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Business Risk Checklist
 Business Risk Checklist
A practical checklist for commercial subcontractors
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If you’re a commercial subcontractor, risk is part of the job.
- Some risk is obvious.
- Some risk sits quietly in the background until something goes wrong.
- And some risk only shows up when it’s already costing you money.
This free checklist helps you step back and take stock of where your business is exposed right now so you can fix issues on your terms, not a builder’s.
This checklist is a triage tool.Â
It helps you quickly identify:Â
- What’s under controlÂ
- What needs attentionÂ
- What could seriously hurt your business if it goes wrongÂ
You can work through it in bite-size chunks, revisit it as your business grows, and use it to prioritise where to spend your time and money first.Â
Inside you’ll find:
The key risk areas that can quietly expose commercial subcontractors, including:Â
- Contracts – client contracts, purchase orders, employment and subcontractor agreementsÂ
- Insurances – common gaps that only show up when something goes wrongÂ
- Compliance – Security of Payment, licensing, ITPs and record keepingÂ
- Operations – WHS, quality systems, contract admin and debt recovery processesÂ
- People and performance – HR, onboarding, time recording and retentionÂ
- Plant and equipment – PPSR, asset registers and maintenance riskÂ
- Business and personal parachutes – what happens if you can’t keep showing up tomorrowÂ
It also includes simple tools to help you assess which risks matter most, so you know what to tackle first.Â
Put some guard rails around your business and start identifying risk before it turns into a dispute, a cash flow crunch or a sleepless night.Â
Meet Michelle
Michelle Cirson is the Principal Lawyer and founder of Subcontractor Legal and creator of the Subbies' Toolbox.
A construction lawyer, adjudicator, and former builder’s contracts administrator with formal qualifications in both building and law.
Michelle has drafted and managed contracts from every tier on the contract chain - and now she teaches subbies how to manage their builders' contracts, and get paid on time.
If anyone knows how to win the builder game - it’s Michelle.
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What my clients are saying...
"Michelle taught us what to say when the builder would give dodgy excuses for not paying us..."
"We got Michelle involved in 2017 when one builder started showing signs of financial distress. My intuition told me that something was off but I didn’t know what or how to do anything about it.
Michelle taught us what to say when the builder would give excuses for not paying us. With these strategies we were able to bring in most of our payments before the builder went broke and thankfully our trade credit insurance covered the rest.Â
Just knowing what to say and having someone to give us some insight about why our builder was behaving the way it was made a huge difference to our situation – both in business and for us personally throughout the ordeal.Â
We could have been the best subbie in the world and those jobs would still have gone sour because the builder's own problems were bigger than us.
We now recognise that behavior when we see it and we are able to act faster and make better business decisions for working with Michelle."
Phill Davison - Storm Electrical
"Michelle helped me raise our contractual issue properly in a gentleman’s way, without inflaming the problem..."
"We never usually have issues with builders but recently a job looked like it was going to go south due to a discrepancy in the head contract.
I wasn’t keen on conflict but I knew we couldn’t let it get out of hand.
Michelle helped me raise the issue properly under the contract in a gentleman’s way and when the time came she helped me get my spiel in order for a meeting with the builder.
It was great having help from someone who understands technical aspects of plans and construction and can talk the lingo with builders but also keeps you on track with the contract too.
It’s not something I would have done on my own but it was highly effective.”
Simon Parker – Parker Carpentry
FREE BUSINESS RISK CHECKLIST
INSTANT DOWNLOAD
A practical checklist for commercial subcontractors
This checklist is a triage tool to help you pinpoint the risk variables in business that apply to your business right now.