We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Kennard Herring. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Kennard below.

Hi Dr. Kennard , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

When I graduated from optometry school I knew that I wanted to start my own practice and now that I have obtained my degree it was time to get to work on pursuing opening my private practice. I knew that going into this venture uneducated about business would put me at a disadvantage. I knew how to practice optometry but I knew nothing about starting and operating a business. I took it upon myself to read anything I could get my hands on about business in optometry and business overall. After reading several books and articles I developed a notebook with key items from my studies.

I realized quickly after being in business for a year that there was still plenty I didn’t know about business. After a year and a half in business I pursued a business cohort that was offered by the city of Philadelphia. This program was designed to help you expand your business knowledge and assist you with building a basic business foundation. The program was for two months and after I completed the program I was assigned a business coach for free for a year. My business coach did not only help me grow my business but they helped me grow my financial literacy and business savvy. After the year with my business coach was completed I hired them to stay on board to continue to teach me and help me grow. I then pursued a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business which was also another free program offered by the city of Philadelphia. This program was more advanced and specialized in teaching the business owner how to work on their business and pursue growth opportunities.

Till this day I still have my business coach, I am pursuing new business opportunities, I am now a consultant assisting others with their business and I am still in pursuit to learn more! I am becoming the entrepreneur that I dreamed I would be and I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far without my ambition towards learning. My biggest challenge to setting up my practice was learning to surround myself with the right professionals to help me grow and actively seeking my own professional development. The one piece of advise that I would give a young professional is to be ambitious about learning and surround yourself with quality people that can teach you.

Dr. Kennard , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ll share my personal journey of why I decided to start a business. My “why” was simple, I was tired of being a worker. Tired of someone else being in control of the means for me to provide for my family. In 2006, I became a newlywed. In 2007, a year later my daughter was born. Lia instantly changed my life. I was now responsible for the well being and livelihood for another person. I wanted to be able to provide Lia with more than the necessities in life and I knew that with my current financial status I would not be able to do so. At that time, I was working in a corporate retail setting as a full-time licensed optician in New York City. My salary was just barely enough to afford a one bedroom apartment for me, my wife, and newborn baby in Brooklyn, NY. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of living I was living check to check. There was no extra income after my bills were paid. In addition to the low pay, I didn’t enjoy the way I was being treated as an employee and I also felt like my livelihood was held hostage by my employer. I felt like the rules were always changing and I was obligated to abide by whatever my employer decided because they were in control of my income. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the company didn’t make their monthly goal and they made the decision to cut employee hours. This was disturbing to me because I lived check to check and I needed every hour possible to ensure that I could maintain my livelihood. My livelihood was dependent on someone else’s business and their productivity goals. As an employee there was no stability for me, regardless I had to maintain a constant stream of revenue so that I could support my family. Lia’s birth led me to deep contemplation. I sat and thought about all the employment opportunities I’d had since I entered the workforce at 17 yrs old. I realized that in many ways they were all the same, each was a job. In each of those jobs, I was dependent on my employer for my livelihood and it could be taken away in the blink of an eye. I had allowed someone else to be in control of my earning power. The results of that deep contemplation were that I could not live this way for the rest of my life. I had to figure out a way to be in control of my own financial destiny. In 2007, my goal shifted from opticianry to optometry. My goal was to grow as a professional by becoming an optometrist, opening my own practice and therefore controlling my own destiny.

Nostalgic Eye Care is dedicated to the community in which it serves by providing comprehensive, competent and patient-centered vision care to create an experience to last a lifetime. By utilizing the most cutting edge technology made available we ensure that patients are receiving the highest quality of care in the prevention and management of ocular conditions. What sets us apart from other offices is that we go above and beyond to service our patients and provide them with an experience that would last them a lifetime.

One of the things that I am most proud of is being able to impact my community by opening a private practice and providing eye care. I want people to know that we are servants to the public and we are here to make an impact on our community with our practice by providing care, job opportunities, donating to our youth teams and educating the public.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What I believed helped me to build my reputation is the since of care and attentiveness we provide at our office. I make sure to spend adequate time with my patients to listen, process and address all of their concerns. I treat each individual as if they are my grandparents which speaks to our quality of care that is hard to find at your average optometric office.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been being physically present in my community. I make sure I do business in my community, I attend events in the community, I am part of the business association in the community, and I donate to non profits in the community. Being physically present has allowed my clientele to get to know me on a personal level. People like to do business with people they connect with.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nostalgiceyecare.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nostalgiceyecare
• Facebook: www.facebook.co/nostalgiceyecare
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kennardherring
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCf8Jm8EBKpUGJti1CWEmsPw
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/BHubjbQHgub