Staff bonus system

A staff bonus system is the practice's overall approach to rewarding the team for hitting goals, and the version Ryan teaches deliberately avoids a single static monthly formula in favor of intentional variety: alternating "Prize Months," often in the busy season, built around non-financial team goals and experiential rewards, with "Push Months," typically in the slow season, built around a cash bonus tied to an ambitious production or collections target.

The reason for the variety is what he calls the entitlement trap: a classic monthly collections bonus feels exciting for a month or two, then quietly becomes an expected part of the paycheck, at which point it stops driving any behavior at all, and a single slow month where it isn't earned turns the owner into the villain rather than the goal into a shared challenge. He has seen this pattern end badly enough, in one long-standing practice, that changing a stagnant bonus triggered a full team walkout.

Building fairness across roles matters too: mapping what each position actually does to move the goal (hygienists reactivating overdue patients, assistants turning rooms efficiently, the front office locking in financial arrangements) keeps a team bonus from feeling arbitrary to the people executing it.