I am not referring to the battle of wits between practice managers and salespeople at Vision Expo East, nor to mid-town New York City traffic all participants must endure, or to the battle for appropriate hotel space, desirable restaurant reservations, or Broadway tickets. I am referring to your battle with time management and making effective use of your short time at the show.

If you have removed the "dead wood" frames from your boards as I suggested in my article last month, you can now verify that the frames that remain are proportional to what you expect to sell during the coming year. The next step is to plan what you need to fill in, and begin deciding whether you want to focus on the suppliers you are used to, or whether you want to find new ones that are at the VEE. This is the beginning of your Expo game plan.

Are you satisfied with the income your practice is giving you? Some successful stores may have traffic catering to insurance and low-end volume, while others either attract an elegant clientele or a broader range of customer income and fashion desires. What kind of niche store would you like to imitate to increase your income? Understand that while it is always easier and more profitable to focus on enhancing your strengths, you can usually even make your weaknesses into profit centers with a little imagination. Targeting your interactions and booth visits at VEE to foster these outcomes will be very valuable indeed.

On the other hand, would you prefer to be doing something else, including retiring? Then you may want to increase the "curb appeal" of your practice for as little investment as possible, so you can reap the most profit from the sale. You may use part of your Expo visit to look at practice upgrading and networking with others to learn how they renovated on a budget. You may also use part of your VEE visit networking with others who have sold their businesses and learn from their successes or the pitfalls they encountered.

What have you accomplished by doing all this activity and thinking about the future of your practice? You now know what frame types you need, and whether you want to, and can afford to, focus on any physical practice upgrades or not. You or your accountant should create a written cash flow plan, so you know how much you can probably safely spend over the months that come after Vision Expo East. A targeted game plan, that focuses the interactions and use of your time to effect profitable strategies in the last three quarters of 2008, has the potential to earn back the cost in time and money of attending the Expo many times over. Now use the days ahead of your trip to create that targeted plan.

Your first resource is www.visionexpoeast.com where you can look at a total list of exhibitors to create a floor plan for yourself, highlighting the booths you want to visit.

Have sufficient business cards with you so you can quickly give one to a salesperson in such a booth, and request literature be sent so you can evaluate the look and costs for possible remodeling in 2009. Set appointments at the booths you want to purchase frames from. Often reps are not as busy in the weeks before a show: choose the frames, consistent with your planned cash flow, in the comfort of your practice. When you make the appointment, tell the rep that this order will only be exercised on the VEE floor, and will be refused if shipped before authorized.

Do this with as many of your current frame vendors as you can. If any of them add new show items or specials, you can modify the order to take advantage of these new opportunities at the show: but instead of being tempted to overbuy, you will have in front of you how you had planned to fill your boards from this vendor in the relative calm of your office. Remain in control and do any modifications within the parameters of your plan.

Remember to ask the size of territory that their sales rep covers. Is he/she easily contacted at an 800/toll free number? Over the past 5-10 years, how many different sales reps have covered this territory? The answers to these questions will indicate the ease with which you can do business with this firm.