April 24, 2017

Meet Derrick Badaracco of Eyedeal Family Eye Care in Buford

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick Badaracco.

Derrick, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My introduction into the eye care industry was somewhat different from most. I grew up without the need for corrective lenses. I have always have had better than 20/20 vision; however, my visual system was far from perfect. I would experience intractable headaches in my forehead, and I would often lose my place when reading. I always assumed this was normal. Reading became a painful chore for me growing up, and to this day, I still can’t understand the draw people have to a ‘good’ book. Reading during my childhood always involved anxiety and dread. I can even remember certain teachers regularly making me read out loud and the ridicule I experienced from my classmates.

When I was about 16 years old, I sustained two concussions within two weeks of one another. The first one, which I can barely remember, occurred during gym class in school. The second concussion occurred the following week at soccer practice; I defended a crossing ball with the side of my head. I didn’t lose consciousness during either event, however to this day I still struggle to remember those events. Concussions can have a detrimental effect on the visual pathways making a poorly functioning visual system like mine, significantly worse. Luckily for me, my mom found a local optometrist that specialized in vision therapy. Vision therapy is a way to strengthen and train the brain and visual system to work as efficiently as possible. After several months of intense therapy, my issues greatly improved. I truly believe I wouldn’t be where I am today without going through that important training. It was at that point that I decided I wanted to become an optometrist and help others that suffered from visual impairment.

Upon graduating from the Pennsylvania State University, I studied at one of the best optometry schools in the country, the State University of New York College of Optometry. Once I completed my doctorate, I started looking for my first position that would allow me to fulfill my aspirations as an optometric vision therapy specialist. After multiples positions at corporate firms, I decided the only way to practice my passion would be through ownership.

I spent about a year looking for the ideal practice to purchase but I never found a perfect fit. In February of 2016, I decided I would open my own practice. Fast forward almost 12 months later and I have opened the doors and am doing my best to serve all of my patients’ visual needs.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t believe any of life’s true challenges come without struggles. I think like many new small businesses our biggest struggle is financial. Being only a few years out of school, in my late 20s, with well over $200K in debt, securing an affordable bank loan took much longer than expected. Finding the proper location proved difficult as well. Being a new office, we rely heavily on walk-in appointments, so a prime location was extremely important. Being located in a high rent district with soaring constructions costs provided many financial challenges.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the EyeDeal Family Eye Care story. Tell us more about the business.
The name of my company is Eyedeal Family Eye Care. We are a small independent optometry office located in Buford, across the street from the Mall of Georgia. We practice full scope optometry including primary care, contacts lens fitting, and the treatment of ocular disease. We specialize is the treatment of dry eye, fitting patients with specialty contacts lenses for eye diseases such as keratoconus. We also provide our patients with new technology for myopia (nearsightedness) and vision therapy.

We are best known for our personalized customer service. We are the only office in the area to have all 5 star reviews on both Facebook and Google. We pride ourselves on providing patients with the best care and service possible. We also offer a lot of specialty services that other optometry offices around us do not provide. We don’t have a minimum age restriction on our patients and will examine infants and young toddlers. We are also the only truly independent optometry office in our immediate area; most other offices around us are associated with large retail stores or chains. We continue to differentiate ourselves by fitting specialty contact lenses such as scleral contacts for diseased corneas and orthokeratology lenses for people with low amounts of nearsightedness that don’t want to bother with wearing contacts or glasses during the day. We also provide concussion screening and post-concussion treatment using the latest in technology. Finally, we differentiate ourselves by providing vision therapy evaluations and treatments for patients with visual system deficiencies like poor eye tracking, focusing, and eye teaming skills.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think both good and bad luck has played a somewhat role in my life. I think getting two concussions in a short amount of time is somewhat bad luck. However, I also see it as good luck; if I would have never been concussed I would have never had found optometry or vision therapy. I probably wouldn’t have the level of education I have today. I’ve never been one to fixate on the negative; I’ve never been good at holding a grudge. I just feel like it’s a waste of energy. If you ask the people close to me, I’m sure they could raddle off several issues I’ve had with bad/good ‘luck’ over the years. I just don’t pay enough attention to it. I’m beyond it, for better or worse, learned as much as I could, and I’m am ready for the next challenge.

As far as my business goes, I am not a huge believer in luck. I’m the youngest of three boys, and one of the benefits of being the ‘baby’ of the family is you have great role models in front of you. You don’t always agree with your siblings, or your parents for that matter, but you can’t help but to look up to them. My middle brother has a quote that he thinks best describes his success. ‘The harder I work, the luckier I become.’ I think about that quote at least once a day; I’m not the smartest person you will ever meet but I can almost guarantee I’m willing to our work you for what I want.

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