Brickworks Case Study: Property Business Consultancy
What happens when a small, values-led property business brings in experienced commercial support? For Brickworks, the result has been clearer objectives, stronger operational structure and a trusted adviser helping the owners navigate the challenges of running and growing their business.
Running an independent property business can be incredibly rewarding. It can also be a lonely place to make decisions.
When you're a business owner, there isn't always another experienced person in the room to challenge your thinking, offer perspective or help you work through a difficult situation.
And as a business grows, the informal systems and processes that once worked perfectly can start to need greater structure.
Since February 2026, 2point0 Group Co-Founder Paul Broomham has been working alongside the owners and team at Brickworks, providing ongoing business consultancy, strategic support and practical guidance.
The relationship demonstrates how having an experienced external adviser involved in the business can make a meaningful difference.
The challenge: Bringing structure to a business with strong values
Brickworks had a clear identity, a strong brand and an established set of values.
What the business wanted to improve was its operational structure, systems and organisation.
Like many smaller businesses, its owners were balancing strategic thinking with the practical demands of running the company.
They wanted greater clarity about what the business should be working towards, how progress should be measured and how the wider team could be organised around those objectives.
But importantly, they didn't want to achieve this through an aggressive, corporate approach that was at odds with their culture.
They wanted structure that worked for their business.
A consultancy relationship built around the owners and their team
Rather than approaching the project as a short-term review, Paul established an ongoing working relationship with Brickworks.
Each month, he spends a full day in the office, working directly with both owners and members of the team.
Alongside this, he has two hours of dedicated Teams meetings with the owners every month.
This combination of on-site involvement and regular leadership conversations allows Paul to understand the business from different perspectives.
The office days provide an opportunity to work alongside the people responsible for delivering the business's objectives, while the dedicated owner sessions create space to focus on strategic questions and leadership challenges.
Beyond these scheduled sessions, Brickworks particularly values having Paul's experience available as a sounding board when decisions need to be made.
As the business explained:
"For us the troubleshooting element with a really small team has been valuable."
This is an important distinction.
Paul's role isn't simply to arrive, offer recommendations and disappear until the next review.
It's to build enough understanding of the business to provide informed, practical support as challenges arise.
Getting clear on what targets actually mean
One of the most significant areas of the partnership has been helping Brickworks develop a more meaningful understanding of its business targets.
Targets are often treated as numbers that need to be achieved.
But without a clear understanding of what sits behind those numbers, it can be difficult to connect them to everyday decisions, team responsibilities and operational priorities.
Paul has worked with Brickworks to help establish that connection.
The focus has been on understanding what the business needs to achieve and how its people, systems and organisation can support those objectives.
Rather than introducing an aggressive performance culture, the approach has been designed around the business's existing values.
In Brickworks' own words:
"Having an understanding of what targets really are in a more meaningful way and structuring the company around these, not aggressively but in a Way that fits for our culture - has been extremely in illuminating but it also has meant that we have in most part hit them."
The feedback connects greater clarity and organisational structure with business performance.
Combining commercial discipline with a strong company culture
There's often an assumption that introducing more structure into a small business means making it more corporate.
More targets. More processes. More reporting. More pressure.
But that doesn't have to be the case.
For Brickworks, one of the most valuable parts of Paul's involvement has been helping the business bring together its strong brand identity and values with better operational systems and communication.
Rather than allowing one to undermine the other, the two have begun working more effectively together.
Brickworks described the experience as combining its culture with operational discipline in a way that reinforces its collective identity and is more financially rewarding.
It's a useful reminder that business performance and company culture don't need to compete.
When the right structures are in place, they can reinforce one another.
The value of an experienced external perspective
Perhaps the most revealing part of Brickworks' feedback wasn't about systems or targets at all.
It was about having someone experienced to turn to.
The business described Paul as:
"somebody on call who is experienced calm and super knowledgeable about the industry just being there as a backbone when we need to make difficult decisions or in fact any decision at all."
For a small leadership team, that can be particularly valuable.
Business owners often carry the weight of decisions themselves. Some are strategic. Some are operational. Others involve people, performance or uncertainty about the best way forward.
Having an experienced adviser who understands the business, knows the property industry and can offer an independent perspective creates space for better conversations and more considered decisions.
It's a different kind of consultancy relationship.
One built around trust, continuity and involvement rather than simply producing a report.
What has changed for Brickworks?
The feedback from Brickworks highlights three important outcomes.
Greater clarity around business targets. The owners have developed a clearer understanding of what their objectives mean and how the business should be organised around them.
Targets largely achieved. Brickworks reports that it has met its targets for the most part following the introduction of a more structured approach.
A stronger relationship between culture and commercial performance. The business describes improvements in how its values, systems and communication work together, with a financially rewarding outcome.
And perhaps just as importantly, Brickworks has gained something that can be difficult to quantify: access to a calm, experienced adviser who understands the business and can help its owners make difficult decisions.
What does effective business consultancy really look like?
At 2point0 Group, we believe effective consultancy has to go beyond recommending what a business should do.
It means understanding the people, the operation, the challenges and the ambitions.
It means helping business owners create structures that work for their organisation, rather than imposing processes that look good on paper but don't fit the reality of the business.
And it means remaining involved long enough for that support to become useful in everyday working life.
Our work with Brickworks is a great example of this approach.
A structured monthly commitment. Direct involvement with owners and employees. Commercial thinking. Practical guidance. And an ongoing relationship built on trust.
Could an experienced external adviser help your business?
Not every property business needs another full-time senior hire.
Sometimes what makes the biggest difference is having the right experience, perspective and commercial support available when you need it.
Whether you're looking to improve operational performance, develop your leadership approach, bring structure to a growing business or simply have someone experienced to challenge your thinking, we'd welcome a conversation.
Speak to Paul Broomham about business consultancy at 2point0 Group.
