Michael

Michael had been running his community support business for nine years. thirty-one people across support coordination, early intervention, and community access programs. Michael was well-regarded in the sector and known personally by the key planners and coordinators who referred participants to his business. every significant referral relationship ran through Michael personally.

the referral dependency had a specific risk Michael understood but hadn't acted on. if a planner moved organisations, which happened regularly in the sector, the referral relationship moved with them unless Michael had transferred it to the business before the planner left. he had lost two significant referral sources in the prior eighteen months for exactly this reason. each time it had felt like bad luck. it was structural.

the referral base grew by twenty-eight percent in twelve months. driven by coordinators developing relationships with referral sources Michael had never had the time to reach. when two referring planners changed organisations in the following year, the referral relationships stayed with the business because they were owned by the coordinators, not by Michael personally. Michael spent the recovered time on a tender for a new service stream. the tender was successful. the new stream launched in month fourteen.

the referral dependency wasn't just a risk to revenue. it was a ceiling on growth. the coordinators could not grow relationships they had never been introduced to. once they were given the authority and the structure, the business grew beyond what Michael could have developed alone.