The numbers

At-cost, not extracted

Same billings. You pay only your share of actual overhead — rent, front desk, software, utilities — and keep the rest.

Monthly	Traditional 60/40	Co-op (at-cost)
Gross billings	$12,000	$12,000
Clinic / overhead	$4,800 (owner cut)	~$2,000 (actual)
Your net	$7,200	$10,000

Illustrative example at $12k/mo billings. Your numbers scale with your practice.

Becoming an owner

The member share

A one-time $6,000 capital contribution makes you a founding member and capitalizes the co-op — no predatory business loans.

• Six founders → ~$36,000 launch reserve (deposits, operating float)
• Recouped in under ~2.5 months through overhead savings alone
• It’s an asset — refundable at face value when you leave in good standing

Your buy-in is equity, not a fee. It stays yours.

Year-end

Surplus comes back to you

The co-op charges only enough to cover shared costs. Whatever’s left at year end is returned to members as a patronage dividend.

• Based on usage — your share of total clinic billings = your share of the dividend
• Cash portion (min. 20%) — paid to you, covers pass-through tax
• Retained portion — held in your internal capital account to fund operations; still yours, paid out when you exit

One member generating 12% of billings receives 12% of the dividend pool.

Structure

Built for tax efficiency

A Subchapter T cooperative is designed to keep more money with practitioners:

• No double taxation — surplus distributed as patronage dividends isn’t taxed at the co-op level
• Potential FICA efficiency — patronage treated as a return of overhead, not W-2 wages
• QBI eligibility — keep the 20% pass-through deduction via your own S-Corp/LLC

Illustrative, not tax or legal advice. Final treatment depends on the entity we form and your personal structure. We'll confirm every figure with co-op counsel and a cooperative CPA before you commit.

How we run it

One member, one vote

No landlord/tenant dynamic. Members share light stewardship so overhead stays low.

• Equal vote on budget, lease, shared hires, and admitting new members
• One committee, ~2–4 hrs/month — Facilities & Supplies · Marketing & Community · Tech & Systems
• Transparent books — everyone sees where the money goes

Owners, not tenants. The clinic answers to the people in it.

The space

Location, secured

Jess holds the master lease and the landlord relationship. To protect the co-op:

• The lease sits in a separate LLC, subleased to the co-op at fair market rate
• The co-op gets guaranteed location stability — the same space, same address
• No practitioner personally guarantees a multi-year commercial lease

You get stability without signing your name to the building.

The path

How we get there

• 1 · Form the co-op — establish the Limited Cooperative Association with Subchapter T election
• 2 · Confirm the numbers — co-op counsel + CPA verify overhead, tax, and buy-in
• 3 · Secure commitments — founding practitioners reserve their member share
• 4 · Transition — sublease signed, accounts capitalized, open as an owner

Moving quickly and together is what makes the economics work.

Learn more

Do your own homework

We want informed owners. Independent, non-partisan primers on how cooperatives work:

• Cooperatives 101 — co-oplaw.org/cooperatives-101
• Running a co-op & finances — co-oplaw.org/running-a-cooperative
• The 7 cooperative principles — ncbaclusa.coop
• Worker/practitioner co-ops — institute.coop · usworker.coop
• The tax law (Subchapter T) — law.cornell.edu

From us — read before you decide

• Founding Member Prospectus (PDF) — /downloads/prospectus.pdf
• Member FAQ (PDF) — /downloads/member-faq.pdf
• Draft Bylaws (PDF, discussion skeleton) — /downloads/bylaws-draft.pdf