MEREDYTH HAYNES transitioned from nursing to audiometry after being diagnosed with hearing loss. The move has changed her life for the better, seeing her become the director of three clinics.
Swapping careers in middle-age is no easy feat but for audiometrist, Mrs Meredyth Haynes, 52, it’s been a game-changer that’s enabled her to jointly run three audiology businesses simultaneously across suburban Perth.
In fact, the mum-of-two’s hard work and enthusiasm for her new vocation led her to becoming a partner across the trio of Specsavers Audiology stores in Perth in just 19 months.
While her hearing loss was the trigger to change careers, it was her patients who sparked the move to Specsavers after she had worked four years in the profession.
“I had several clients at the previous clinic I worked at say they could get the same hearing aids for a lower price at Specsavers,” she says.
“Then, one day a client called to say he liked having me as his practitioner, but he couldn’t justify it anymore. He said his new audiologist, at Specsavers, suggested I consider the switch, and he gave me her phone number.”
Since introducing audiology services in 2017, Specsavers has offered audiologists and audiometrists the chance to become business owners within its established network of optical stores. With a mission to change lives, the company provides customers with affordable, accessible hearing solutions featuring the latest technology — all at everyday low prices.
Haynes sat on it for six months, read up on the topic and thought this “sounds too good to be true”.
She met that Specsavers audiologist and pursued the opportunity.
She put in an online inquiry to a Specsavers audiology relationship manager, who acts “like a business mentor”.
“He was very experienced in running businesses and after an initial online interview we met. It was quite a lengthy process to get approved for partnership,” she recalls.
“I wanted something close to where I lived and was given a few options but I chose the bigger business opportunity because this is my retirement plan and I’m building my shares and the business value, so I’ve got a nest egg for when I’m ready to retire.”
Haynes adds that, in her role, she’s not only working as a hearing practitioner but is running a business. Organisation and efficiency are key, otherwise the practices won’t be sustainable.
“What I like about Specsavers is that being a partner, I earn a lot more than I did just working a job for somebody else who was earning a lot of money,” she says.
“Even more important than that is we can get people into top of the range hearing aids at less than half of what they would pay elsewhere. We can get really good outcomes for people with hearing loss because they can get better hearing aids than what they could otherwise afford.”
Fate led to audiometry
Originally from New Zealand, Haynes arrived in Perth in 1994, after completing her Registered Nursing training. From 1997 she worked in coronary and intensive care and enjoyed the critical thinking involved in critical care nursing.
But a narrow escape after a long shift changed the trajectory of her working life.
“I was driving home after a 12-hour night duty shift and was wondering why someone was driving on my side of the road then I realised I was on their side of the road,” she says.
“I went home and said to my husband, ‘I’ve got to do a daytime job where I can have holidays away with the family.
“My hearing impairment had probably started then because I always struggled to hear my husband who has a soft voice.”
She soon began working in medical sales selling devices to parents for their children.
“I was forced to do something about my hearing when I became aware I had a significant problem,” she recalls. “I was training young children and their families and had to ask the kids to repeat themselves multiple times. I realised it was serious and was impacting my work.”
Nine years ago, at age 43, Haynes saw an audiologist friend who diagnosed sensorineural hearing loss.
“My parents wore hearing aids, my father was a builder, and we were always renovating houses, so I spent a lot of time around chainsaws and had a lot of noise exposure as a child,” she recalls.
“The audiologist said it would be $2,000 for basic entry level hearing aids and recommended a better version but I couldn’t even afford the cheaper pair so he fitted me with an old pair. It was enough to make me realise I had serious hearing loss.”
During a conversation with her audiologist, she admitted she didn’t like her sales job. She also missed the patient interaction that came with nursing. It led to a suggestion about pursuing audiometry.
Haynes investigated and landed a job at a hearing clinic as an administrative assistant while studying a Diploma of Audiometry online after hours for two years. Her practical work was supervised by audiologists at the clinic.
By July 2021, she took over her first Specsavers audiology store in Midland, followed by new stores in Kalamunda in September 2021 and another Midland store in February 2023. All are Perth suburbs.
When opening the third store, Haynes brought in a business partner, Ms Veronique Hiom, an audiologist from South Africa who qualified under ACAud to work as an audiometrist in Australia. The pair are split shareholders in all three stores.
“I’m very happy as we think along the same lines, have the same work ethic, are aligned in our business strategy, the way we deal with customers and how we work clinically. If you’re working as a 50/50 partner, that’s essential,” Haynes says.
Lots of support
She’s also impressed by the amount of support from Specsavers.
“There’s no way I would have been capable or had the know-how to start a business myself, it would have been too much of a risk but coming on board you have the security of a base salary which gives you confidence to take the next step,” she says.
“We have support from business experts including finance, human resources, marketing, and product specialists who help drive new customers into our stores and ensure we have a great product portfolio for those customers. From the day I opened my doors, I’ve been pretty much fully booked at every store which is incredible.”
Specsavers also provides its partners with access to a team of audiologists within its Professional Services Support Team who they can remotely consult with and refer to on things such as checking referrals to the Hearing Services Program non-routine category.
Haynes and Hiom have also invested in growing their business by bringing on employed clinicians and administration assistants, resources that are shared between their two locations.
Haynes says Specsavers recently added its own CPD education and provides internal support and training for her new employees. She now has one full-time assistant working across the three stores, as well as a part-timer, Ms Vanessa Libby, who has a background in a different industry and is developing her career in audiology.
“Vanessa used to take my blood and I asked if she’d thought about doing anything other than phlebotomy. She was studying medical science and I planted the audiology seed,” Haynes says. “I said she could work with me as an audiology assistant while studying audiology at university.
“Nine months later she emailed saying she was studying her Masters in Clinical Audiology. I offered her a job so she’s working part-time and will be a graduate audiologist for us.”
Haynes recalls speakers at a 2019 ACAud conference talking about normalising hearing.
“They said everybody regularly has their eyes tested and their blood pressure checked but no one routinely gets their hearing checked. We really need to normalise having a hearing test as part of your normal medical checkup every year or two,” she says.
“At Specsavers, everyone over age 50 (in store for eye tests) is routinely offered a hearing screening, so we start picking up hearing loss early.”
It’s also about educating the public about their hearing, she adds, even if they’re not ready for or don’t need hearing aids.
She feels her hearing loss is an advantage in her career.
“I often tell people because it helps them. One thing that puts people off hearing aids is they think they’re enormous and everyone can see them, it’s part of the stigma associated with them.
“I say ‘I’m wearing hearing aids’, and they’re usually pretty gobsmacked as they can’t see them behind my hair. They look at me and say, ‘where are they?’, and I show them.
“I understand what they’re going through, how they’re feeling, what it sounds like and the annoying things, so I’ve got a balanced approach to guiding them through their hearing journey.”
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