We’re proud to share that our Co-Founder, Anthony Rice, was recently featured in Inc. Magazine, where he shared a deeply personal reflection on losing 70% of a previous company’s revenue and how that crisis forced a complete redesign of how work was structured and teams were built.
In this blog, we unpack the key lessons from that article and how they shaped the foundation of PeoplePartners today.
When you lose 70% of your revenue overnight, things become clear very quickly.
That’s exactly what happened to Anthony Rice, co-founder of PeoplePartners, and a seasoned leader in workforce re-engineering. In a recent Inc. Magazine feature, Anthony shared how this crisis became the catalyst for a complete operational rebuild, one that would ultimately lay the foundations for PeoplePartners as it is today.
Here’s what every scaling business owner can learn from the experience and why workforce misalignment may be the silent growth-killer you haven’t diagnosed yet.
When Growth Hides Inefficiency
Anthony describes the moment it all shifted. His co-founder, Reuben Brennan, called him into the office. He was holding a letter. Government funding, the very backbone of their revenue, had been cut by 70%. Not reduced. Not scaled down over time. Gone. Immediately.
For a company of over 90 employees, multiple floors of office space, and a fleet of vehicles, the implications were huge. But the bigger shock wasn’t the numbers, it was what the numbers revealed.
“This wasn’t a sudden catastrophe. It simply exposed how we’d been operating all along.”
Despite appearances of growth, more hires, more output, more noise, the business wasn’t getting stronger. It was getting heavier.
Many companies experience this without noticing. You grow fast, fill gaps, and build around symptoms rather than structure. Until something breaks. Then you realise: the machine you built wasn’t scalable; it was just busy.
You Can’t Outgrow Misalignment
At the core of their problem? Workforce misalignment.
People were overloaded, under-utilised, or doing work they were never wired for. High-functioning leaders were bogged down by admin. Star performers were stuck in roles that didn’t fit. Hiring more people only added layers, it didn’t solve the design flaw.
“It wasn’t a performance issue. It was a design issue.”
This is a common trap for growth-stage businesses. You keep hiring, hoping things will get better. But unless the actual work is clearly defined and aligned to strengths, misalignment just multiplies.
This moment of reckoning gave Anthony a clarity most leaders only find after years of burnout. You don’t solve inefficiency by scaling. You solve it by designing smarter.
At PeoplePartners, we now call this the “Right People, Right Seats” lens, helping businesses rethink team structures before throwing headcount at the problem.
Rebuilding from the Ground Up
The rebuild was swift. Thirteen weeks. That’s all they had to undo years of operational sprawl and create a new way forward.
What changed?
- • They stopped hiring for job titles and started designing for outcomes.
- • They mapped responsibilities to natural strengths, not just job descriptions.
- • They dismantled full-time roles into task-based allocations that fit real people.
- • They shifted decision-making down to where the work happened.
“We stopped assuming that one person had to carry a full role and instead broke the work into pieces that suited the right minds.”
This is the blueprint we now offer through Workforce Re-Engineering at PeoplePartners. We’ve seen it work across industries, from RTOs and NDIS providers to EOS-run companies and mortgage brokers. Wherever misalignment exists, there’s an opportunity to restructure for clarity, energy, and performance.
And yes, even offshore teams can (and should) be part of that equation as long as they’re built with alignment, not just affordability, in mind.
Profit Follows Clarity
As the dust settled, something remarkable happened:
They found $2.14 million in profit, not by selling more, but by operating better.
That’s the hidden upside of solving inefficiency. It’s not just about avoiding mistakes or trimming fat. It’s about unlocking the full potential of your people.
“People weren’t incapable. They were just drowning in misaligned work.”
Once the right tasks were in the right hands, the business moved faster. Teams were energised. Leaders weren’t buried in chaos. The weight lifted.
This is why we guarantee our clients full transparency in outsourcing from salary breakdowns to replacement cover via our 90-Day Replacement Guarantee. You can’t achieve true clarity if you’re in the dark about who’s doing what or what it costs.
The Real Cost of Misalignment
Most businesses feel misalignment before they can articulate it. It shows up in:
- • Constant backlogs or project delays
- • Repeated mistakes despite skilled people
- • Unclear ownership of tasks
- • Leaders wearing too many hats
- • That feeling of being “busy but not moving”
What’s dangerous is how easy this becomes the norm. Over time, teams accept inefficiency as part of “how we work here.”
But you don’t have to. Redesigning your workforce through structural clarity, offshore support, or both can shift the entire trajectory of your business.
That’s why one of our mantras is Freedom from $6 Tasks. Your best people should be focused on strategy, relationships, and growth, not buried in admin or reactive firefighting.
From Breakdown to Blueprint
For Anthony, the breakdown didn’t end the business. It revealed the cracks. And fixing those cracks became the model for everything PeoplePartners would go on to do.
“The shift became the foundation of everything I’ve built since.”
When you see your team through the lens of alignment, outsourcing stops being a Band-Aid. It becomes a lever for growth, one that puts you back in control.
At PeoplePartners, we partner with companies who are ready to scale smarter. Whether you’re recovering from a revenue dip or simply tired of the same inefficiencies slowing you down, we can help you build a team that fits.
And no, you won’t be locked into long contracts or risky hiring. Our no upfront cost and no lock-in contract model means we earn your trust every month, not with promises, but with performance.
Read the Full Story in Inc. Magazine
This story didn’t just change Anthony, it changed how hundreds of clients now think about work, people, and growth.
