Let me guess.
Your team is working. Phones are ringing. Emails are sending. Spreadsheets are getting updated. Everybody looks busy.
But somehow, revenue isn’t growing the way you expected. Your big goals for the year? Still sitting there, untouched.
Here’s the hard truth most small business owners don’t want to hear: Your compensation plan is probably rewarding the wrong things.
And until you fix that, you’re not going to scale.
The “Busy” Trap
When you’re running a small business, you wear a lot of hats. You’re grateful for your team. You don’t want to micromanage. So you set up a bonus structure that feels fair—maybe it’s based on hours worked, or tasks completed, or just a gut feeling at review time.
But here’s what happens next: People chase whatever you measure.
If you pay for activity, you’ll get activity. You’ll get 100 calls made—and 95 voicemails left with no follow-up. You’ll get reports nobody reads. You’ll get people looking busy while the business stays exactly where it is.
That’s not scaling. That’s spinning your wheels.
The Fix: Flip the Script
I want you to imagine a different way.
What if every dollar of bonus your team earns is tied directly to the three things you absolutely need to accomplish this year? What if everybody knows exactly how those goals are measured—and can calculate their own bonus in about 30 seconds?
That’s not a fantasy. That’s how businesses actually scale.
Here’s the framework that works:
Anchor every bonus to your top 3 company goals. Not 12 goals. Not a wishlist. Three. If it’s not one of the big three, it doesn’t trigger bonus pay.
Use a 50/50 split. Half of each person’s bonus potential is tied to company-wide results. Half is tied to their individual performance. This does two things: it builds teamwork (everybody wins together) and still rewards individual effort.
Set a 70% floor. This is huge. Below 70% of goal? $0 bonus. Between 70–99%? You get paid proportionally. 100% or above? Full payout plus stretch targets. This prevents the “almost made it” argument and keeps goals meaningful.
Make the math public. Seriously. Publish the formula. Every team member should be able to look at their Target Earning Potential (base + target bonus) and know exactly what they need to do. No mystery. No “trust me.” Just transparency.
Keep goals measurable and few. Three goals. Three outcomes each. That’s nine numbers total for the entire company. If you can’t fit it on one page, it’s too complicated.
Grade both sides the same way. Company goals and individual goals should use the same 0–100%+ scoring system. When the rules are consistent, payouts feel fair. When they’re not, resentment builds.
What Happens When You Get This Right
I’ve seen this play out in businesses ranging from 5 employees to 500.
Suddenly, nobody’s asking “What do you want me to work on?” They already know. Nobody’s padding their hours or polishing spreadsheets that don’t matter. They’re chasing the wins that actually move the needle.
Meetings get shorter. Excuses get rarer. And you stop feeling like the only person who cares about results.
That’s when scaling becomes possible. Not because you hired more people—but because the people you already have are finally rowing in the same direction.
One More Thing
If you’re reading this and thinking “Yeah, but my team is different” or “We’ve never done it that way”—I get it. Change is uncomfortable.
But staying stuck in a system that rewards busywork over outcomes? That’s way more expensive.
At buy-scale-sell.com, we help small business owners build the kind of companies that grow predictably and run without constant owner involvement. Fixing your comp plan is usually step one. Because you can’t scale a business where people are paid to look busy instead of paid to win.
The bottom line: Your team wants to do good work. They want to feel like their effort actually matters. They just need a system that points them at the right target.
Give them that system. Watch what happens.
Then go scale.
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Hi, I’m Heather.
Let me help you scale your Utah $1M+ biz to $20M+
My credentials:
Built & sold Queen of Wraps (yep, that’s my face on the side of I-15)
Learned 1,769,230+ lessons so you skip trial-and-error
Zero Ivy MBA (just pioneer grit + market-tested tactics)
Let’s talk if you’re:
Ready to make your ‘good’ business a GREAT business
Hitting $1M+ and knowing you’re built for more
Have 10+ employees that need to see your vision
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