Risk Management Services | Helping Businesses Make Better Decisions About Risk

Better Decisions Before You Commit Your Business

Most construction businesses take on risk gradually, through everyday commercial decisions that seemed reasonable at the time. You win a project on thin margins, you accept contract terms the price never covered, or your reporting falls behind as the business grows. Each decision looks fine on its own, but together they can shrink your profit, tighten your cash flow and leave you with fewer options when something changes.

Rachelle reviews the decisions in front of your business before you are locked in. Some clients ask her to review the risk in a major contract before they sign it. Others want to know whether the business is ready to scale up to bigger work, whether a business loan or personal guarantee is worth the risk, or whether their governance still suits the size the business has become. Every engagement starts with the decision you are facing and what could go wrong.

Once you understand what could go wrong and what it would cost you, you can accept, reduce, transfer or avoid each risk deliberately. Making those choices deliberately protects your margin, your cash flow and the long-term value of your business.

Rachelle Hare – In my experience

I rarely see a construction business get into trouble because of one poor decision. The risk usually builds up slowly, across contracts, projects and the way the business is run. When an owner asks me to look at a decision before they commit to it, they nearly always have more choices than they will have a year later.

How to Engage Rachelle for Risk Management

You get a fixed price in writing before any work starts. Most clients engage Rachelle in one of two ways.

Risk Audit and Mitigation Plan

Rachelle reviews the contract, commercial, financial, operational, project, governance and director-level risks across your business. You receive a written Risk Audit, a risk register ranked by priority, and practical recommendations that suit the size of your business, your management team and the other demands on your time.

Targeted Risk Engagements

Rachelle reviews a single decision or risk area. Common examples include a major contract before you sign it, a tender you are deciding whether to price, a business loan or personal guarantee, a governance review or a project that is losing money. She concentrates on the risks that could change that decision, without charging you to analyse the whole business.

Ongoing Support by Agreement

If you want continuing help after a Risk Audit or a Targeted Risk Engagement, Rachelle scopes that with you by agreement.

Call Rachelle on (07) 3063 3373

The Risks Affecting Your Construction Business

A weakness in one part of your business usually causes problems somewhere else, so Rachelle looks at how your risks affect each other rather than treating each one separately.

Business Risk

Business Risk affects the long-term strength and value of your business. It covers succession planning, relying too heavily on one customer or one key person, your business structure, your systems and your strategic direction. These risks build slowly as you win more work, employ more people and take on larger projects, and owners usually notice the symptoms (slower decisions, reporting that tells them less) before they see the cause.

If you review Business Risk early, you can fix problems while they are still cheap to fix and protect your profit, your growth and the value of the business.

Commercial Risk

Commercial Risk comes from the decisions you make every week. Pricing, procurement, payment terms, supplier relationships and where you put your people and money all affect whether the business gets stronger or slowly gives away margin. You make most of these decisions quickly, often without complete information, and each one looks minor on its own.

Rachelle helps you understand what a commercial decision will cost you before you commit, and whether the return justifies the risk.

Rachelle Hare – In my experience

Financial reports tell you what has already happened. They rarely explain why it happened. The cause usually sits in the commercial decisions made months earlier, during tendering, negotiation, procurement or project planning. Looking at those commercial decisions first often delivers far more value than analysing another month of results.

Financial Risk

When cash flow is tight, debt is high or forecasting is weak, you have less room to move when something changes. Strong construction businesses still strike financial trouble, especially while growing fast, taking on loans or investing in plant and people, and the businesses that cope are usually the ones that manage their money well. Shannon Drew (Management Accountant, Fractional CFO and Business Adviser) supports the financial risk side of engagements, including cash flow and working capital reviews, margin analysis, and reporting that shows you where financial risk is building in the business.

Operational Risk

Operational Risk covers the people, plant, systems and processes you rely on to deliver your work. Many construction businesses outgrow the systems that supported them at half their current size, and the gap shows up as rework, delays, unreliable reporting and managers solving the same problems over and over. Shannon also supports the operational risk side of engagements, reviewing whether your systems, processes and reporting can support the amount of work you now deliver.

Contract Risk

Once you sign a contract, the responsibilities you and the Principal have agreed for payment, delays, variations, design, warranties, indemnities and termination are largely fixed. Rachelle looks at how you will manage those responsibilities in practice, and whether they are fair for the project, your business and the money on offer. A clause you accepted during negotiation can cost you dearly once work starts and the project runs into trouble. If you need legal advice on the terms themselves, Rachelle provides Construction Contract Reviews and a contract-level Risk Analysis (delivered as a Ranked Risk Report) under a separate legal engagement.

Project Risk

Projects bring together every type of risk your business carries. Contracts, procurement, program, subcontractor performance, commercial management and client relationships all affect the final result, and the decisions you make during tendering and early delivery keep shaping that result through to completion. Rachelle reviews the project as a whole, showing you where the project is most likely to lose money and what you can do about it before it does.

Governance Risk

Good governance means the right people make the right decisions, with the right information, at the right time. Most governance problems arise because the business has changed while the governance has not. Your management team grows, your projects get bigger and your financial commitments increase, yet your approvals and reporting were designed when the business was half its current size. Rachelle reviews whether your governance is still adequate for the size and complexity of your business, and whether gaps in your governance are creating risk, looking at delegations of authority, contract approvals, financial authorities, management and Board reporting, escalation and project governance. If you then want the framework rebuilt and put in place, Rachelle provides that work through Governance Services.

Rachelle Hare – In my experience

One of the strongest signs that governance needs attention is when owners start getting involved in decisions they delegated years earlier. In most of the businesses where I see this, the managers are not the problem. The reporting has stopped giving the owner enough confidence to stay out of the detail, and better information for the people making decisions usually fixes more than another approval step would.

Owner and Director Risk

As a director, you stay responsible for the oversight of the business even though other people make most of the day-to-day decisions, and that responsibility grows as you delegate more. Delegation is essential for growth, but if you hand over responsibility without strengthening your oversight, you can end up with a false sense of security. Rachelle reviews where you may be personally exposed, covering governance structures, delegations, reporting, succession, business continuity and major contractual commitments. If you need legal advice on directors’ duties, Rachelle provides it under a separate legal engagement.

From First Conversation to Implementation

Every engagement starts with a conversation about the decision in front of your business, rather than a checklist.

Understanding Your Business and the Decision

Rachelle starts with how your business runs and the background to the decision. Depending on the agreed scope, she may look at your governance, reporting, contracts, financial performance and current projects.

Reviewing the Risks That Matter 

Rachelle concentrates on the risks that could change the decision, hurt your margin or cash flow, or reduce the value of the business, rather than listing every issue she could find.

Practical Recommendations in Priority Order

You receive recommendations with the options, trade-offs and likely costs explained, ranked so you know what needs attention now, what can wait and which risks are fine for the business to accept.

Supporting Implementation

Advice only creates value once you run the business differently, so most engagements include implementation support, such as fixing your reporting, tightening your commercial processes or putting better governance in place. Where implementation needs legal work, Rachelle does that under a separate legal engagement with its own scope and deliverables.

Construction Experience That Changes the Advice

Construction businesses make important decisions every day against tight timeframes. You have to win projects before you can deliver them, procurement runs against a compressed program, client expectations change and supply chains move. Each decision looks manageable on its own, but get enough of them wrong and the project will not make the profit you priced into it.

Rachelle Hare has spent 25+ years as a front-end Construction Lawyer in top-tier law firms, including in-house at Tier 1 and Tier 2 Construction Contractors and Commonwealth clients (acting as General Counsel at Thiess and DHA, with CASG and AGS), paired with six years full-time as a Commercial Manager. Working in-house showed her how Principals and Contractors allocate risk before a project begins. Her Commercial Manager years taught her how project teams administer contracts under live conditions, where program, procurement, productivity and client relationships all compete for attention. And because she runs her own business, her recommendations respect the limits every owner faces on time, capital and attention.

Rachelle Hare – In my experience

One of the greatest advantages of having worked as a Construction Lawyer, Commercial Manager and General Counsel is seeing what happens after the contract is signed. Plenty of contract positions look reasonable during negotiation because everyone expects the project to run to plan. The real test comes later, when the program slips, procurement tightens, variations mount and relationships strain. I look at your decisions through that lens, thinking about how your project team will manage the obligations in practice as well as the legal position.

FAQs about Risk Management Services

What Are Risk Management Services?

Owners and directors engage Rachelle to understand the risks affecting an important decision before the business commits to it. The work covers contract, commercial, financial, operational, project, governance and director-level risk, and the aim is a better decision, backed by a clear view of what could go wrong and what it would cost.

Which Construction Businesses Benefit Most from Risk Management Services?

Rachelle works with construction businesses turning over $5M to $100M+, whether owner-led or run by a Managing Director or Board. The services become most valuable when the business is growing fast, scaling up to larger projects, taking on debt, reviewing its governance or preparing for sale or succession, because the bigger the business gets, the more a poor decision costs.

Can You Review the Risk in a Contract Before We Sign It?

Reviewing a contract before signature is one of the most common Targeted Risk Engagements. Rachelle considers how the contract shares risk between you and the Principal and how you will manage that risk during delivery. If you want legal advice on the terms themselves, she provides a Construction Contract Review under a separate legal engagement.

How Are Risk Management Services Different from Legal Advice?

Risk Management Services are Business Advisory services aimed at the quality of your commercial decisions. Legal advice (Contract Reviews, contract drafting, advice on directors’ duties) comes from Rachelle under a separate legal engagement with its own scope and deliverables, so you always know which type of advice you are receiving and why.

Can You Help Reduce the Personal Exposure Carried by Owners and Directors?

Owner and Director Risk reviews look at your governance structures, delegations of authority, reporting, succession, business continuity and major contractual commitments to find where you may be personally exposed. Recommendations focus on strengthening the oversight around executive decisions. Advice on directors’ duties or other legal obligations comes under a separate legal engagement.

Does Shannon Drew Work on Risk Management Engagements?

Rachelle Hare leads every Risk Management engagement. Shannon Drew (Management Accountant, Fractional CFO and Business Adviser) supports the financial risk and operational risk parts of the work, including cash flow and working capital reviews, margin analysis, and reviewing whether your systems and reporting can support the amount of work you now deliver.

Can You Help Implement Your Recommendations?

Implementation support forms part of most engagements, because advice only creates value once the business runs differently. Depending on the agreed scope, Rachelle helps you fix your reporting, tighten your commercial processes and put better governance in place without disrupting delivery. Where implementation needs legal work, she does it under a separate legal engagement.

How Much Do Risk Management Services Cost?

Every engagement is scoped to your business and the decision you are facing, with a fixed fee agreed in writing before work starts. After an initial conversation, Rachelle will recommend a Risk Audit and Mitigation Plan or a Targeted Risk Engagement and give you a fixed-price proposal. Call Rachelle on (07) 3063 3373 or request a fixed-price quote by email.

Make Better Decisions Before Risk Becomes an Expensive Problem

Whether you are weighing up a major contract, pricing a big tender, taking on a business loan or preparing the business for its next stage, the decision you make now will affect your margin, cash flow and business value for years. Rachelle Hare will help you understand the risks that matter, what they could cost you and whether they are worth taking, before you commit the business.

Call Rachelle on (07) 3063 3373