Job boards (Indeed, LinkedIn) + same-day follow-up
B) LinkedIn search + 50 cold DMs
C) Universities/program directors
D) Referrals with £1,000 bounty
E) Agencies for backup
F) Direct outreach to clinics

Ophthalmologist: A, B, D.
Me: Perfect. Now we build your 14-day recruiting sprint. Here’s what you’ll do: 6–8 AM daily for 14 days:

  • Post and refresh job ads

  • DM 50 optoms on LinkedIn

  • Ask 10 people daily for referrals

Job ad headline:
"Optometrist (London) — Full Diary in 30 Days + Paid IPL Training + £60–70k Base + £25–40/Tx"

Bullets:

  • Guaranteed full diary in 30 days

  • Paid IPL cert + mentorship

  • Admin support, zero sales

  • Predictable schedule + growth

  • £1,000 referral bounty

Here’s your phone script: “Hey [Name], your background fits our IPL Dry Eye role. We guarantee a full diary in 30 days, paid IPL training, and protected clinic time. It takes 7 minutes to see if there’s a fit. Is today or tomorrow better?”

LinkedIn DM: “We run a London dry-eye clinic with 3 IPL rooms. Full diary in 30 days, paid IPL cert, admin offload. Base £60–70k + £25–40/Tx + ramp guarantee. 7-min intro this week?”

Referral ask: "Know an optom who wants a full diary in 30 days, paid IPL training, and no sales? We pay £1,000 on hire. Reply ‘INTRO’ with their name/number."
Interview flow:

  • Contact within 24 hrs

  • Group screen within 72 hrs

  • Top 20% to 1:1

  • Offer on call

  • BAMFAM (Book a Meeting from a Meeting) to clinical trial day


What we did and why it worked

This wasn’t magic. It was just blocking out the external noise and going step by step:

  1. Clarify the constraint. Not enough rooms? No. Not enough patients? No. Not enough clinicians? Bingo.

  2. Quantify the upside. £15k/week not collected = £60k/month just sitting there.

  3. Use hiring math. If one optometrist can clear 60 weeks, the hire pays off in less than a month.

  4. Treat hiring like lead gen. Job boards = ads. DMs = outbound. Referrals = warm leads.

  5. Run a sprint. One play. 100 actions/day. Time-boxed. Daily execution. No guessing.

  6. Craft a killer hiring offer. High dream outcome. High likelihood. Low time delay. Low effort. Communicated clearly.

This frame is powerful because it turns hiring from an emotional, uncertain decision into a clear investment case. The bottleneck isn’t abstract - it’s visible. The payoff isn’t vague - it’s math. And the method isn’t a wish - it’s a sprint.

The framework you can use

Any time you’re unsure about a hire, walk through this:

1. Diagnose the constraint

Ask: Are you bottlenecked by supply or demand?

  • If demand: run marketing.

  • If supply: recruit talent.

2. Quantify the upside

Ask:

  • How many patients are you losing?

  • What’s the first-90-day revenue per patient?

  • What’s the treatment capacity?

Multiply those numbers. If more than £10k/month is blocked, move quickly.

3. Do the hiring math

How many patients can one clinician realistically see per day? Multiply by revenue (gross profit is even better). That’s your economic case.

4. Craft a killer offer

Design the job like you would a product offer:

  • Dream outcome: career growth, full diary, respected role

  • Likelihood of success: training, mentorship, admin help

  • Time delay: fast ramp-up, guarantees

  • Effort/sacrifice: 4-day options, no selling, simple protocols

5. Run a sprint

Don’t drag this out. Use the Rule of 100:

  • 100 primary actions per day

  • Post ads, DMs, calls, referral asks

  • Do it for 14 days, not spread over months

6. Speed to lead

  • Contact same day

  • Screen within 72 hours

  • Offer on call

  • Trial quickly

7. Track inputs, not just outcomes

Volume wins. Don’t wait for luck.

  • Track actions/day

  • Log replies

  • Book from every touch

Bottom line: hiring doesn’t have to be slow, emotional, or uncertain. It’s sales. Diagnose the constraint, size the upside, craft the offer, and run the sprint. Fix the supply choke point and cash flows.

About the Author(s)

Rod Solar

Rod Solar is Director of Practice Development at LiveseySolar, London, UK and a Scalable Business Advisor

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