Want to Start a Pharmacy Business? Here Are 3 Winning Tips
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One of the industries that boomed during the pandemic is pharmaceuticals. While these businesses are clearly making high profits, they are also contributing to help people and communities by providing quality pharmaceutical drugs.
Several generic pharmacies take the mission to help communities by heart. By making affordable generic medicines accessible to the public, they enable customers to get the same quality of medicines for almost half the price of branded ones.
Gamot Publiko’s story began when a group of friends and business partners started joining and doing medical missions in the early 2000s. During one of their missions, a doctor-friend advised them to purchase and use generic medicines so that they could maximize their budget, conduct more missions, and therefore help more people.
They took the doctor’s advice and went to learn more about generic medicines. Realizing its win-win benefits, they decided to use generic medicines in their next medical missions.
As business-oriented people, the group then pursued the development of a business model where they would sell generic medicines through a pharmacy that could be replicated and franchised. Gamot Publiko was born in 2009 and was able to award franchises to five branches the same year.
Gamot Publiko’s President and CEO Melvin Lim utilized his extensive background and passion in business management and made sure to drive the business to greater heights. With over 15 years of invaluable experience, Lim shares three tips in starting a successful pharmacy.
1| Have the right number of SKUs (stock keeping units)
Lim said that the availability and accessibility of medicines and health supplies are very important. In many cases, customers are faced with the trouble of buying their medicines from different pharmacies because some of the medicines indicated in their doctor’s prescription are not available in a single pharmacy.
“Since different sicknesses have different medications, customers should be able to obtain the medicine they need in your pharmacy,” Lim said. If the pharmacy does not have a vast product lineup, it will be bothersome for customers to buy the lacking medicines from another store.
Lim said that non-pharmaceutical products such as baby essentials, hygiene products, medical paraphernalia, etc. can also add value and convenience to your pharmacy, therefore making it a one-stop shop for customers.
2| Make it accessible and affordable
“Make your pharmacy accessible to your customers…especially during the pandemic, your customers must be able to reach you easily and buy medicines from you immediately,” Lim said.
In serving the people, pharmacies should be able to touch base with the community they belong to. It is good to take advantage of various digital platforms to interface with customers. “You can provide them with your contact numbers or online chat platforms, offer delivery services, accept call and pickup services, enable online payment services, and more,” Lim added.
In terms of pricing, pharmacies should keep it affordable and competitive. Medicines are essential and everyone should be able to afford them.
“It is good to offer quality generic medicines to your customers as they will be able to save money and use their savings for other essential items that their family may need,” Lim said.
3| Staff training and knowledge are key
Most importantly, pharmacies should be manned by experienced professionals like pharmacists. These staff are the ones interacting and attending to the needs of the customers, and they should be well-trained and knowledgeable about medicines.
Therefore, regular training and knowledge-building activities should be done in order to constantly update and strengthen the knowledge and skills of the staff.
“This will help them serve and provide proper counseling to customers on how to correctly take the medicine or what to avoid when taking certain medications,” said Lim.
Even though the primary objective of starting a business is profit, the ultimate goal of opening a pharmacy is helping people and communities access quality and affordable health and wellness products.
Franchising a credible pharmacy brand is an excellent route to business success, as it improves your chances of running a successful venture because of the well-established systems and operations, franchisor support and experience, and brand recognition and credibility.
For more information about the Gamot Publiko franchise, kindly visit this link or contact (+632) 8634.05.86 or (+632) 8634.37.17 or (+63920) 983.02.47 or (+63917) 881.69.99 or [email protected].
