You’ve been a pharmacist for years, and you’ve realized that there is a lot of money to be made by running your own independent pharmacy. You are interested in running a pharmacy, but you know that it can take a lot of work and be costly.
Before you decide if you want to buy or start your own pharmacy, there are a few things you should consider. You will need to think about accounting, management and the team that you want to build.
Get started with accounting
To start with, you need to look at accounting. Do you personally have accounting experience? Do you know how cash flows through a pharmacy and how you’re reimbursed for medications? If you have this skill, then that’s wonderful. If not, you may want to hire an accountant who is familiar with pharmaceutical work.
Look deeply into management
The next thing to think about is management. Of course, you’ll be the owner. You will likely start out small and have only a few employees that you could manage yourself. As your company grows, you may need to hire more people, and you might want additional managers. Before you open a pharmacy, consider taking a class in management. If you intend to hire someone to manage the team, you should look closely into their past jobs and make sure they have the skills needed to bring a team together and to work together well.
Building your team
Finally, you need to build a team. Perhaps you’re going to be the primary pharmacist, but you’ll need technicians and others to help, too. When you build your team, choose people to work with carefully. Check their references, and make sure they get along. If there are problems with the team, you should try to resolve them as soon as possible.
Your team won’t just need to include those you work with in the pharmacy. You will also want to consider having an accountant, financial advisor, attorney, mentor or others who can help your business stay on track.
These are three things that you need to carefully consider before you decide to buy or start your own pharmacy. It’s not a fast process to create a pharmacy, and it could take several years before everything is running smoothly. Fortunately, if you build the right team, have mentors and work with attorneys to help you with the legal side of your endeavor, you’ll be in a good position moving forward.
