Clare Holland

“This is such a weird time of life,” exclaimed Clare Holland. Most women feel that way at many points through their lives, but the time which Clare is going through and describing is one which can catch us unawares; that period in later middle years when children are grown up, friends retiring and sadly in Clare’s case the loss of her best friend, husband and business partner, Keith. Yet there is still a desire to have a role, with the energy and experience from years of work and a responsibility to want to still contribute.

Clare qualified as an Optometrist (Ophthalmic Optician) in 1979 and went on to marry fellow student, Keith. Together they founded their own practice, Keith Holland & Associates, in Cheltenham 1989 just three months after their youngest (of four) children was born. Keith ran the practice from the dining room of their Charlton Kings home for over two years, with their own children often involved with greeting people at the door, or sharing their toys with visiting child patients.

“The main core of the work of the practice in the early days evolved from Keith’s passion to help youngsters with vision related learning difficulties. These were kids who were often not doing as well at school as would have been expected, were slow, reluctant readers who sometimes complained of headaches or fatigue yet had often been tested and told that they had 20/20 vision.” explained Clare. “Keith attended conferences and visited leaders in the field in America, introducing Behavioural Optometry to the UK with lectures and workshops here. He founded The British Association of Behavioural Optometrists in around 1990 and eventually the practice was moved to premises in central Cheltenham when other services were introduced such as advanced contact lens fitting, retinal imaging and adult eyecare with a laboratory too.”

Clare was sadly left to run the practice on her own in 2014 after Keith’s untimely death at the age of just 57. She went on to do so successfully with the great team that stuck with her, even winning the title of Optician Family Practice of the Year in April 2016, but Clare sold the business later last year and is no longer associated with it.

“This is where the weird times get weirder!”, said Clare, who has re-invented herself at the ripe old age of 60 as a specialist Behavioural Optometrist afresh by launching her own small consultancy in Oxford. “I didn’t expect to be starting something just now, when friends my age are beginning to retire. But seeing kid’s lives transformed when you work to sort out their visual problems, some quite simple like weak focussing, poor convergence so they can’t use the two eyes together easily or immature eye movements are too important and satisfying to just not do it.” said Clare. “I do believe we can trust our instinct and this instinctively feels right, so I’ll keep going and see what happens! Hopefully spending time with these inspiring kids will keep me young too.”

Q: Tell us about your dream job as a child.

A: Like many a pony mad girl, I dreamt of a job working with horses, even though my parents pointed out the perils of cold early mornings, bad pay and job insecurity, but I loved grooming them and mucking out as much as riding, so I didn’t care! But eventually different interests and ambitions took over, and by the Lower Sixth I’d decided to study what was then called Ophthalmic Optics and train for the very job I still do and still love now 40 years later, so a good choice! Having worn glasses myself since the age of about 8, I’d been happy and excited at each annual eye check as my vision cleared and the world became sharper again with each new pair of spectacles; so I had a good idea what the job comprised of.

Q: What or who has been your greatest influence in business and why?

A: My late husband, Keith, and I trained together at City University, London, and in 1989 formed our own small opticians practice in our dining room at home, only three months after our youngest (of four) children was born! Looking back, it’s hard to know how we had the courage but Keith’s motivation was to help children with vision related learning difficulties not to be ‘business people’. So Keith was and is without a doubt my greatest influence, as he had the highest degree of integrity, never worrying about money but always trusting God that enough would come in to pay the bills, even when we had moved to larger premises and employed up to 15 people.

Q: What is the best and worst decision you’ve ever made?

A: The team of people we had around us were superb; professional, caring, hard working, involved, innovative, so the best decisions must have been in appointing each of them! As for the worst, well I think I’d rather not say. My second worst decision was spending too much time working in the evenings instead of enjoying family time or discussing business at the dinner table during family time.

Q: What do you think is the most significant barrier to women in business?

A: Optometry has become a profession in which the intake is largely female and I have notice the same in many other professions. I cannot say that there have been barriers to being a woman in this business or work in general. It has been an ideal job in which to return on a part-time basis after having children: combining motherhood and a fulfilling professional life.

Q: What’s the best advice you have received in business?

A: Offer the best service you possibly can, and treat each patient or client like royalty.

Q: What do you do for fun?

A: I’m at a very funny phase of my life at the moment, working part-time and in the process of reinventing myself (more later). One thing I’ve realised is that I didn’t really have time for hobbies, with being a full time optometrist, running our own business (which as you know can be all consuming) AND having four children, now all grown up. But I do love reading, and run a small book club, enjoy singing in a choir, walking and travel in general. I just wish I could learn to love gardening!

Q: What did you most fear in the early days of your business?

A: I think that I used to fear that enough people wouldn’t come to see us to keep us busy, and that conversely we wouldn’t have enough time to do all the jobs we had to do.

Q: What’s next for you and your business?

A: As I mentioned, I’m at a funny phase as I sold the business which Keith and I ran together for 26 years last year, following his untimely death in 2014. I formed my own consultancy, Clare Holland Eyecare, to continue to work in the area of Behavioural Optometry, which in a nutshell considers how subtle visual difficulties impact a child’s reading and learning. It has been estimated that 85% of what we learn comes via our visual system, and having 20/20 vision in the distance doesn’t guarantee that a child’s eyes are functioning at their best for reading. Any child whose academic performance falls behind their verbal skills should have a comprehensive eye exam.

Q: If you could tell your younger you something what would you say?

A: Don’t worry! Even when the worst happens, you WILL somehow cope.

Clare Holland www.clarehollandeyecare.co.uk