Profits up 2.5x. 15 hours a week found. All from one skill most business owners resist: delegating.
BrewLab is a fantastic brewpub in a semi-industrial suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, overlooking the beautiful Prince of Wales Bay. Brewing in-house, they make wonderful beers which they serve to locals accompanied with tasty food.
The venue has a great buzz and their community-focused marketing shows. You see locals catching up with friends and families, or making new friends. With a cosy wood fire in winters, to sunny afternoons on the deck and in the yard in Spring and Summer, the venue continues to grow.
They host regular fun and interesting events, like:
Live music
Pint & Pottery
Trivia Tuesdays (sold out every week for years!)
Drag Bingo
Comedy nights, and
Many more entertaining events.
What is striking when you visit is how attentive and happy the team are who serve you, something missing from most hospitality venues.
The business has 4 shareholders, with Lesley (General Manager) and Dave (Head Chef) working in the business, while the other two shareholders are passive.
The BrewLab Growth journey.
In April 2022, the team opened the doors to the new, purpose-built brewery and hospitality venue.
Key growth points:
Sales: in FY25 were 12% higher than in FY24, in a challenging cost-of-living crisis
Profits: increased 2.5 times in FY25, and
More marketing time: by early 2025, Lesley unlocked an extra 15 hours a week to invest in marketing, due to effective delegating and empowering the other managers in the business.
When Troy, Founder, Grow A Small Business had a beer with the two passive shareholders in 2019, he said he didn’t think the business would work, as it’s located in a semi-industrial area with a small population nearby, and cut off by a very busy highway.
Troy regularly reminds the shareholders when they meet, how wrong he was about their plans, and he puts the success down to the people - Lesley and Dave, and the team they have built, and the community-focused marketing to make BrewLab a successful destination venue in two challenging industries - craft brewing and hospitality.
#1 Growth Challenge: recruiting, leading and managing people to grow.
In March 2024, almost 18 months after opening, Lesley wanted some help with their strategy and people. The growth challenges they were experiencing as a young business, included:
Lesley and Dave were working too many hours, and not taking enough holidays
Sales were not increasing as much as they would like, and
Some minor issues with the team were frustrating the two co-founders.
After asking a lot of questions, Troy thought both our Strategy and People Programs would help the business grow with ease, IF Lesley and Dave were prepared to put the work in, and lead the changes needed in the business.
Lesley completed the 12 week People Program first, then Dave did the ‘Ultimate Recruitment Toolkit’ and ‘Kick-Ass Manager’ courses included in the People Program. Then, they had the other managers in the business do the ‘Ultimate Recruitment Toolkit’ and ‘Kick-Ass Manager’ courses too.
Here are some of the changes they implemented in their business, thanks to the Grow A Small Business People Program:
Built a stronger professional relationship with their team: through weekly one-on-one’s, feedback, coaching, a monthly team event, a weekly team meeting and sending a quarterly anonymous team survey - then acting on the feedback the team provided them
Clearly communicated what excellence looks like in each role: with the Quarterly One Page Job Descriptions our People Program guides an owner and their managers in creating, each team member knew what they were responsible for, the 1 - 5 key numbers they need to own and achieve and what projects they needed to complete in the quarter, to help the business continue to grow.
The team member knows what they need to do to achieve excellence in their role
Delegated down: as Troy has written about in the Effective Leader and Kick-Ass Manager courses included in the People Program, and during the weekly one-on-one with Lesley over the 12 weeks, Lesley came to understand the power of delegating, on a few fronts:
It has freed up 15 hours a week of her time to focus on more marketing, which has substantially increased sales and profits
Given the managers who report to Lesley, fun and interesting projects and ongoing responsibilities to own - A-Players want to be challenged, and
Reduced the reliance of the business on Lesley. This not only meant her work hours are now ‘normal’ (which is particularly hard to achieve in a hospitality business) and her and Dave take the holidays they deserve and need BUT it also adds to the valuation of the business. The more you can show the business is not reliant on a few key people, the higher the multiple on profits
you get for your business, when you sell it.
From Troy's insights of working with Lesley and the other shareholders, he said:
“One thing that really impressed me about Lesley and Dave’s commitment to making the right changes needed to their business, was their dedication to learning and patience in key changes. One was hiring a second in charge in the kitchen. After Dave did our two week recruitment course, he emailed and said ‘wow, I realise all the mistakes I was making in the past when hiring - not asking the right questions, rushing it as I was so busy, and taking anyone with a pulse, which I pay for 6 months later when I need to move them on’. They decided to
close on Monday’s, their quietest day, until they had the A-Player they wanted to run the kitchen on the days Dave didn’t work. Even though closing Monday’s meant they missed out on profits, Dave now knew the importance of being patient when recruiting, and running a proper process. They put the job
ad up three times, and it took more than seven months before they clearly found their latest A-Player. I was very impressed with their commitment.”
Website: www.brewlab.net.au
Core business: Craft brewery and pub with food
Team: 8 full-time equivalent
Industry: Brewing and hospitality
Location: Hobart, Australia
#1 Growth Pillar Focus: People - delegate to grow
The team are happier and more productive, Lesley and Dave have reduced their hours and increased their holidays, and the business continues to thrive.
How else our Programs helped Lesley and Dave.
While the People Program has helped the business in the short-term, the 4 week Strategy Program Lesley did first is helping with the medium and long-term strategic planning and valuation generation of the business.
With the 10 year financial model that was created during the Strategy Program, the shareholders have now run a few strategy days, to start answering these questions and set the longer term strategic plan:
Should we open a second or even third site?
If we do, does each site have its own small brew kit, or do we keep the one central kit we currently have?
Should we increase our focus on wholesale sales?
Should we move the brewing operations from using a contractor, to in-house, with Dave becoming the head brewer?
What would the business valuation be under all the above scenarios?
The 10 year financial model also shows what funding they will need to raise, when the new plan is locked in. If cash flow will go negative in any financial year, they need to discuss where they will get those funds from - a bank loan, government grants or loans, investors or even a crowdfund.
We have seen many businesses raise funds from all these sources much faster, with less effort and at better valuations (if its for investment) when they have a 10 year financial model to present to funders.
Another big benefit that came from the Strategy Program is the use of a Simple Quarterly Strategic Plan.
It has helped:
Align the team: everyone knows what the focus is for the next 90 days, and can stop working on anything that is not on that plan - so more of the right things get done sooner
Increase delegation: as the team puts this plan together at the end of the quarter, for the next quarter, projects and tasks are added and discussion of who is best to own what. This allows managers to more easily delegate down important work to their direct reports, unlocking more time for the managers to work on higher-value things, and
Get more important work done: as the plan is ‘simple’ and not cluttered with too many things to focus on, or long-winded plans no one will read let alone act on, more of the most important work gets completed or substantially moved forward in the quarter.
There are many other tools and templates that Lesley used from the Strategy Program.
“Doing the Grow A Small Business course with Troy was a real turning point for me and for Brewlab as a whole. It helped me take a step back from the day-to-day and really look at the bigger picture — where the business was, where I wanted it to go, and what kind of leader I wanted to be along the way.
Troy’s practical approach and straight-talking advice gave me the tools (and confidence) to make better decisions, manage the team more effectively, and plan for sustainable growth. Not only did I benefit personally, but the whole team gained a lot from completing some of the shorter courses too — it’s helped lift everyone’s skills and created a stronger, more connected workplace.
Looking back, I can see how much stronger and more resilient both I and the business have become as a result.”
Lesley van Tuil
Co-founder & General Manager, BrewLab
Hear more of Lesley and BrewLabs journey, and how we worked together, in the great podcast our Founder, Troy, did with Lesley, and the Quick Fire Friday episode where Lesley speaks about how destination marketing helped their business.
Do you need help to grow your small business?
Book in a 20 minute Growth Chat with Troy, Founder, Grow A Small Business
He will listen, ask a heap of questions and afterwards, email you a bunch of free resources to help with your #1 growth challenge.
Our Strategy and People Programs are not a fit for everyone, if they are, he can explain how they work.
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