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Two former Refund Home Loans brokers have outsourced their way to success after the collapse forced them to strike out on their own.
Rise High Financial Services was named Best New Office at the South Australia Better Business Awards, while director James Schulze was named Best Newcomer.
Mr Schulze told The Adviser the main reason for Rise High’s success was its focus on core business.
The Adelaide firm outsources everything except home loans, commercial loans and insurance. Three admin staff handle day-to-day office work so the five brokers can focus on clients, he said.
Mr Schulze said Rise High had also capitalised on working hard to create a strong referral network.
“We’ve got a good property manager, a couple of good accountants and a good real estate agent we deal with,” he said.
“We’ve spent the time building those relationships and we’ve established that trust so they’re comfortable to refer their clients to us knowing their clients are going to receive exceptional service.”
Mr Schulze and fellow director Marissa Schulze worked for a Refund Home Loans franchise before founding Rise High in October 2011.
The pair had been discussing starting their own business when Refund collapsed and forced their hand, he said.
Mr Schulze told The Adviser that Rise High planned to add two more brokers to its business in 2014, but was wary of opening new offices or bringing more services in-house.
“We want to remain a boutique family-run business. We don’t want to grow too big,” he said.
“We want to keep it a close-knit team that has a really good culture and everyone fits together well in the team so we can make sure we continue to provide that personalised service to our clients.”