Welcome back to the forum mate. My brother works for a well knows high street opticians, tried setting up by himself with someone he works at the same store with an online optician dispenser thing. Loads of paper work and registering with companies house etc, and after a year of researching and setting up and only got 1 customer. It was the company he works for

He kept his job, but his partner got the sack...
Nice to have another friendly contributor in the forums mate.