Bryce Stickland
Founder/Principal, Rx Property Australia, Sydney
Bachelor of Business in Sales and Management
He loves the fact that he’s a connector, says Bryce Stickland who now runs Rx Property Australia, a boutique healthcare-focused real estate agency in Sydney.
“Our mission is to address vacancies in healthcare and social infrastructure assets, and to introduce the right services to improve patient and patron outcomes for the greater good. The company specialises in lease transactions, sales advisory and business brokerage, and we're essentially playing Cupid between property owners that don't understand healthcare, and healthcare practitioners, healthcare businesses and social infrastructure users.
“I get to be surrounded by some extremely smart people in my work. One day I might talk to a neurosurgeon, the next day to a CEO of a healthcare business and then to a real estate investment trust development manager. The conversations we have are about how to position a healthcare development in a way that exercises the continuum of care and gets things really flying forward.”
Bryce says he has always wanted a new and interesting career pathway that hadn't necessarily been done before, and his career path has led him through various industries, including medical devices, before he found his niche in healthcare real estate and launched Rx Property Australia in 2022.
“When I was working in medical devices, I realised that property was at the core of everything I did, so I got my license as a real estate agent during COVID, with the intention of going into business brokerage. I think there will be a structural shift in the healthcare real estate market, and with the partnerships I’m building I’m looking forward to disrupting it.”
A solid foundation
Bryce says studying business has given him a strong foundation for the career he has today, and he still refers to some of the business principles he discovered at university in his daily work.
"The negotiation course I took as part of my AUT degree is something I still refer to almost every day. It taught me about BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and ZOPA (Zone of Possible Agreement); concepts that are crucial when I'm trying to find common ground between clients on different sides of a property transaction. The marketing basics I learned, including SWOT analysis or Porter's five forces, have also been useful, but most importantly my time at university taught me how to learn.”
He also values the practical experiences gained during his studies.
“I still remember the entrepreneurial project where we wrote a business case and a business plan, looked at all the marketing aspects for the project and mobilised a salesforce, which included me standing out in the pouring rain trying to sell Maggi two-minute noodles. That micro-example taught me how tough it is to make a business break, even with free, donated stock.
“We also had some experienced people like the founder of Huffer come in and talk to us, reminding us not to grow a business too fast because then the service or stock demands may outstrip the cashflow you're actually bringing in. That has been burned into my memory, and I loved hearing real-life experiences like this.”
Advice for other students
Bryce, who graduated from AUT in 2009 and moved to Australia in 2014, has some great advice for other students who are only at the start of their own university experience.
“The first thing I’d say is to go and find yourself a network of mentors. Find the most successful and inspiring people you can, and ask them for a coffee and see where it takes you. If you can get context for your degree outside of the classroom environment, you're going to learn better, and everything will make more sense.”
His other piece of advice is not to underestimate the importance of the legal and compliance aspects of business.
“As we get into a more and more regulated environment, I think it's really important to build those business foundations in a legal context. It’s something I underestimated while I was at university and this is only going to become more important.”
