Blog>Trade>Growing your trade business>How to grow a bricklaying business
Last updated: 2 January 2025
How to grow a bricklaying business
Are you ready to take your bricklaying business to the next level? Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together our top tips and advice on how to grow a bricklaying business to help you achieve success.
After making a choice and starting a bricklaying business, it’s time to build your empire and grow your operations. And we’re here to help…
In this guide, we look at the key steps to take and some practical ideas for growing a successful bricklaying business in the UK.
How do you want to grow your bricklaying business?
The first step in growing your bricklaying business is understanding exactly what ‘growth’ looks like for you and your business.
Yes, you probably want more bricklaying leads. But it helps to go into more detail about how you’ll get them and what type of work you want.
And the best way to get there is to make a growth plan, which should ideally cover the following points:
How you're planning to scale up
How quickly you're planning to grow
A list of any new services or locations you want to cover
Any challenges you foresee and how you plan to overcome them
What marketing activities you're planning to carry out
How you plan to finance your growth
The key to growing any business is to grow at a sustainable rate.
That way you can win more bricklaying work and continue to provide a high-quality service – and maintain a strong business reputation.
Need help with a plan to grow your bricklaying business? Check out our business development strategy guide below:
How to create a business development strategy - Free template included
What is a business development strategy? The business development process helps to identify, nurture, and acquire new customers and business opportunities to help grow your organisation and ensure its profitability. This may seem quite broad, but this is where your business development strategy
Ideas for finding more bricklaying work
There are plenty of ways you can grow your bricklaying business. However, what works for one business might not work for another.
The key is to try different marketing and business development approaches to see what works. Then do more of that.
To help you get there, here are some creative ways to grow your bricklaying business…
Dedicate time to digital marketing
We live in a heavily digital world and your bricklaying business needs to make the most of that.
According to recent statistics, up to 95%* of people research a business online before buying a product or using a service.
Therefore, having a strong digital presence is important for your business and its growth.
With that in mind, here are some digital marketing ideas to grow a bricklaying business:
Build a high-quality, user-friendly business website
Boost your SEO performance to find a wider audience
Create and carefully curate social media profiles for your business
Encourage online customer reviews (on your website and independent review sites)
Invest in a membership for an online directory – like Checkatrade!
Want more ideas for reaching more customers for your bricklaying services? Sign up for our free digital marketing guide below:
Don’t forget traditional marketing methods
As well as investing in your digital marketing, print marketing methods can be a great way to reach potential customers as a trade business in the UK.
You might want to try some of these popular printed marketing activities:
Mailing brochures and leaflets
Creating signs and branding for your vans and workwear
Sponsoring local events or sports teams with your company name
Adverts in local magazines and newspapers
Exhibiting at trade shows or local events
Using billboards or smaller temporary signage
But remember that many customers will start by looking online so combine print marketing with thorough digital marketing.
How to get more bricklaying job leads
Keep your business busy with more bricklaying job leads If you've just become a bricklayer. Or you're already working as part of a construction team. It's no surprise that you'll want your business to be found by more people, and as a result, get more work. To avoid nasty surprises in your diary
Build a strong professional network
Joining forces with local tradespeople, suppliers, and other professionals can be a great way to win more work:
Collaborate with complementary tradespeople, such as plumbers, electricians, roofers, and landscapers to offer bundled services
Encourage cross-referrals to refer clients to each other for jobs
Partner with estate agents so they think of you for any brick repair work needed before they list properties (or after they sell them)
By working together, you can generate new bricklaying leads and create a network of reliable tradespeople to work with.
Our members get more for their money
Save on business essentials and insurance with Checkatrade
Offer specialist bricklaying services
By catering to more niche bricklaying jobs, you can increase your chance of getting leads and being booked for specialist work. For example:
Outdoor kitchens and feature walls
Fireplace and chimney restorations
Historic, heritage or conservation brickwork
Eco-friendly bricklaying
Chances are there will be fewer bricklayers offering specialist services in your area. So, you’ll have less competition for booking the jobs.
Grow your bricklaying business with Checkatrade
Find more work in your local area as a member
Engage with local Facebook groups and forums
Local communities are often very engaged on social media platforms like Facebook. That makes them a great place to find bricklaying work:
Promote your services in local community groups in your area
Engage with homeowners seeking professional bricklaying advice to build relationships with potential customers
Offer discounts for members of these groups to receive a discount on certain services (especially if they’re local)
Many homeowners will be actively looking for tradespeople on local Facebook groups, making them a great place to find bricklaying leads.
Marketing your small business on social media
Marketing, particularly social media marketing, can often be overlooked by small businesses as they assume it’s too much effort. Whilst it might require some time and energy, the business benefits of social media definitely make it a worthwhile job. To make sure you can find the best way to use
Reach out to housing developers
One of the best ways to get regular bricklaying work is to team up with local housing developers on new housing developments.
Keep an eye out for local planning permission requests for new housing developments
Visit new housing development sites in your area and speak to their project managers
Proactively contact local developers to pitch your services for upcoming projects
If you can get in with local developers, you’ll potentially tap into a huge supply of bricklaying work for the future.
Key steps for growing a bricklaying business
To help you get started, we've put together a summary of the steps for how to grow a bricklaying business in the UK:
Make a plan – Write down your ideas, what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there
Sort your finances – Growing a business often means spending more, so plan how much you'll need and how you'll cover those costs
Carry out marketing – Budget accordingly and start marketing and advertising in different ways
Target new areas or services – Expanding your business area or the types of services you offer can help you reach new customers
Assess your progress – Regularly check how your business growth is going and always ask customers for feedback to ensure you're providing an excellent service
Hire a bricklaying team – If you've grown your business so much that you can't handle all the work alone, it's time to hire people for your team or bring on an apprentice
If you follow these steps, your bricklaying business should start to see exciting signs of growth.
But, how else can you keep up the momentum? If you're not already a Checkatrade member, you might want to be…
Grow your bricklaying business with Checkatrade
Find more work in your local area as a member
Boost your business with Checkatrade
Marketing a business costs time and money, so it’s important to focus on activity that’s going to help you build your business.
With our digital marketing strategy and strong online presence, becoming a Checkatrade member makes it easier for customers to find you.
Be seen by customers with a business profile on the UK’s leading trade directory
Get an online listing on Google
Access more leads – there were over 224,000 searches for bricklaying work on the Checkatrade website in 2024 alone**
The Checkatrade tick that homeowners trust can help you secure more work
Save money with exclusive access to offers and discounts from our partners
Already a member? Log in to our members' app now to see what offers are currently available!
Is a Checkatrade membership worth it?
One way to figure out whether the cost of something is worth it is to look at ROI (Return on Investment). In its most basic sense, this is how much something costs compared with the income it generates. Working out the ROI of a Checkatrade membership is definitely a must-do for any trade business
Getting to grips with a Checkatrade membership
As a Checkatrade member, you and your business can benefit from features such as:
Display customer reviews, testimonials, and examples of your work on your profile page
Control your flow of leads by marking your availability in the Checkatrade app
Manage customer enquiries on-the-go, directly from the app – keeping everything in one handy place
With the Checkatrade tick by your name, it makes your marketing just that little bit easier.
We’ll also help you with free marketing materials and exclusive discounts on business essentials.
Our members get more for their money
Save on business essentials and insurance with Checkatrade
* Data quoted January 2022 by Brand Rated on GlobalNewsWire (see here)
** Internal search data from users of the Checkatrade.com website in 2024
