Most consulting starts with interviews and a slide deck. Ours starts on your floor - watching how jobs, information, and money actually move through your business. Then we build what the findings call for, at prices published before you ever pick up the phone.
The job is to find where your operation loses time and money, then fix it - in the systems, not in a strategy document
Queensland runs on small operators - 510,444 businesses, 97.1% of them with fewer than 20 staff, according to the Queensland Government Statistician's Office (June 2024). In a business that size there is no operations manager. The owner is the operations department, usually on top of being the salesperson, the estimator, and the after-hours complaints line.
An operations consultant takes that load apart. We map how work really flows - enquiry to quote, quote to job, job to invoice, invoice to money in the bank - and find where it leaks: the double entry, the "ask the boss" bottlenecks, the handoffs that rely on somebody remembering.
The difference between consultants is what happens next. Ours is a build practice as much as an advisory one - the same people who found the problems design and implement the fixes: documented processes, connected systems, automation where it pays for itself.
The full breakdown of the role - and how it differs from a business systems or process improvement consultant - is in our guide, What is an operations consultant?
The operational problems repeat across industries - the fix has to fit yours
Quoting from the ute at 8pm, job details living in text messages, invoices going out weeks after the work. We put quoting, scheduling, and invoicing on rails so the paperwork stops following you home.
Front desk juggling bookings, reminders, and patient records across systems that don't talk. We cut the retyping and the no-shows without touching your clinical software.
Seasonal peaks, casual rosters, and owners covering every gap in the roster themselves. We build the systems that let a manager run the busy Saturday without you in the building.
The processes that worked at four staff are creaking at ten. We document how the work should run, wire the tools together, and clear the owner out of the approval path.
Observation first, then a report you own, then - if you want it - the build
Where the business is, where it's going, and where it's getting stuck. Free, under an hour of your time, and enough for both of us to know whether an assessment is worth it.
We come to your premises and watch the operation run - workflows, handoffs, systems, the workarounds your team has stopped noticing. Non-disruptive; everyone keeps working as normal.
Every finding documented with its cost, its cause, and the steps to fix it - ranked by return on effort. Written so you can implement it without us. The complete example report is published here - every page of it.
Implement independently, bring your own contractors, or have us build the technical pieces and stay on for month-to-month support. Each phase is priced to pay for itself before you take on the next.
Ours costs this. Fixed, published, and the same number you'll see on the agreement.
One week end to end. Pre-visit consultation, up to half a day on site, written report in 3-5 business days, and a clarity call to plan your first moves. Full detail here.
Two weeks, up to a full day on site, implementation-ready guides and training materials for your team, plus coaching follow-up for the rollout.
Month to month, no minimum term. Dedicated hours with someone who has seen your operation first-hand - guidance, troubleshooting, and steady improvement.
If your assessment doesn't identify annualised savings opportunities worth at least your assessment fee, we extend the engagement at no charge until it does. Identified savings are documented in your report with implementation steps; realising them depends on putting the recommendations in place - yourself, with your own contractors, or with our help.
Fees are GST-free - we're not currently registered for GST. The agreement you'd sign and the scope document we work from are published too.
Straight answers about how this works
Yes.
Yes. The assessment happens at your premises - Caloundra to Noosa, out to the hinterland, plus Brisbane. Observation only works where the work happens, so on-site is the default, not the exception.
A coach works on you - your goals, habits, and decisions - and meets you in sessions.
A coach works on you - your goals, habits, and decisions - and meets you in sessions. An operations consultant works on the business itself: how jobs, information, and money move through it. We watch your operation run, document where it leaks time, and then build the fixes. You get working systems, not homework.
The Undertow Assessment runs one week end to end: a pre-visit conversation, up to half a day on site, and your written report within 3-5 business days.
The Undertow Assessment runs one week end to end: a pre-visit conversation, up to half a day on site, and your written report within 3-5 business days. The Complete Analysis runs two weeks with a full day on site. Build work after that is scoped and priced before it starts.
Your call.
Your call. The report is written so you can implement it yourself - every finding comes with steps. Some owners do exactly that. Others have us build the technical pieces, or take month-to-month support at $2,000 a month. There's no lock-in and no obligation to go further.
No.
No. The value of observation is seeing the operation as it actually runs. Tidying up beforehand works against you. We handle the pre-visit conversation in under an hour of your time, and your team keeps working as normal while we're on site.
The free Undertow Check runs a smaller version of the same diagnostic - 18 questions, about 5 minutes, instant report on screen.
The call is free - 15 minutes, no obligation, no sales pitch.
Integrations, workflows, and dashboards - diagnosed on-site first, then built to fit how your business actually works.
See what we automate →Documented processes, clean handoffs, and systems your team actually uses - so the business runs without you.
See how systemisation works →