HELP!! IC issue

[jhig78]

Okay I am a therapist who has been on my own for 3 years. Business has expanded and I needed to bring on another therapist to help. I offered her a flat room rate, she is solely responsible for sheets, lotions, etc.. i have an assistant who answers the phone, schedules appointments, and is available for clients who want to come in for a GC. MY QUESTION IS...
How do I make it fair to the other therapist when it comes to Gift Certificate redemption? I had a lady come and redeem a gift certifiate purchased a year ago. The new therapist performed the massage and wants to deduct the whole service price from her rent. Which leaves her owing $20. I just don"t feel like I am getting the fair end of the stick? Am I wrong?
My thought was to have us each sell our own gift certificates from now on... but what do I do about GC"s that are from a year ago?? Just chump it up to a loss??

Any suggestions? HELP!

 

[Racin]

HELP!! IC issue

It seems strait forward to me. You got paid a year ago for the service and she performed said service. I think that it is fair to deduct the amount of the GC from her rent. Why would that not be fair?

Going forward, I agree that since you are both separate, that you should have separate names on the GC so when people come to redeem them, there is no confusion. If you were all working under the same business and she was an employee, then she would continue to just get her rate or %.

When someone calls to schedule a massage to redeem a GC you can either make sure that the booking client sees you or continue taking off the $$ for your room renter.

Why is it that you think this is not fair? I feel like I am missing something. t017

 

[JUMPMASTER]

HELP!! IC issue

Another case of why everything needs to be in writing.

Your post says IC issue. Did you mean GC issue?

Sounds like this person is a lessee, not an IC.

If this person is a lessee, then you have the wrong arrangement for the goal you stated - help with growing demand.

A renter runs their own business and does not give two whits about your business. A renter is there to help you reduce your fixed costs by the rent they pay, as evidenced by you putting them on a flat rent agreement. The more your business grows, the lower the importance of the fixed cost contribution the lessee pays. And if the lessee thinks they should get 100% of the revenue from your referrals, then you achieve 0% growth in your business by having a lessee.

You may be stuck with the current agreement -- after all, this is not baseball and you can't renegotiate your contract after you just signed it -- but you need to aim for a fixed rent + a % of all referrals.

It seems strait forward to me. You got paid a year ago for the service and she performed said service. I think that it is fair to deduct the amount of the GC from her rent. Why would that not be fair?

Not fair in the least. By this reasoning, if the renter does services for 3 - 4 clients in a given month, they pay no rent.

If NMY collected the funds a year ago but then paid out 100% of the funds to the lessee for performing the service, then the only benefit to NMY of obtaining this client is the use of the funds for the year -- which at current interest rates works out to less than $2.

The lessee got the referral solely because of the existing situation -- had there been no lessee the lessee would not have seen dime one from this service. Client acquisition is an expensive undertaking and is worth a lot more than $0

 

[superman2990]

HELP!! IC issue

Not fair in the least. By this reasoning, if the renter does services for 3 - 4 clients in a given month, they pay no rent.

If NMY collected the funds a year ago but then paid out 100% of the funds to the lessee for performing the service, then the only benefit to NMY of obtaining this client is the use of the funds for the year -- which at current interest rates works out to less than $2.

The lessee got the referral solely because of the existing situation -- had there been no lessee the lessee would not have seen dime one from this service. Client acquisition is an expensive undertaking and is worth a lot more than $0

I knew I was missing something! Thanks for your input on this - I learn so much from these discussions!

 

[Zork]

HELP!! IC issue

Best point yet!
Any GC's are your clients NOT the renters.

i have an assistant who answers the phone, schedules appointments, and is available for clients who want to come in for a GC...The new therapist performed the massage and wants to deduct the whole service price from her rent.

My question is, why was your assistant (or anyone else) scheduling GC redemptions with your renter BEFORE the two of you (you and your renter) had agreed on how these would be compensated?

 

[Somebodyelse]

HELP!! IC issue

Best point yet!
Any GC's are your clients NOT the renters.

I thought MTs did not "own" clients?

 

[A guy with too much time]

HELP!! IC issue

Write this one up as a lesson learned.

BUT.... for the future, I would write something up that the therapist gets a fair split if by chance she were to redeem a gift certficate that was sold at the office. And for now on, I would tell your front desk person when scheduling a client, she ask if they have a certficate so that the appointment can be scheduled with the right person.

When I worked at a multi-therapist office, I had someone just come in and buy a certficate and give it to one of my clients. I didn't ask the lady who owned the place to pay me for it. I actually redeemed the certificate with her so I got a massage instead of cash. Since it rarely happened, that worked out. I made sure to tell my clients to buy certificates from me and not the owner too.