Revenue, margin and cash flow gaps identified within 48 hours of your evidence pack
Multi-Site Human Services Group, Profitable Growth Plan
Case Study | Published May 2026
At a Glance: Owner-operated Australian human services group | Three sites | Services delivered by independent contractor practitioners | Engagement type: Business Performance Review and 26-week implementation plan | Identified: 36% revenue growth and an $800,000 improvement to the bottom line over 12 months
The Situation
The owner had acquired a group of three sites delivering practitioner-led services and had built it to a solid base, with industry accreditation achieved. Beneath that progress, three structural problems were compounding.
One site was operating below critical mass, with a single practitioner and no succession plan. The group's operations depended on a highly capable General Manager whose workload had grown well beyond the role, across three sites and a seven-day schedule with no management layer beneath it. And the contractor arrangements left the business carrying significant annual costs the practitioner base should have been sharing, under a mechanism that already sat in the agreements but had never been activated.
Left alone, the trajectory was a site closure, the loss of a key person, and a group drifting back towards breakeven within 24 months.
The Brief
Fixer48 was engaged to conduct an independent, evidence-based performance review across all three entities and produce an implementation plan ready for immediate execution. The brief covered five areas:
- Deliver an honest financial diagnosis of the group and each site
- Build a viable path to profit for the underperforming site
- Design a commercial model that recovers shared costs from the contractor base
- Put in place a management structure that matches the capability of the existing team
- Produce a 26-week execution schedule with a named owner for every action
The Approach
Fixer48 worked through the business in sequence, building one connected plan rather than a collection of isolated fixes.
Financial Diagnosis
A revised wage analysis, built on a clean post-transition baseline, showed the group was already genuinely profitable. That changed the conversation from protecting the business to growing it.
Site Viability and Relaunch
The underperforming site had a sound location and the wrong model. It was set up for low volume in a location built for high volume, and it was close to invisible to the local market it should have been serving. Fixer48 redesigned it as a higher-volume, more accessible service, supported by a short local activation plan and a practitioner recruitment campaign. With one practitioner on site, the model change and updated contractor terms could be made without negotiating across a team. That window closes as soon as recruitment succeeds.
Management Structure
The management problem was solved with structure, not headcount. A single workforce platform replaced three fragmented systems, automated bank feeds removed weekend manual reconciliation, and a documented authority matrix moved decisions to site level. The General Manager's role was formally redefined to a Monday to Friday scope, with a market-rate remuneration review.
Contractor Cost Recovery
The cost recovery model was built to be adopted rather than imposed. It activated the mechanism already in the agreements, was staged so no practitioner faced a sudden change, and was backed by a peer-to-peer business case. The owner, as a participant in the same arrangement, led it.
Opportunity Quantification
Every line of the annual opportunity was evidenced, timed and rated for confidence, so the plan could be presented without overstating what was achievable.
Implementation Schedule
A 26-week schedule set out four phases, week-by-week actions, named owners and cash effects, with the practitioner replacement deadline built in as the hardest constraint in the programme.
Challenge and Outcome
Key Challenges Addressed
How does a site with a single practitioner avoid closure against a hard replacement deadline?
How do you change a site's service model without triggering a dispute or a departure?
How do you introduce cost recovery to independent contractors without it reading as a rent increase?
How do you free up the person who is the operational engine, crisis manager and management layer for three sites?
How do you quantify an annual opportunity more than ten times reported net profit without overstating it?
What Fixer48 Delivered
A relaunch plan for the underperforming site on a model suited to its location, with a recruitment campaign offering incoming practitioners an established client base.
A contractor cost recovery model, staged and backed by a peer-to-peer business case, with the owner leading as a participant in the same arrangement.
A management restructure that returned the General Manager to a Monday to Friday scope without adding headcount, through systems automation and documented delegation.
A financial opportunity table with every line evidenced, timed and rated for confidence.
A 26-week implementation schedule with named owners for every action.
The Deliverable
Fixer48 produced a 28-page Business Performance Review covering the financial diagnosis, site viability and relaunch, contractor commercial framework, management structure, opportunity table and a 26-week implementation schedule, with an executive summary for the decisions that needed to happen first.
The plan sets a 12-month path to 36% revenue growth and an $800,000 improvement to the bottom line. The underperforming site moves from an annual loss to a profit at its target practitioner numbers. Contractor cost recovery moves from nil to a recurring annual contribution. The management structure moves from a single point of failure to a delegated, documented and sustainable operating model.
What This Engagement Demonstrates
This engagement is representative of Fixer48's approach to performance and growth advisory for owner-operated businesses. The owner needed more than a diagnosis. The plan had to rest on the group's actual financial data, be executable within days, and be credible enough to present to a base of independent contractor practitioners.
Core capabilities: financial analysis and wage modelling, multi-site operating structure, contractor commercial framework design, site viability modelling and relaunch, client acquisition planning, and owner advisory.
To discuss how Fixer48 can help your business, contact Ashley Kent. ashley@fixer48.com.au fixer48.com.au
