Financial shocks happen. Equipment fails at the worst moment. Market conditions shift overnight. We built this program because Australian businesses kept telling us the same thing—they knew budget planning was important, but couldn't figure out where unexpected costs would actually come from.
14 weeks
Structured learning pathway
6-8 hours
Weekly commitment
Practical
Real-world scenarios
You're not going to memorize formulas or sit through theory lectures. Our autumn 2025 program starts with an actual business crisis from last year—a small manufacturing company in Western Sydney that faced three simultaneous financial hits.
We walk through their responses, their mistakes, and what they'd change. Then you apply those lessons to your own business context. By week four, most participants have already spotted vulnerabilities in their current budgets they hadn't noticed before.
The structure is collaborative, not competitive. Your cohort becomes a testing ground for contingency strategies. Someone always brings up a scenario you hadn't thought about, and that's exactly the point.
Three distinct phases that build on each other, starting September 2025
You'll map your business operations and find the weak spots. Not generic risks—the specific things that could break your budget. We use frameworks developed from actual business failures, not textbook examples.
This is where you build alternative pathways. If supplier costs jump 30%, what happens? If a key client doesn't pay for three months? You'll create actionable responses, not just contingency reserves.
The final phase involves stress-testing your plans with your cohort. They'll poke holes. You'll refine. Then you leave with something you can actually use, not a document that sits in a drawer.
Retail operations manager, Brisbane
Started the program thinking he had decent financial cushions. Week two exposed how his inventory financing was actually a house of cards. One supplier delay would've cascaded into payment issues across three months of operations.
"I restructured our supplier agreements based on scenarios we worked through. When our main distributor had logistics issues in January, we had alternative arrangements ready. Would've been a disaster otherwise."
Small business owner, Melbourne
Ran a design consultancy that looked financially stable on paper. The program revealed her client concentration risk—losing her two biggest clients would make the business unviable in under six weeks.
"The 'what if' exercises felt tedious at first, but they forced me to diversify my client base before it became an emergency. Now I sleep better knowing I'm not dependent on two contracts."
Financial controller, Adelaide
Joined with years of corporate finance experience but struggled to apply it to the mid-sized manufacturing company she'd joined. The program helped translate big-company practices into practical approaches for a 40-person operation.
"We implemented a rolling 90-day contingency review based on the framework from week eight. Caught a cashflow issue three months before it would've forced us to delay payroll. That alone justified the program."
We're capping enrollment at 24 participants to maintain the collaborative environment. Applications open in June, and we'll run a short diagnostic session to make sure the program matches where your business actually is.
Applications: June 15 - July 31, 2025
Diagnostic sessions: August 2025
Program start: September 8, 2025
Duration: 14 weeks (concludes early December 2025)