Neighborhood Pharmacy: Any Insights?

[baludoy]

i recently saw a promising location for a small neighborhood pharmacy. aside from the fact that pilferage and inventory control could be bloody, any other insights or anecdotes or tips anyone can share? how does one go about starting it?

[oldblue]

for one, kailangan magaling bumasa ng orig reseta ang mga emps. pharmacy siguro is like a restaurant acquiring a liquor license, dami siguro i-reregister dyan

[nicolodeon]

My sis and I used to have a pharmacy (she's a pharmacist). She decided to close it when she got married and because competition in our area became stiff when pharmacy stores sprouted like mushrooms. We were running a nice, profitable operation for ten years when we decided to close. Here are some tips:

1. you need to have a pharmacist, not just a pharmacist license hanging on your pharmacy store wall for all to see. The BFAD inspects pharmacies randomly to check on the operations on the stores. If they find out that you don't have a pharmacist and you are dispensing prescription medication/drugs, you may loose your license to operate, get find and in worst cases, the license of the pharmacist revoked. My sis has a classmate who got her licencse revoked because he rented his license to a pharmacy and he got caught.
2. Pilferage would be a non-issue if you have good internal control policies and provided that you have a good, reliable and honest staff.
3. Don't expect to have a large profit margin on medicinese else you would loose customers. When we were operating, our profit margin per medicine ranges only between 25 centavos to 5 pesos. We earned our revenues through volume of sales. Besides, I think there's a law on how much "patong" one can put on medicines.
4. Be very aware of the expiry dates. It was a bull to monitor these because it'a a bit of work pero you have to for your clients - and baka mahuli ka ng BFAD na nagbebenta ng expired na meds eh lagot ka.
5. Kung ikaw ang magbabantay, prepae to lessen your social life. Our pharmacy was open 365 days almost always, from 8:00AM to 9:00PM. Kaya late na rin nakapag-asawa sis ko because of this.
6. As for the reseta thing, if you have a pharmacist in-house then this won't be a problem. However, staff can be trained. My best friend, who is a doctor, opened a pharmacy years ago. She provided good training for her staff on how to read and interpret doctor's penmanships. If they were in doubt, they'd either not dispense the medicine or get the opinion of my friend.
7. IMO, setting up a pharmacy is a public service of sorts. My sis also believes this. That is why even in the middle of the night, if somebody desperately needs medicine to help somebody in critical condition, she or I gets up from bed to provide service - even in foul weather.
8. Aside from medicine, you would also need to sell other items like health and beauty products or even sweets or delicacies to attract customers. During the last two years of our operation, my nanay set up a mini merienda stand in fron of our pharmacy. She sold food, of course but this became a bonus for us becuase my nanay cooks extremely well and her customers, instead of buying from the other pharmacies, bought from us.
9. Patience is a virture requied when operating a pharmacy. You must have the patience to deal with makukulit na customers and have the patience to explain to customers when they ask this question "Bakit po tong gamot na ito? Wala bang mas mura?"
10. You also need to be informed about medicines and stuff. Even if I'm not a pharmacist by profession and discipline, I had to read up on publications like PIMS so that I would be educated about the medecines we sell, so that when somebody ask questions about what the meds do and the possible side effects, I would have ready answers.
11. Make sure that your medicine stalls, cabinets and generally the store area is clean. Clients are turned away from maruming paninda because they would generally think you're selling expired products.

[oldblue]

When we were operating, our profit margin per medicine ranges only between 25 centavos to 5 pesos. We earned our revenues through volume of sales. Besides, I think there's a law on how much "patong" one can put on medicines.

this is actually good profit if in volume. medicine is a need so ok to sir d'ba.

kaysa naman internet cafe 20/hr. isang oras pa iintayin mo para kumita minsan may 10/hr pa kuryente na, nasisira/na-depreciate pa daw gamit

in the photo developing biz, margin is like P 2-3 per photo minsan P1 to P 1.50 na nga lang siguro lalo na yun kaibigan ko may-ari ng Fuji. sa sobrang 2nd-3rd choice na lang ata Fuji ngaun kinekelangan magbaba sila just to compete with the better brands like Kodak, Kameraworld, Photoline.

imagine hulog mo sa machine eh 150-200k per month tapos consumables amount to 15k-20k per order. pano kikitain sa pa piso piso o dalawang piso. hindi pa kasama yun mga wrong prints or damage prints sa sagot ng photoshop

so do you have any idea sir for initial investment cost for opening up a pharmacy? particularly mga 25 sq. meters space. and how much average salary of full-time pharmacist?

[baludoy]

thanks for the replies mga bos

so do you have any idea sir for initial investment cost for opening up a pharmacy? particularly mga 25 sq. meters space. and how much average salary of full-time pharmacist?

anyone care to shed more light on these?

[nicolodeon]

so do you have any idea sir for initial investment cost for opening up a pharmacy? particularly mga 25 sq. meters space. and how much average salary of full-time pharmacist?

Well, when my sis and I started in 1991, our initial capital (for the meds) was only about P 50-60T. The floor area of our pharmacy as a bit bigger than what you hae (30sqms). However, we didn't pay rent because it was my nanay's old carinderia that we just repaired. The total repair bill plus the cost of the shelves set my sis and I back around P 15-18K during that time.

While we were not the only pharmacy in the area, we had a lot of customers after 2-3 months because we offered low prices since we don't pay rent. Even if we did pay rent, we would still have had the lion's share because our competitors all had a large profit margin for the medicine they sold. For example, if one piece of Biogesic cost is P 1.25 in puhuhan, we only sold it for around P 1.50 while our competitors sold it at around P 1.75-2.00.

this is actually good profit if in volume. medicine is a need so ok to sir d'ba.

Yep, okay na okay re: good profit in volume and medicine as need. Kaya marami kaming suki nun kase we offered good service (kahit bumabagyo, basta may kailangan gamot eh bukas kami - sometimes hanggang hating gab) and because we sold our meds cheaper than the competition.