Advisory
Advisory
Straight, practical advice for two kinds of client: overseas companies working out how to enter Australia, and owner-led businesses that want their operations to run to a standard.
- Australian market entry: entity structure, RCM product compliance, hiring and grants, for US and other overseas companies.
- Operating performance: standards, accountability and scorecards for owner-led businesses and real estate agencies.
- Options papers: when a board needs a decision, not a reading list. Cost-benefit on a page, with the assumptions shown.
Case study
From five agents to a listed national brand
The Agency, Perth, pre-IPO, five-agent team. Today The Agency Group Australia is ASX-listed (ASX: AU1) and national. At the start, the founders had the model and the ambition. What they needed was the structure underneath it.
- Strategic HR, built and implemented: roles, standards and accountability designed for the business they were becoming, not the one they were.
- Recruitment in the right order: innovators only, until there was enough social proof to bring in early adopters. Growth that compounds instead of growth that dilutes.
- Interim management: stepped in during a leadership transition to keep the team steady and the plan moving.
The business hit its KPIs, secured investment and listed. It is now a national company. Their people did the selling; Mark built the structure it ran on.
For overseas companies
Australian Market Entry
Most companies arrive with the same six questions. Most of them get answered in the wrong order. The structure decision drives everything else, so that is where we start.
Entity & structure
Sell through an Australian distributor, register the parent as a foreign company, or stand up a local subsidiary. What each costs to run, what it exposes the parent to, and when to step up from one to the next.
Product compliance (RCM)
Which scheme actually applies to your product (EESS electrical safety, ACMA EMC, radio and telecoms), who must be the registered Responsible Supplier, what the Authorised Officer signs, and where the liability lands. It is not always where people assume.
People
Employer of record, direct local hire or contractor. Superannuation, leave, Fair Work basics, and the things a US-style contract misses when the person lives here.
Grants & incentives
The R&D Tax Incentive and sector grants, and the entity and ABN preconditions that gate them. Australia funds the right sectors well; you need the right vehicle to receive it.
Cost-benefit on a page
A one-page options paper with assumed projections, reporting burden and tax exposure side by side, so the board can make the call in one meeting.
Local coordination
Accountant, lawyer, certifier, test lab, bank, registered office. Mark lines them up and keeps them moving; they sign what needs signing.
For owner-led businesses
Operating Performance
An honest, evidence-based read on how a business is actually operating, across leadership, team, standards and accountability, and a concrete first move on each gap.
Built for principals who sense something is off but cannot quite name it, and for leaders setting direction who want a baseline first. Fixed scope, fixed price, about two weeks from kick-off to debrief.
Real estate agency leaders: see Agency Performance Review.
How it works
Three steps, no surprises
1. Scoping call
Thirty minutes, no charge. You describe the problem, Mark tells you whether it is worth paying him to solve and what it would cost.
2. Fixed-scope work
An options paper or diagnostic with a fixed price quoted up front. You know what you are getting before you start.
3. Implementation support
By the hour or by stage, as much or as little as you need, with licensed professionals brought in for anything that requires sign-off.
General business advice only. Nothing on this page is legal, tax or accounting advice. Licensed professionals are engaged for matters that require it.
Talk to Mark
Tell us what you're trying to decide. You'll get a straight answer.