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Mortar Finance’s Zac Goodman underscores the importance of leading by example to instil a strong culture within his team.
The former banker established his Brisbane-based brokerage Mortar Finance two years ago and has since made a name for himself, taking home the award for Queensland’s Best Newcomer at the 2020 Better Business Awards.
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Mr Goodman told The Adviser’s Elite Broker podcast that when he was a sole operator, he would meet as many clients and accountants as he could and spent a lot of time entering data.
He eventually hired more staff, bringing on his sister in an administrative role, a senior associate from NAB writing business credit memoranda, and his friend in the equipment finance division. His wife also works in the business.
He outlined that moving from a single operator to a business and team manager meant he had to re-evaluate the values and processes of his business.
“Those values need to be aligned to your staff, but more importantly than the values, your behaviours as a leader, your behaviours as a director [need to be aligned],” he said.
When he expanded staff in his business, Mr Goodman thought it was important for him to lead by example, where his staff could see him doing the data processing work, fulfilling his commitments to his clients, or updating clients before close of business every day.
“It wasn’t an excuse to not send an email at 5:02pm,” he stressed.
“It wasn’t an excuse not to have the hard conversation. It’s only then will your staff start to realise how important the values actually are to your business. Now the energy runs off itself. I don’t need to continue to show them that.”
Mr Goodman said he was now determined to convert that energy into a culture in his workplace, where the staff is delivering the experience their clients desire when processing a loan.
Helping SMEs through COVID-19
As small businesses continue to bear the brunt of the economic impact of the coronavirus, Mr Goodman noted that the industries that have suffered the most are the ones seeking professional credit advice from brokers.
Some of the biggest challenges SME clients are currently facing are cash flow and liquidity issues, he said, but warned that brokers need to have a clear understanding of the difference between cash flow and capital.
“The need for capital and the need for cash flow are very different conversations that I think a broker needs to understand before they can advise,” he said.
“One of the biggest impacts that we’ve found to cash flow is actual debt repayment and amortisation repayment. So, there are solutions out there where brokers can put clients into products to get them access to capital that they then have to repay over very short periods of time. It actually then puts more strain on the business than it does solve.
“Capital is a means to invest into a business and create profit. Cash flow is a means to solve a [problem] of a funding gap between the payment of creditors, a cycle of cash, and then the receipt of debtors.”
Working with a business’ accountants and advisers could help brokers understand a business’ position and find suitable funding solutions for the SME client, according to Mr Goodman.
“At the end of the day, our job is to source funding,” he said.
“[By] understanding where the need is and what the need is by working with a client and their accountant, you can start to come up with some solutions.”
He recommended that any brokers who had not written loans for small businesses before should find an experienced broker to learn from before writing loans for their SME clients.
“Help [SMEs clients] and spend time with them, and don’t look for quick solutions. Look for the right solutions,” he said.
To listen to the full Elite Broker podcast with Zac Goodman, click here.
[Related: How this newcomer provides valued service to home buyers and SME clients]
