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After a series of life-changing events made Emma Stephens question her career in banking, she rediscovered her purpose and opened a mortgage broking business in Noosa.
Emma Stephens started her career working as a bank teller in regional Victoria in a tiny, two-person branch. Over the years she moved into different banking roles, eventually specialising in lending.
Following the stress of the Royal Commission, Emma experienced a series of life-changing events in quick succession that made her question whether corporate life was still right for her.
“My oldest child was about to start school, and I was on maternity leave with our second child, when my ex-husband and I decided to divorce,” Emma said. “As a single mum and pretty much the sole carer, it was important to have more flexibility. I also wanted to realign my career to what was important to me.”
One of the areas Emma wanted to focus on was empowering women to improve their financial well however this was not possible in her current working arrangement. She also felt she was missing out on being able to interact with her customers.
She said, “I’m an empathetic and caring person, and I had some good years in the bank where I could do a lot for my customers. As I progressed into more senior roles, that face-to-face time kept shortening and it became very difficult to be able to give that same level of customer service to individual clients.”
Despite many people telling Emma over the years that she would make a good mortgage broker, it wasn’t something she had ever considered. It was only once she was ready for a new opportunity that Emma began to realise the possibilities of owning her own broking business.
“Having that initial meeting with Brad Inwood (Mortgage Choice National Franchise Recruitment Manager) changed everything,” she said. “It gave me a lot of comfort about the culture and value system, which is really important to me. I flew to Sydney to meet with the leadership team and told them about my ambitions and what I wanted to do to support financial wellbeing for women. They were instantly supportive. So I decided to trust my gut and become a mortgage broker.”
Emma decided to take the advice of her peers and invest in her business by hiring someone to help her straight away.
“I realised I needed to put a lot of effort into the business to make it work,” Emma said. “I couldn’t just do a little bit here and a little bit there. So I hired a contractor early on and she then became my first employee. After six months or so, I found my rhythm.”
The flexibility of being her own boss meant Emma could create space to spend more quality time with her family.
She said, “I was able to walk my daughter to school every morning and pick her up in the afternoon. I could go to assemblies and spend time in the classroom. I would never have been able to do that if I had stayed in banking.”
After only three years in business, Emma has a steady pipeline of new clients and a strong network of referral partnerships. She has helped a lot of women improve their financial security through her broking services and financial wellbeing seminars, and she’s planning to do more in this space in future by collaborating with other like-minded women. Financially, she’s doing better than she was when she worked in banking and she’s also building an asset that’s growing in value each year.
“I'm really happy with where things are at right now,” Emma said. “I've just had my best month since being in business. And being my own boss, I get to make my own decisions. I have the power to pick and choose when and how I work. If there’s something I want to achieve, I can go and do it. I don’t have to rely on other people to make things happen. Every day I think about how glad I am that I made the move into broking.”
If you’re keen to make room for what matters and be your own boss, visit MortgageChoice.com.au/franchises to book an appointment with one of our Recruitment Specialists.
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