What business are you in today? What business do you want to be in tomorrow? Two simple questions to ask that take time and thought to answer. Give yourself the time to review and hone your answers.

Are you satisfied with the income your practice is giving you? Some successful Opticals focus on attracting a high volume of patients who want their visual needs paid for completely by their insurance or will buy only low-priced eyeglasses. Other Opticals choose to attract an elegant clientele, while many others target a broader range of customer income and fashion desires. What kind of niche store would you like to imitate to increase your income?

If you did some of the inexpensive market research suggested in this column earlier this year, you are now more keenly aware of which strengths are attracting patients to your practice, and which weaknesses are repelling them. 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.

Based on the practice niche you have planned to target, remove the "dead wood" frames from your boards that don't support that niche. Verify that the frames that remain are proportional to what you expect to sell during late 2008 and early 2009. You can now plan what you need to fill in, and begin deciding whether you want to focus on your current suppliers, or whether you want to find new ones that exhibit at the VEW. Make written notes of these tentative decisions. This is the beginning of your VEW game plan.

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 VEW 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 VEW visit networking with others who have sold their businesses and learn from their success or the pitfalls they either did or did not avoid. This knowledge from networking may inform your plan of how you might want to go about "winding down." In addition, there may be real estate specialists in selling businesses you may wish to consult at VEW. After all, you may sell a business only once or twice in your career. A specialist will charge a fee, but may be able to help sell a business faster, and for a greater return, than you could do on your own.

A targeted game plan that focuses the interactions and use of your time to affect profitable strategies in the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarters of 2009 has the potential to earn back the cost in time and money of attending Vision Expo West many times over. Now use the days ahead of your trip to VEW to create that targeted plan.

Your first resource is www.visionexpowest.com where you can look at a total list of exhibitors, targeted exhibitor lists by categories, and the floor plan. You can create a personalized floor plan for highlighting your "must see" booths, as well as where new products by category are being shown that you consider worth exploring.

If you plan on using VEW to balance and enhance the frames on your boards, consider setting appointments with your current frame sales reps for the month before VEW. Often reps are not as busy in the weeks before a national show. You will make more considered purchases, consistent with your cash flow plan and your board space inventory, when you do so in the comfort of your practice. Make sure that the rep understands that this order will be confirmed at Vision Expo West, and will be refused if shipped before authorized.

Now when you visit your current frame vendors at VEW, you will have in front of you how you had planned to fill your boards from this vendor and will be less tempted to overbuy. You can still take advantage of any show specials, but you will have a framework of how the dollars allocated to this order fit into your cash flow plan. Remain in control and do any modifications within the parameters of your plan.

Determine which type of booth you want to visit to improve the profitability of your practice. If you have decided not to do remodeling this year, don't visit furniture, fixtures, or lighting booths. As you travel the show you may see some items displayed, from your non-targeted needs for this year, that you feel might be helpful. Have sufficient business cards with you so you can quickly give one to a salesperson in such a booth. Request literature be sent so you can evaluate the look and costs for possible remodeling, or frame purchasing, next year. Stick to your plan. Your time and energy are very valuable.

When viewing www.visionexpowest.com, identify new vendors to the show and also vendors that do not send reps to you during the year. Look at the description of what each of these businesses can do for you. Before the show, call them to get a catalog.