I want a raise.
I would like a raise.
Could I see a bump in what I’m making?
Whether posed as a soft spoken question or demand, they make any owner push against the chair a little firmer. Just thinking about it makes an eye twitch, the knot of hard decisions forming in your throat feeling like you just finished a Korean Spicy Ramen Noodle challenge. A blur of 56 different reasons for and against the request to ‘raise’ your overhead.
But rather than coming in cold, wouldn’t it be better to be at least prepared?
I’d already warned in the last few weeks/months/year about inflation and the need to raise your fee schedule a significant amount, I’m still pushing the inflation rheostat full bore.
A practice making 1 million annually in collections will not be the benchmark for ‘success’ any longer. Pshh, that’s easier to do than an occlusal on an extracted premolar.
Think of inflation as a treadmill, and your good friend government decides your pudgy dental butt needs some more working out. They increase the speed to level 8 with incline of 3%,
You’ve got two choices.
Run faster. Seems like an obvious choice. Or risk falling off the treadmill and entering a quagmire of financial hardship.
Or if you were smart, buy some blocks to elevate the rear of your treadmill so you’re actually downhill. You’re still running at level 8, incline 3%, but you’ve created an environment that helps you ease through the hardship a little easier.
It means educating yourself and your staff about assets that have limited supplies will resist the erosive nature of inflation. Dental practices are fairly hard assets. Gold, Bitcoin, stocks, real estate, and even art.
I’m not telling you or your staff by any means to go out and just buy crap. Especially when they just asked you for a raise. But I’m in the camp of trying to help you protect the buying power of the hard earned dollars coming into your practice.
Raising fee’s was my prime example of running faster. Your staff member asking for a raise is another. Run run run!
But you don’t have to run faster, run smarter. Put cinder blocks under your treadmill. Run downhill, and it’s a lot easier.
As for what you tell your staff member, pointing out current CPI numbers can help as a guide. Remember, that number is the lowest number the government is concocting from their ‘formula’. Inflation hurts our lower income folks disproportionally more. As they have no ability to buy property, shelter savings or invest cash reserves while living paycheck to paycheck.
So when you’re faced with the ‘I want a raise’ demand, understand that it comes from them trying to run faster because their treadmill got turned up.
Lam