Turn Your Payroll Into a Profit Center

By Gary Kadi

Did you realize your team is your most valuable investment? It can feel like salaries take a big chunk out of the bank. But realize that the instant you start to view salary as an investment in your own financial future, you are on the path to making more money.

This psychological shift is subtle and extremely important. I have seen this time and time again: the more salary my clients pay, the more money they make. This is because they have come to view many of their expenditures as investments in their practices, and they see the stunning return on investment.

The Right Balance

This is how it should look: appropriate salaries + reasonable bonuses = a highly motivated team

Notice I said “appropriate” salaries. You should not be paying your team outrageous salaries. Pay appropriate salaries and accompany those with bonuses that are connected with each team member’s position and individual goals. When you do this, your team will be pushing each other to create individual wins, which creates wins for the entire office.

All of my clients who have installed this system saw radically increased net income as a result of investing in their teams.

A Successful Bonus System

The best bonuses are tied to individual positions and responsibilities. For example, let’s take a look at your appointment coordinator. She is responsible for meeting or exceeding the daily goal you set for each of the dentists and hygienists in your office. She is also responsible for minimizing schedule changes and assuring patients show up on time.

Her bonus should be based on what she does every day. A lot of bonus systems don’t work because the goals and rewards are set over too great a period of time (often quarterly or annually). This is hard to measure and connect to performance. Instead, offer a daily goal and bonus based on her hour-by-hour, day-by-day activity. Give her $10 per provider per day that she books $4,000 worth of dentistry for each doctor and $1,000 worth of services for each hygienist.

Appropriate salaries + reasonable bonuses = a highly motivated team

The Break Down

Are you already cringing? Remember this is an investment, not an expense, and you will see returns.

Using the above numbers, your maximum exposure is: 4 providers a day x $10 a day x 16 working days a month= $640 a month.

In return you’ll be hitting your goal of $2 million in business. Not bad.

More Than Money

With proper goals and rewards, everyone on your team will know if they’re doing their job properly. In addition, everyone leverages one another’s efforts because they know how each one fits into the success of the office. Suddenly this is a team game, and you just might hear exclamations like, “We won! Mrs. Smith accepted her treatment!”

Don’t be surprised; this can happen. You will have a happy team, which leads to happy doctors and happy patients. It’s a win-win all around.

Join the Complete Health Dentistry movement today. Join us for the Proactive Practice course in Cincinnati, September 20-22, 2013, to get from where you are to where you want to be. This innovative, three-day business planning session will have you making a difference for your team and your community. You will learn how to implement the Complete Health Dentistry practice model step-by-step and start having more fun in both your practice and life. Call 212-388-1712 to learn more.