A business rescue practitioner’s (BRP) tasks are complex, vaguely stated and involve a wide range of competencies not accessible to the average business person. Details about what exactly BRPs do during a rescue need to be determined in order to guide licensing and build a qualifications framework for the education of BRPs. Through an adapted ‘interview to the double’ (ITTD) process, information that 47 BRPs gave as instructions to a ‘double’ was elicited. All these instructions were framed as practices and praxis, then categorised into activities associated with the tasks as identified by the practitioners. Fifteen activities were derived from the practices and praxis in support of five tasks, namely: taking control, investigating the affairs, compiling a rescue plan, implementing the plan and complying with the statutory process. Five activities, namely: analyse feasibility, meet with stakeholders, analyse viability, prepare the rescue plan and follow statutory process, contributed 55% of what BRPs do, thus guiding the findings to give structure and direction to establishing what the educational requirements for BRPs should be.Key words: business rescue, practitioner, tasks, activities, practices, praxis, turnaround, qualifi cations