Brendan & Claire
before
Brendan and Claire had built their psychology and counselling practice together over nine years. four locations across metropolitan victoria. twenty-two people. both were still seeing clients four days per week while managing the business around it. the arrangement had worked when the practice was small. at four locations and twenty-two people, it was breaking.
the partnership had developed an informal division over the years. Brendan handled clinical governance and referral relationships, Claire handled the finances and hiring. neither division had ever been formalised. both overlapped in ways that created conflict rather than coverage. decisions about hiring stalled because both needed to agree. decisions about referral strategy stalled because the financial picture and the clinical picture were never in the same room at the same time. the team felt the tension. two senior practitioners had left in the prior year citing lack of direction. both had been telling the truth.
the practice had a margin problem underneath the structural one. medicare-funded sessions were priced at the rebate rate. private sessions had not been repriced in four years. the gap between what the practice charged and what comparable practices in the same market charged was material. neither Brendan nor Claire had actioned the repricing because they were worried about client attrition. the worry was understandable. it was also costing them approximately $180,000 per year in unrealised revenue.
the shift
the partnership was restructured with defined lanes for the first time. Brendan as clinical director with full authority over clinical governance and referral strategy, Claire as managing director with full authority over operations, finance, and hiring. weekly leadership meeting installed with a defined agenda so both lanes reported to a shared picture. individual locations given clinical leads with real authority. Brendan and Claire both reduced client-facing time to two days per week within the first cycle.
private session pricing was reviewed and updated across all locations. the repricing was introduced to existing clients as a standard annual review. attrition was less than 3%. the revenue impact was immediate.
after
the two senior practitioners who had left in the prior year were replaced within three months. the hiring process ran without either Brendan or Claire managing every stage. the practice grew from $3.2m to $4.4m in fourteen months. Brendan and Claire both described the partnership as functional in a way it hadn't been in years. the lanes existed. the decisions moved. the team had direction.
the lesson
the practice didn't have a growth problem. it had a partnership structure problem and a pricing problem, and both were solvable. the structural work didn't fix the relationship, it gave the relationship a format that let both people operate without being in each other's way.
Transformation metrics
55–60
Under 20
0 in 3 years
42 across 9 weeks
$1.5m
$8m in 15 months
Regularly accepted
Eliminated
4 days
2 days
2 in prior year
0 post-shift
4 years not revisited
updated, <3% attrition
$3.2m
$4.4m
every decision
Claire's remit only
ready to stop being
the bottleneck?
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