A Thoughtful Take On Independent Pharmacy Succession Planning with Donnie Calhoun

Introduction

Welcome to another compelling episode of the Script Your Future Podcast, where we explore the critical yet often overlooked world of pharmacy succession planning. Host Sonja Pagniano sits down with Donnie Calhoun, owner of Calhoun Wellness Pharmacy and valued NCPA Foundation Board of Trustees member, for an intimate conversation about the realities of pharmacy ownership, business evolution, and preparing for the future.

This episode serves as the perfect complement to the foundation’s recent webinar with Jeff Harrell on community pharmacy succession planning best practices. Donnie's story illustrates both the challenges and opportunities that define independent pharmacy today.

Whether you're a pharmacy student considering ownership, a current owner planning your exit strategy, or simply interested in the business side of community pharmacy, this conversation provides invaluable perspective on building, sustaining, and eventually transitioning a pharmacy practice.

Interview

Sonja Pagniano: Welcome to the Script Your Future Podcast hosted by the NCPA Foundation. I'm Sonja Pagniano, and today we're diving into one of the most critical yet often overlooked aspects of running a community pharmacy, succession planning. With me today is Donnie Calhoun, owner of Calhoun Wellness Pharmacy and a valued member of the NCPA Foundation Board of Trustees. Donnie brings both personal experience as a pharmacy owner and broader industry perspective from his board work. This episode will perfectly complement our upcoming webinar with NCPA Board President Jeff Harrell, where we'll explore what community pharmacies should consider when planning for the future.

So, Donnie, thank you for joining us today. Let's start at the very beginning. Tell us about your journey into pharmacy ownership and how you got started… and what led you to the pharmacy you have today?

Donnie Calhoun: Okay, Sonja, thanks so much for having me this morning and the opportunity to kind of share my journey. So when I graduated from pharmacy school back in 1987, I had never worked in a pharmacy. And when I first started pharmacy school, I had the fortunate ability to work for an independent pharmacy there in the hometown where I went to pharmacy school. And the entire four years I was in school, I worked there. And I guess I got my core belief in independent pharmacy, you know, from that experience. And when I graduated, unfortunately, there were no independent pharmacy jobs available. So I went to work for the next best thing, in my opinion, which was a regional chain. So back in the late 80s and early 90s, there were regional chains all across America. And in Alabama, we had two. We had Big B Drugs and we had Harco Discount Drugs.

Harco Discount Drugs was formed by Mr. Jimmy Harrison, and his family.

He started out with one independent pharmacy in downtown Tuscaloosa. And as the Alabama football team got great success, so did he with his with his pharmacy. And so I went to work for them and I worked for them for six years. And the first year that I worked for them, I also completed the very first APhA community pharmacy residency program.

Sonja: Oh, no kidding.

Donnie: Yeah, at that time it was a pilot program. And there were only six of us from all across the country that went into the residency program. So Samford University, Harco Drug, and APhA, they were the ones that were involved in the residency. So after working for Harco in various areas for six years. I managed a store.

And one of the things that was unique about Harco is that the pharmacists were actually the managers of the store. So we were trained to hire people. We were trained to merchandise. We were trained to market. We helped a lot with payroll. So we just didn't go in and fill prescriptions. We actually managed the entire pharmacy.

And which was a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas and Halloween and all those fun events that do in the drugstore. So I think that also helped prepare me quite a bit for for ownership.

So in 1991, I had the opportunity to buy a local community pharmacy in Anniston, Alabama. One of the positions I had filled when I was on working for Harco was store manager of a Harco pharmacy in Anniston, Alabama. And I got to meet the local independent owners. We had a local countywide pharmacy association where we had quarterly meetings. And so we would get to fellowship with each other and get to know each other. And so I had made it known during some of those conversations that I was very interested in owning a pharmacy one day. And out of the blue, I got a phone call that said, hey, the first question I was asked by Mr. Gann, first question he says, “did you like living in Anniston?”

Kind of an odd question you would think, but it was an important question.

And I said, “I love living in Anniston when I was there”… So it's a great town, great community. And so second question was, “do you still want to own a drugstore?” And he told me later on that if I had said no, I didn't really like living in Anniston, I would have never had the opportunity to answer the second question.

Because to an owner, it's really important that if someone is going to buy your pharmacy, that they're going to take care of your patients and your customers because they patients and customers become part of your family and you want someone to care about them and you want someone to care about that community that you're in.

I was very fortunate to be able to go into a pharmacy that had been there since 1964.

Mr. Gann opened it from scratch in 1964. I was the second owner. And… I guess over the course of the next 20 years, we opened pharmacies in different locations. We bought pharmacies in different locations.

At one time, we had five retail locations, five retail pharmacies, three home medical equipment companies. We had a home infusion company. We had a warehouse, we had 67 employees, we had home office, and it really got big. And one of the, I guess one of the mistakes I would… that I would admit to that I made during the course of my journey is that I never wanted to give up being a pharmacist.

And I never really wanted to give up from being that healthcare provider that took care of people. So I never wanted to get out from behind the counter. So I'd always hire people to manage the company. And over the years, in the early, late nineties, mid-nineties, there was a pharmacist shortage. Pharmacists were awful hard to keep. Because the chains were giving pharmacists BMWs to sign on with them and work for them.

Sonja: Well, they're still giving bonuses and things like that.

Donnie: Yeah, but I mean, you know, a BMW, come on. I mean, and you know, we heard stories that they were given $20,000 sign on bonuses and things like that. And it was very difficult for someone who just owned a couple of stores to be able to compete with that.

Sonja: Okay

Donnie: So we consolidated stores and sold stores. And eventually, we've ended up with just one pharmacy. In 2012, we actually quit doing retail pharmacy. We went into compounding pharmacy. We actually started compounding in 1992. We had a physician call us, an OB-GYN, who said he had a patient who had two miscarriages, and the family really desperately wanted to have a child, and he had read a study about progesterone depositories. He said, I want to know if we can make those. And I said, I don't know- I'll find out.

So I became a member of PCCA and went out to Houston. I got trained. I bought the material, bought the drugs, bought the equipment. We made the depositories. And I think that little girl is about 40 something years old now.

Sonja: Oh, my gosh!

Donnie: So it was successful.

And then later on, we found out that that patient was actually his nurse.

And so that is what got us into compounding. And we still compound progesterone spots for that physician today. I mean, he sends prescriptions every day for patients because they work. The next thing that happened was these mothers who had these new babies would call us and say, can you help me, you know, with my baby. Nothing the doctor's given me is helping the diaper rash. Can you make something for a diaper rash? And so we said, yeah.

So it kind of started out that everything we did in the pharmacy was based on patient need. You know, a child who won't take their medicine because it tastes bad. You know, we've made it taste better.

And so that has always been our philosophy with our compounding practice, is that we're here to take care of a patient and whatever medical needs that they have that can't be met by a commercial product or can't be met in another way.

So that's our job. That's what we do each and every day now. And so in 2012, we started doing that full time and kind of left the retail, let's fill a lot of prescription space to being really more, you know, you've heard of a, and I'll say this because, you know, being on the board, one of our fundraisers is a whiskey raffle.

We had one last year and they're all small batches, specially crafted just for that connoisseur. Well, that's kind of what we do. Everything we do is in small batches just for one person. So we're not making big batches for the whole world. We're making it for one person.

So that's what I really love about what I do today. I will also say that for the last several months, I've been working as a staff pharmacist for a small mom and pop pharmacy in a really, really small town, and it's really brought me back to the early days when I owned a store.

They lost their pharmacist, and so luckily I was able to go and fill in a few days for them. So it's been fun kind of getting back to my roots. But I will say one more thing. I will say one more thing. It's very, very important.

And I think every owner would probably tell you this.

10:35 We're only as good as the person who stands behind us.

And I have to thank my wife, Cindy, for being behind me each and every step of the way. So it's a partnership. I mean, she's my partner in the pharmacy and she's half owner. I mean, she owns half the pharmacy.

Sonja: Absolutely.

Donnie: And a lot of times people forget that.

10:54 And I just want to make everybody aware that we don't get here by ourselves. You know, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Mr. Gann. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my wife. And the people that's helped me through the years. So I think that's important, you know, for everybody out there considering ownership, you're not going to do it by yourself. There's a lot of people out there wanting to help you.

Sonja: Absolutely. And I know, I know you are one of those people. I know you're one of those people that steps up and mentors the young professionals and encourages them to follow their dreams and their passions. And it is so needed, especially in this critical time in community pharmacy where so many people are just fighting to survive. And it sounds like you have personal experience too with some of that, like some of the challenges that owners experience that you're not necessarily prepared for. No one's like teaching you a class on that.

Donnie: One of the things I have judged is the student business plan competition that NCPA has. Every year, the Pruitt Schutte business plan competition that the foundation is involved with [funds].

And one of the things I'd always like to throw in is the students and a lot of the students will say, we're going to be beside this busy doctor's practice and we're going to be doing all this. And I always like to throw in, well, what happens if the doctor's office moves?

Have you thought about that?

What happens? Because things can be going great. And then all of a sudden, the highway moves, you know, or the doctors move. I mean, and that kind of happened to me in my practice.

We had a local family practice group had a office beside us in the hospital, bought all the regional offices and consolidated them into one practice at the hospital. So the doctor's office, we had there for 30 years - overnight, it went away.

And so what do you do? Right?

And so a lot happens, you know, and you've got to kind of be prepared, you know, for that. And you've got to have some contingency plans.

At least you need to think about what would you do if the worst thing that could happen happened, you know?

Sonja: So obviously, Cindy is like that person in your life that kind of keep things together. So how do you guys start having those kinds of conversations? I mean, there are all those different experiences you've had. I'm sure you've had difficult conversations with each other about like, well, what are our next steps? What do you recommend owners do in starting that conversation, you know, with their partners or with their spouse, you know, who's heavily involved in the business?

Donnie: of the things we try to do, if it's going to be something from like a product or service offering, we try to make sure we get staff input because a lot of times they're going to be dealing with the fallout from it, whether somebody's unhappy with it. So, and you know, if it's something we're thinking about offering, say like delivery service, you know, maybe changing it from delivery to our own delivery service to like a DoorDash or something like that, we would want to get a customer survey.

What do you guys think about that? Would you be happy with us changing and having someone else deliver instead of Mr. John, our delivery driver?

But I think the hard conversations come in where you're going to, say… switch wholesalers. And you've been with a wholesaler for a long time and you've gotten to become friends with a salesperson. But from a financial standpoint, it's a great deal and you have to look at the money you're going to save versus the money you lose and you have to consider you know, all those friendships you've developed over the course of the year, and is it really worth it?

And so it's always good to have somebody to bounce those things off of. Because in our line of work, and you've heard this, pharmacy is a small world. It's a small, small world.

And, you know, everybody in pharmacy knows just about everybody else. You know, there are limited numbers of suppliers that you can buy your drugs from. And so I think you have to really think through it.

You really have to have those discussions with, you know, not only your partners, whether it be other pharmacists who are your partners, whether it be, you know, a local business person who's your partner. You know, you have to have those conversations.

I had a store one time and one of my really good friends who owns a local car dealership was a partner of mine in this pharmacy. And believe it or not, it was out of state. It was in Oregon. And he and I became partners in the pharmacy and we would go out together. But he knew nothing about pharmacy. And so the years that we were part, we were only partners for about a year.

And, uh, I would have to teach him everything there was about pharmacy, but, but he challenged me on a lot of things because he came from entirely different industry. And so having someone who's not as engaged in our industry that you trust, I think that you can bounce ideas off of, um, call CPA, you can call our foundation, you know, we can get you a mentor to talk to.

Someone who's maybe been there, done that, and that can give you the confidence that the decision that you made is correct or can give you alternatives to maybe a decision you've made that you can go back and change your mind.

So I think those kind of things are out there. I think that's a big thing is pharmacy owners have to stay adaptable, right? There will always be changes that come up. There will always be things that you have to kind of overcome and get used to in the process. But I think it's important to remember that long term because I mean, for some people, sure, ownership is maybe a small trajectory of their life, but for other people, it can be a 40 plus year experience.

And so-

Sonja: Oh, absolutely. At what point in that timeline do you think it's good to think about what's gonna happen next for your pharmacy?

Donnie: So I think there are a couple of key spots in your career that you you have to make decisions and you know and and it's what I would say a life altering decision you know one is deciding to go to pharmacy school two is deciding what career path you want to take whether it be um community pharmacy Hospital pharmacy or different kind of pharmacy and then you know um when you graduate you have all debt um and so it's like how am I how am I going to service that debt I need a job so a lot of times people take um and the first job that is offered to them, or they take a job that is, you know, very close to where they currently live.

I try to tell students about job placement is - go somewhere where you're going to be happy. And when you make that decision you're going to spend more time at work when you're home. So make sure you're happy wherever you're at and also about where you live. If you want to live at the beach, try to find a job, you know, at the beach. But I think that, you know, once you get into the workforce, then it becomes about what kind of practice do you want? Are you the kind of person that wants a structured practice with lots of rules and you know, so it's structured so you don't have to make a decision on your own, that decisions are made, you know, for you.

Are you the kind of person that wants to go out and make your own decisions and have your own practice? A pharmacist [Kirk] one time that came to work for me right out of college, and his wife was a drug rep for Pfizer. And, you know, she was making good money. Kirk worked for me. And he came to me after a couple of years and said, hey, I've got an opportunity to open a pharmacy beside a grocery store.

What do you think?

And I told him, I thought it was a great opportunity.

And so Kirk worked that pharmacy by himself for like two years without a salary. And they lived on his wife's salary. And so they still had this lifestyle that they had in college while he worked that pharmacy, and then after a while, that pharmacy became successful enough; his wife was able to quit. He was able to hire employees. And now I think Kirk has three pharmacies and he's doing very, very well.

And so, you know, you if you can live on the salary that you had in pharmacy school and have that same kind of lifestyle, then absolutely, you can probably get into it. So you can, you know, you can go in as a junior partner with someone that may be looking to retire in a few years.

So those are the kind of things that are out there, you know, but it has to be that. I guess the timing has to be right. It has to be that that right opportunity that that comes along. And the way you find those opportunities is by getting involved and attending those those community meetings.

Remember I said early on that, you know, we had a local uh Pharmacy Association here in the county and that I went to those meetings I met those Independents if you don't go anywhere to meet anybody then you're not going to have those opportunities that's why it's important you know excuse me to attend like the national convention the NCPA meeting attend your State Pharmacy Association meeting and you know to if you have a local pharmacy meeting you know go to it meet these guys you know

There's an old adage in pharmacy that we're all competitors, but in reality, we're not.

We're not competitors.

I'm not really a competitor with the chain stores.

I'm really not competitor with other independents.

That's a mindset that has been put on people from the business, I guess, community.

21:13 But really and truly, we're all in the business of taking care of people. And, you know, and you want people to treat you the way you want to be treated. So if you do that, you're going to become friends with those people.

I mean, you know, I'm colleagues with all of the chain pharmacists in our area, with all the independents. If they need something, they know they can call me and I'm going to do everything I can to help them. My pharmacist that runs our compounding pharmacy, Julianne, she moonlights for Walmart on the weekends sometimes.

I mean, you know, we're in the business of helping people.

And so I think if you are looking to get into ownership, you know, try to expand your horizons and you have to meet owners somewhere. Even if you think you want to open a pharmacy from scratch, you know, and be on your own, you know, think about what your monthly resources have to be, how much you have to make a month to pay your bills. You know, maybe it's possible you can move back in with mom and dad for a little bit, you know, and live under their roof while you open a pharmacy somewhere. You know, there was a time, I will say this, and this is one of those conversations that Cindy and I had, when in 2012, we decided that we were going to get into the compounding only business that we both said that, well, we don't know how this is going to work because all we've done was just really community pharmacy with a compounding component doing compounding only.

We said, well, we may lose everything we have. We may have to move back in with your mom and dad at our age. But, you know, we felt like we were compelled to do it, that it was, you know, that it was something that we should have done a long time ago. But, you know, it's, you know, scary to step out on that ledge sometimes.

And and we've been in the the profession for a long time. We've been in the industry for a long time, and it's like we're first to make a huge major change.

23:10 And that's another thing, like you asked me, how do you do that? How do you make a major change? And so it takes a leap of faith sometimes.

And I will tell you, that was really good for us, for Cindy and I, when we decided to do compounding only. It took away a lot of the stress stressors that we had in community pharmacy, you know, and that big stressor that you have is paying that drug bill.

I mean, that drug bill is due regardless. And, you know, and you're having to wait on your money to come in from the insurance companies and if they're late or if they delay or whatever, it messes up your cash flow. And so the financial component is stressful no matter which business that you're in, it doesn't really matter. But you really have to, you know, consider that I think a lot of times when you're considering making a major purchase, or you're considering, you know, going out on your own and opening up your own practice.

So if you've got, you know, I like to tell students, if you've got, you know, mom and dad's got lots of money, you don't have anything to worry about just go out and open one, right? And, you know, you still have a lot to worry about if you do that.

Well, you know, but…You know, but there are ways that you can do it. You know, you just, you have to be frugal, I think, in the beginning. And, but it's that way in every profession. I mean, when you just graduate, I mean, the only people I know that graduate college and go off and drive Ferraris or college football players, maybe a basketball players, but now high school players are starting to do that now, but, you know, with the NIL and everything in college football,

But there are opportunities out there, but you got to go and meet people. I think that's the bottom line. You got to go out there and meet people and talk to people.

Sonja: So to your point about taking a leap of faith. So obviously people going into ownership are taking a huge leap of faith. But I think so are owners who are allowing someone to take on what they've built in their business. So how do those owners who are taking a chance on someone, transitioning their pharmacy to them, how should they process that leap of faith? What does that look like? Do you have any advice for those people?

Donnie: Yeah, so every situation is different. I will say that when I bought my pharmacy from Mr. Gann, Mr. Gann told me he was ready to retire, that he would work with me for 30 days, and then he was done. And he worked with me for 30 days to introduce me to customers and get me acclimated. 30 days later, I didn't see him for 10 years. I mean, he was out there. So there are some situations where you, and we'll just talk about buying the pharmacy outright. There's some situations where you buy the pharmacy outright, but then the owner's got a cavity out in there. He still wants to work one day a week…he doesn't want to step away. So he goes from being the owner to being a staff pharmacist, and he works one day a week. If it's a busy store, he goes from being the owner to maybe a part-time pharmacist, and he works two to three days a week and every other weekend. I've seen that situation before as well.

And that's usually a situation where you have a young pharmacist that's worked for you for several years and and you intend on selling them the whole thing and and all of a sudden well not overnight you're not the owner anymore he's the owner and now you're the employee so you've seen that work and that's that's really a you know I would call that a father-son father-daughter type relationship where you know you trust each other and you're happy with each other and it's a family type operation not a literal sense but you know it but um

But I think that when you start thinking about bringing on a junior partner, there are a lot of different ways to do that. There are different mechanisms.

27:18 Most of your pharmacy cooperatives have resources to help you figure out what's the best model for your pharmacy from the owner's standpoint.

You know, we all…We all, when we reach a certain age, and I will say this, it's hard. It's very, very hard to leave something you've done for a long, long time when you care about people. You know, when your reason for being there is really not the money, and your reason for being there is the community and the people that you take care of, it's hard to step away.

I think that's why pharmacists work in their profession probably longer than anybody else. I mean, you know, I don't know a whole lot of pharmacists that retire young.

I mean, Jeff [Harrell] might do that. Jeff might be one of the few I know that retired. But for most of us, you know, we love what we do. And, you know, I think the hard part for us comes in when things change in the pharmacy, we've got to get a new pharmacy computer system. I don't really know if I want to learn how to do that, or you get a new robot.

Oh, that's new technology. I'm not sure that I want to learn how to do that.

Sonja: It's so common. I hear it all the time.

Donnie: It is. I mean, you know, so technology is a huge issue because we get comfortable using what we've always used and the old adage is, well, that's how we've always done it, you know, and that doesn't always work in the way today's world works. That was one of the reasons I was excited maybe to get back into the community pharmacy and help them out a little bit to see what technology has changed in the community pharmacy and I'll be honest with you, I was surprised. One of the biggest surprises for me, this is a little off script, but was in the old days, all the prescriptions walked in the door. They were called in on the telephone. They came in on the fax machine.

90% of the prescriptions today come over the computer. You know, they're all electronically prescribed. So that took a lot of the work away.

You know, having to manually input everything is so much quicker now to fill a regular prescription. But, you know, I think from an owner's standpoint…You know, it's hard to find that right person and, you know, to get that person in that you trust, that you feel like you can turn over your operation to them. I've got a young lady that I hope is going to end up with our pharmacy one of these days, and we're just waiting on her to tell us she's ready. And, you know, that's the other thing.

The big issue that she has and a lot of I guess kids who have been out of school 15, 10, 15 years have is their student loans. I mean, pharmacy schools have become so expensive that they graduate with mountains of debt. And so they're having to take their money and pay student loans instead of buying your pharmacy with them.

Sonja: Well, and I was just talking to someone recently and they were talking about how they're getting frustrated because some of them are also taking jobs with like nonprofit hospitals so they can work in that pharmacy and qualify for public service loan forgiveness. And then it's like they have to wait like 10 years for that all to get forgiven before they'll even consider working for an independent. And I understand that frustration, but at the same time, like the issue is with the exorbitant cost that education is and not with students taking advantage of these opportunities.

Donnie: You're absolutely right. And that is something that I think as a society, we're gonna have to address in the future somehow, some way. And don't get me wrong, I mean, we all love our schools, we all love our universities.

We think that there's a great opportunities there for education and learning, but there has to be a way to, you know, for someone to get the education less expensively, or to have some way to have some type of loan forgiveness so that these kids can get involved, because what happens, when you spend half your career paying for your student loan, then when kids are making decisions about what they want to do with their life, then maybe they decide, well, I don't know if I want to be a pharmacist because if I'm going to work 30 years, I've got to work for 15 just to pay my education off. So that means really, I've only got 15 years in my career that, you know, I can earn a decent living.

And so it is a huge, huge problem. And, you know, and I really don't know how to address it. You know, I will say, that there are a lot of innovative pharmacists across the country. One of our board members, Bill Osborne, is one of those. They have a path to ownership in his group where you forego part of your salary. So you learn to live on a little bit less initially and you take the extra part would go toward ownership.

And then the longer you work, the more ownership you have until eventually you own the whole thing. So there are some ways that are very innovative that are out there. I think Jeff Harrell has the same kind of program that are out there to help these pharmacists you'll get into it.

But again, I mean, it all depends upon the lifestyle that that person wants to have. I mean, you know, is it someone maybe who's single? It's a lot easier for maybe a single person that lives in an apartment maybe to manage the finances better than someone who has three kids and a mortgage and three car payments and that kind of thing.

So, you know, every situation is different. You know, sometimes owners give bonuses based upon performance. So if if you are a young pharmacist, you can go in there and you take those sales numbers and double them, then, you know, part of that bonus could be ownership.

So there are lots of different ways. The pharmacy wholesalers, the drug wholesalers, the pharmacy co-ops are all our national associations. If there is somebody out there wanting to get into ownership, there are people out there that want to help them. And from the owner's standpoint now, so we've talked about a little bit from the employee or the student standpoint.

So from the owner's standpoint, you've worked your whole life to create something. You've got a huge patient population that you care about. And how do you just turn that over? And with consolidation that's happened in our industry, you know, you're always led to believe that your business isn't worth anything, right?

So it's like, well, how do I really know what my business is worth? And do I really tell people how many prescriptions a day I'm filling? You know, are they going to take that information and use it against me?

You know, am I going to share my information? And next thing I know, there's a brand new chain store across the street from me.

I mean, so there's a lot of fear. Yeah, there's a real concern. I think that's one of the reasons that the NCPA digest really helps a lot. It's anonymous that pharmacists can send in their data and that you get a sense of what the average pharmacy in a certain population area is actually doing.

I can't tell you how many times over the years somebody would come in and go, Hey, do I need to go get stitches in this cut? Yeah, you need to go to the emergency reg, like right now. Pharmacists all over the country have experienced that. And so, I think that as healthcare continues to evolve, there's always gonna be a place for the pharmacist And, you know, and I think that having your own practice model. Whether that be a practice model with a retail component where you're dispensing commercial products as a community pharmacy.

I think that's great, but I think that when I think about independent pharmacy practice. I think about, mom and pop drugstore, but I also think about, those innovative new practices like our practice, compounding pharmacy. So we do wellness screenings, we do immunizations. We do a biometric screening program for the state of Alabama, which is a preemptive look at keeping people healthy.

We do sterile and non-sterile compounding. We do pharmacy consultations with the patients all the time. So, I mean, we're like a community healthcare center all in itself. And a lot of times patients come to us and they go, well, my friend told me about this that you're doing and does it require prescription? Well, yes, ma'am, it does require prescription, but if you're a doctor, that's not interested in helping you with this, we have doctors who are. So we refer patients to doctors all the time. And so we really work well with the healthcare team in our community.

And I guess at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. It's about community healthcare, and it's about being part of that community and taking care of your friends and neighbors. And there are a lot of different ways to do that from an independent practice.

Sonja: Well, I really enjoyed our conversation today, Donnie. Thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom and experience with us.

Donnie: Oh, you're welcome. I call it trial and error usually, right?

Sonja: Oh, stop. Where can people find you if they connect with you?

Donnie: They can reach me. My e-mail is dcalhoun@calhouncompounding.com. Our pharmacy website is www.calhouncompounding.com. I'm accessible at either one of those places anytime, or you can actually reach me through the NCPA Foundation as well.

Sonja: Awesome. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Donnie: All right. Thanks, Sonja. Y'all have a great day. Bye.

Episode Summary

In this insightful conversation, Donnie Calhoun shares his remarkable 37-year journey in pharmacy, from completing the first-ever APHA community pharmacy residency program to building a successful independent practice that evolved from traditional retail to specialized compounding. Starting with his unexpected entry into ownership in 1991 through community networking, Donnie candidly discusses the realities of pharmacy entrepreneurship - including the challenges of competing with chain pharmacies, the critical importance of having strong partnerships (particularly with his wife and business partner Cindy), and the strategic decision to pivot to compounding-only services in 2012. The conversation addresses pressing industry issues like the student debt crisis that prevents young pharmacists from considering ownership, explores innovative succession planning models, and emphasizes the evolving role of independent pharmacies as comprehensive community healthcare centers. Throughout, Donnie provides practical advice for aspiring owners while highlighting the emotional and financial complexities of transitioning pharmacy practices, making this episode essential listening for anyone interested in the business side of community pharmacy.