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As we launch into the year 2020, we asked four brokers what they would be focusing on in the year ahead. Here’s what they had to say...
While some brokers will be focusing on business as usual, others are taking the opportunity of a new year to refocus on particular areas of business.
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Amie Tenant from Future Finance Group (FFG) told The Adviser that catering to the needs of existing clients would be her focus for the year.
“I think our biggest focus at FFG in 2020 will be our existing clients. Of course, generating new leads is important, but we want to really emphasise taking special care of our existing clients. They are just as important as new leads and can also be your best referrer,” she said.
“We want to do everything we can to ensure our clients are on the best interest rate pricing possible and are achieving their financial goals and milestones. Of course, we can only do this by consistently touching base with them and developing a personalised relationship, which takes time and effort.
“We also really want to focus our attention on educating our clients as much as we can to ensure they are as informed as possible about common pitfalls, things to avoid and the general financial climate we are in. Resources such as newsletters and the use of social media are our most powerful tools!”
For George Smith-Roberts, who set up his own brokerage, Smik Home Loans, in January of this year, said his focus will be on “sourcing better quality leads”.
“This past year has taught me that it’s not about the volume of deals I write, but more about the quality of deals that I am spending my time on,” the former Real Estate Home Loans (Lismore) broker said.
“My focus for 2020 will be to actually try and reduce the number of deals I am writing on a weekly basis, and spend more time working with referrers to source the better quality leads in the first place. Outside of lead generation, my next biggest focus will be staff development to become more efficient in the workplace and empowering staff to take more control of the day-to-day running of the business to help relieve the operational headaches that seem to be never-ending.”
Scale, growth and industry support is the focus for Renee Tocco of Loanezi. She says: “I believe 2020 will be a really big year for me. I’ve set my business up to scale and I want to see it really grow in 2020. I believe that’s what is going to happen, so I’m super excited about that.
“CAFBA (of which Ms Tocco is a board member) is also on a journey that is so mega exciting at the moment. We’ve just appointed our second female board director recently and we have the best board and the best support. We’re doing so many different things to support the industry... our calendars are all chockablock with events and exciting stuff for 2020, and we’d love to see any broker who is actually working in the asset and commercial space to support us through being a member, because it’s all about volume and numbers. We’re doing the work either way that they’re benefiting from, and we’d love to see that support back. So anyone that’s not a member of CAFBA, I’d love for them to reach out.”
Recruitment and expansion is another key theme for brokers, as Lisa Maxwell from Aussie Home Loans (Annandale) tells us.
“We’re looking to recruit a new broker,” she said.
“We’ve decided the next step to expand the business is to take on one or two new brokers to start. We might even look into opening a satellite office in neighbouring territory, but we have no concrete plans to do that at this point in time. We’re definitely looking to get a couple of new brokers on board first.
“We’re looking ideally for someone who’s a mobile broker out there but struggling for one reason or another, whether it be managing their own business, [or that they are] lonely and looking for a bit more support and structure etc. I really feel that we could be a great opportunity for someone like that who’s potentially looking to leave the industry but still loves what they do [and] just needs a bit of support.”
Let us know what your focus will be in 2020 by emailing us at
