Article from The Pillars

Dr. Jack Schaeffer is no stranger to great cities. A Charleston native who received his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia in Athens and graduated from optometry school in Memphis, Dr. Schaeffer began his career in Atlanta. Birmingham soon lured Dr. Schaeffer and his wife Beth to relocate and start a family here. A big reason they chose to move to the Magic City was UAB and its optometry school.

Dr. Schaeffer states, “We visited Birmingham one weekend, and I saw UAB. They have a great optometry school here so I thought maybe I should practice and teach a little bit. So I bought a practice and really thought I’d end up going back to Charleston one day. Once I started practicing though, I loved it, and it kept growing.” Dr. Schaeffer describes his experience of living in Birmingham with a quote from the 1983 movie, The Big Chill: “This place means something to me. I got dug in.” He also adds, “Birmingham is wonderful. It’s been a great place to have my family and business.”

Nearly three decades later, Dr. Schaeffer is still working in, supporting and giving back to the Birmingham community. He has built his practice, Schaeffer Eye Center, from an original single location to 14 locations. Schaeffer now leads this large practice, with more than 90 employees and 15 doctors in Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, as its President and Chief Executive Officer. In a competitive market, Schaeffer Eye Center has experienced growth every year for the past 25 years. Dr. Schaeffer states, “We’ve been blessed to never have had a year that the business didn’t grow. The city has accepted our philosophy of practice at Schaeffer Eye Center.”

Schaeffer Eye Center’s philosophy encompasses several components. According to Dr. Schaeffer, the “number one [component] is comprehensive medical eye care and a level of eye care service that is unmatched.” The second component, high-end designer eyewear collections, came about through his wife Beth, who convinced Dr. Schaeffer that fashionable glasses were something Schaeffer Eye Center needed. Beth’s conviction, coupled with Dr. Schaeffer’s ambition and business prowess, catapulted Schaeffer Eye Center from an optical selling no eyewear to the number one optical store in the United States for high-end designer eyewear selection. The third component, offering contact lenses, is also attributed by Dr. Schaeffer as a large part of the Schaeffer Eye Center growth. Schaeffer states, “You add these three components together, and the eye care package was something that we could deliver better than anyone else.”

Dr. Schaeffer’s entrepreneurial success has earned him numerous accolades, including the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2008 Health Care Heroes Award for Health Care Executive, Eye Care Business Magazine’sRetailer of the Year Award, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce’s Man of the Year, the Birmingham Business Journal’s Who’s Who in Health Care and Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Though impressive, Dr. Schaeffer’s professional success and national contribution to the clinical and professional eye care arena is only one part of his story.

In addition to his professional endeavors, Dr. Schaeffer is an active and integral part of Birmingham culture and its nonprofits. He and the Schaeffer Eye Center team are firm believers in being involved and giving back to the city. This philosophy is exemplified by Dr. Schaeffer’s marketing approach. Instead of using marketing dollars in a traditional sense to buy radio or TV ads, Dr. Schaeffer takes half of his Schaeffer Eye Center marketing budget and invests it in community events. He explains, “Birmingham has been good to us [Schaeffer Eye Center] and so we really started getting involved in things around the city. I always felt like if we give back not to get back, but if we give to help something, eventually it will pay off.” Dr. Schaeffer adds, “I want to build a company of people that feel good, not only about who we are, but what we do. This is why we got involved with Camp Smile-A-Mile, United Cerebral Palsy, American Diabetes Association and then when the Crawfish Boil became available, that become a part of us too.”

That once small crawfish boil, started in Aaron Beam’s backyard with Dr. Schaeffer’s involvement began in 1995 with 3,000 attendees, and has been transformed by Dr. Schaeffer, his staff and the team at Red Mountain Entertainment. Now known as the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil, it enjoyed a crowd of 44,000 people in 2009. The Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil has become an integral part of Birmingham culture, providing attendees with top name entertainment and Cajun cuisine. Not only is the annual event one of Birmingham’s most loved, but in the past 12 years, it has raised more than $350,000 for local charities.

Not one to rest on his current achievements, Dr. Schaeffer is in the midst of launching his newest and biggest endeavor yet – a philanthropic company called Schaeffer Vision. Schaeffer Vision is expected to launch within 60 days and will provide free eye care to those that cannot afford it, especially children in need, in one Schaeffer Eye Center office one day a week. Schaeffer Vision will offer free glasses, free contacts, free examinations; free comprehensive eye care to those in need. Schaeffer Vision patients will be booked through a church or other organization. Schaeffer Vision patients will not be required “to bring in anything, [they] just come and get an eye exam, glasses, and we’ll take care of the rest,” Schaeffer says. Dr. Schaeffer’s goal is to build Schaeffer Vision into a full-time practice.

When asked about the secret to his success, Dr. Schaeffer says, “You can’t do anything by yourself. This all starts with the patients who come in and buy our medical and eye care. Secondly, it starts with my staff and all the sweat and energy they put into their work every day to make our patients happy, and lastly it’s having a family that supports anything and everything I do. It’s really about the family accepting those roles. The community’s involved, the staff’s involved and my family especially is involved.”

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