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Business coach for bricklayers in Australia
Short answer: A business coach for bricklayers helps $1M+ owners stop leaking margin in the rate, the gang and the claims. The Tradie Owner does exactly that, run by someone who's built and scaled a construction business, not a career coach reading a script.
You can lay brick faster than anyone in your area and still make no money. Bricklaying is a volume game on thin margins, and the gap between a good year and a flat one usually isn't the work. It's the numbers behind the work.
A business coach for bricklayers helps you find that gap and close it. Not with theory. With your quotes, your gang rates, your progress claims and your builder relationships put on the table and worked through by someone who has run a construction business at scale.
Who this is for
This is for bricklaying owners turning over $1M or more a year. You're past the one-gang stage. You've got blokes on the wall, labourers loading them, scaffold to manage and builders expecting you to hit a program. You're flat out, and most of the business still runs through you.
At that size the problem is rarely getting work. It's margin, cash flow and control. You're winning jobs but you can't say which ones actually made money. You're paying wages every week and waiting on a claim to land. That's the stage where a coach earns their keep.
Where the money leaks in a bricklaying business
Every trade leaks money in its own way. Here's where it goes in bricklaying.
- Quoting off the market, not your cost. Rating per 1,000 bricks or per square metre off what the next brickie charges is a fast way to lay at a loss. Your true cost per 1,000 includes wages and super, the labourer, scaffold, sand and cement, cartage, insurances, workers comp, wastage on cut bricks and your overhead. If you haven't re-costed the rate this year, it's wrong.
- Gang productivity you can't see. Bricks laid per bricklayer per day is your engine. A gang averaging 500 a day versus 600 is a margin swing worth tens of thousands across a year. Wrong labourer ratio, scaffold not up in time, mud and bricks landed in the wrong spot and blokes standing around all eat it.
- Weather with no float. Rain, frost and wind on scaffold stop the wall but not the wages. No wet-weather allowance in the price and no float in the program means every bad week comes straight off your margin.
- Materials and waste. Brick and cement prices move between quote and build. You pay for whole bricks and bin the offcuts. Short or damaged deliveries slow the gang. None of it is captured unless you price it in.
- Too much weight on one builder. When one or two builders are most of your work, they set the rate and they set the risk. A slowdown in new-build starts, a builder stretching their pipeline or one going under can take your year with it.
- Cash tied up between claims. You pay the gang weekly and claim monthly. Claims get certified late or cut back, retention is held to practical completion and back-charges appear. Grow fast while under-capitalised and cash flow, not profit, is what stops you.
What to look for in a bricklaying business coach
Plenty of business coaches have never carried a wage bill or chased a certifier. For a trade this specific, that matters. Look for:
- Someone who has actually run a construction or trade business at real scale, not just studied one.
- Someone who understands progress claims, retentions, variations and subbie relationships without you having to explain them.
- Someone who works off your numbers, gross margin per job, labour recovery and overhead, not generic goal-setting.
- Someone who gives you a written plan you can act on, and stays with you while you do it.
- Someone willing to put skin in the game on the result.
For the full rundown on what good trade coaching looks like, read our guide to choosing a [trade business coach](/trade-business-coach).
How it works
Simple and low-risk on purpose.
- Your first session, guaranteed to find at least $100,000, or you don't pay. We go through your quoting, your gang rates, your claims and your builder mix and find at least $100,000 of opportunity in your business. If we don't, you don't pay for the session.
- A written 60-day plan. You leave with a specific plan, not notes. What to re-price, where to lift productivity, how to tighten your claims and cash flow, and the order to do it in.
- Ongoing coaching. We stay in your corner while you put it in place, adjust as jobs and the market move, and keep the momentum going.
Why an operator beats a career coach
Luke Tadich runs The Tradie Owner. He's an ex-paramedic who went on to build and scale Australia's leading sports-court construction company, and he was named 2023 Melbourne and Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
That means construction, not a textbook. Builders, subbies, progress claims, retentions, weather, gangs and moving material prices. He's quoted work he shouldn't have, carried a wage bill through a slow month and learned where the money really hides. When you talk margin per 1,000 or a claim that got cut back, you won't have to explain it. That's the difference between advice and a plan that actually fits a bricklaying business.
Common questions
Do I need to be a certain size for this to work?
It's built for bricklaying owners turning over $1M or more. At that point you've got gangs, scaffold, multiple builders and enough volume that a small lift in your rate or productivity is real money. Under that size the fundamentals still apply, but the leverage is smaller.
How can you promise to find $100,000 in my business?
Because in a bricklaying business over $1M there's almost always that much sitting across the rate, gang productivity, wastage, your claims and your cash flow combined. We look at all of it in the first session. If we can't find at least $100,000 of opportunity, you don't pay for that session.
What does the coaching cost?
The exact fee is worked out on your first call. It's a fraction of the $100,000 we guarantee to find, and if we don't find it, you don't pay for the session. It's built to pay for itself many times over, which is why we frame it on return, not on a sticker price.
I'm flat out on the tools and running the business. Where's the time?
That's usually a symptom of the problem, not a reason to skip it. The first session and the 60-day plan are built to take work off you, not add to it. Most of what we find frees up your time and your cash so the business leans on you less.
My work comes through one or two builders. Can coaching change that?
Yes, and it's one of the first things we look at. Relying on one or two builders sets your rate and your risk. We work on lifting your margin on the work you have now and building a broader, more reliable pipeline so one builder slowing down doesn't take your year with it.
How is this different from a general business coach?
A general coach gives you goals and mindset. Luke has actually run a construction business at scale, so the plan is built around how bricklaying really makes money: quoting off true cost, gang productivity, weather, claims and cash flow. You get a specific written plan, not a pep talk.
Want someone to find the money for you?
In our first session I'll go through your numbers and find at least $100,000 of opportunity in your business, guaranteed, or you don't pay.
Book a free 30-minute call