Generosity is not a Business Plan
“Of course, Sarah, you deserve it.”
This tech has been with the practice for years. She’s great with patients, solid with clients, and someone the team relies on, so when she asked for a raise, the owner didn’t hesitate.
Then, word got around.
Other team members were quietly asking, “Why did she get one and I didn’t?”
Morale matters, so the owner did what many leaders do in that moment: tried to smooth it over.
Everyone got a raise.
For a moment, things felt better.
But a few months later, the numbers told a different story: Payroll was growing faster than revenue.
You want good team members to stay. You want to lead generously.
But generosity without a revenue plan creates financial instability.
Raises work best when the practice itself supports them.
That means connecting compensation decisions to things like:
Role clarity and accountability
Measurable performance
Revenue per doctor or per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
Capacity utilization
And yes—pricing strategy
Raises shouldn’t be funded by hope.
They should be funded by a profitable practice.
If you’re trying to balance raises, retention, and revenue, I put together a resource on how practices implement incremental fee increases in a way that’s sustainable for both the team and the business.
