Dr. Gretchen Anne Hayden has a doctorate in Pharmaceuticals from the University of Kentucky and has been a pharmacist for a little under 17 years. She has worked at Walmart, CVS, and Medicare before settling on her own pharmacy called Byassee Drug’s. Byassee is in a little corner of Clinton and while Gretchen has had experience with previous pharmacies, she now had to learn how to own a business as well as doing her original job. This added more responsibilities to her already difficult job.

When asked about the most difficult part of running a business, Dr. Hayden responded, “probably juggling cash flow and also employee relations.” She clarified by adding, “like taking care of the people who work for you.” 

She has three employees at her job currently and some times allows her children to come down and help as well. She has to figure out the best way to budget with prescriptions and other goods while also taking care of the needs of her employees. This includes the homestyle products, over the counter drug’s, and the vending machine she has in the main part of the store.

Her favorite memory of her time since coming to Byassee was when her daughter, Madelyn Wilson, came down to help her during the summer, “She came down to help when the air was out one day,” Dr. Hayden added,” there was three of us there and the only time we ever got to sit down that day was during lunch. Thankfully, the next time she came it was fixed. I’m pretty sure we both had fun and I hope she wants to come back again this summer”

For 17 years Dr. Hayden has had to juggle pharmaceutical and she didn’t really have to worry about any of the back ground areas that go into running a business. During the transition between Pharmacist to business owner, Hayden read books on business trying to learn as much as she could. “The main differences between owning a pharmacy and working as a pharmacist is the moving parts behind the scenes between them, so like your the HR person, the book keeper, and everything else that goes into running a pharmacy.”

Dr. Hayden decided she wanted to run her own pharmacy whenever she started working at an independent one (Medicare). “It’s scary owning a pharmacy because I didn’t go to school for business and pretty much everything I learned was working for an independent, but also exciting since I get to mold everything to the way I want it and be as creative as I want to. It’s also fun going to your own place everyday versus working under someone else.”

Dr. Hayden may not have started pharmaceutical with having her own business in mind, but she has succeeded in something many people only have dreams about. Her main advice to others who want to run their own business was, “to do lot’s of research, learn things about business, and have tons of emergency reserves in case something goes wrong.”

Byassee Drug’s contacts:
107 E Clay St
Clinton, KY 42031
 (270) 653-2151
 (270) 653-2004
https://byasseedrugs.com/about-us