With the arrival of the new financial year, many people are weighing up career options. Maybe the coming and passing of June 30 has left them realising their potential hasn’t been realised.
During LMG’s recent Open Week activities, we heard from two successful business owners, Jaime Savory from Gippsland Finance Solutions and Steph Thomas from Loan Market Ignite, who made the transition to broking after long careers in the banking sector. They share their insights on their journey here.
Jaime spent 10 years in banking across the spectrum of lending roles. But after a decade, she evaluated what she really wanted.
“I loved helping clients … and I wanted to keep doing more (as a broker),” she said.
“I strategically planned ahead and had enough money behind me so I didn't have a significant amount of pressure for the first quarter. (It meant) I could actually get out and network and be able to build the business right from the start.
“I dealt with brokers quite a lot when I was managing a branch … so I had a bit of a feel for what that space looked like. I put a bit of a plan in place for me to be able to take that leap of faith with a bunch of people to support me as well.
“I had planned it out quite well, but I think it came off the ground a lot quicker because of the experience I had as a banker.”
Steph had worked at three different major banks. She was struggling juggling an intense corporate role that had limited flexibility with raising three children.
“I wanted to do something that would allow me to continue what I love doing, helping customers in the banking / lending space, but giving me a bit more time back.”
Steph has since pivoted, to run her own business, Loan Market Ignite, which has been named New Business of the Year at the Better Business Awards (Qld).
Essential to Steph’s successful transition was aligning herself with a national consumer brand. As a Relationship Manager in the bank sector, her customers were brokers, not borrowers.
Steph said Loan Market’s marketing and lead offering - the brand has a relationship with affiliate Ray White, Australia’s largest real estate network - helped her generate business immediately.
Cultivating a brand from a standing start can be extremely time-consuming, with uncertainty around the return on investment, she said.
“There is a lot of work involved in starting a new brand and you can’t guarantee you’ll get a better outcome or better return.
“I love everything about the (Loan Market) branding. There is no effort for me … they’ve got it to a literal turnkey format. They do my social media for me …. cover everything. I don't have to think about it.”
In her first year, Steph wrote $25 million through Loan Market leads and referrals from family alone.
“With Loan Market, you're hooking into a bigger brand which naturally draws traffic to you. I didn't have any customer connections … and I wrote that level of volume just off those leads.”
There’s a difference between finding leads in a regional, as opposed to a city, marketplace, said Jaime.
“I was well-known in our area, anyway, having been a branch manager in my last role for five years. So for me it probably didn't take as long to get that volume coming through,” she said.
“I did a lot of local networking: I walked the streets a lot and I sat on quite a few different community boards. I was trying to consistently be in peoples’ faces in a positive way, to be able to make sure that they knew where to find me.”
Gippsland Finance is part of LMG’s Partner Plan, which includes marketing automation and support to help businesses find and keep more clients..
LMG has supported her growth in Google Reviews (her Bairnsdale office currently has 186 Google Reviews) among a suite of digital tools strengthening her visibility in the market. Across her three offices in Regional Victoria, the marketing support is enabling her and her new brokers to have more and easier conversations with prospective clients.
“Whether or not you open up with your own brand as an LMG Partner, like I have, or you go down the Loan Market brand, the support that you get and that you've got access to is, I would say, second to none.”
Finding the right aggregator is critical to success, alongside having the support team to provide support at every milestone.
For Jaime, selecting an accountant to structure the business appropriately from a financial and liability standpoint is a must.
It’s also important to surround yourself with people who back your ambitions to move from banking to broking.
“You’ll get some people that say, ‘I can't believe that you're leaving, you're taking a huge risk’,” said Jaime. “I can't stress the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people who genuinely want to see you succeed.”
When Jaime began, she aggregated under Choice (now part of LMG) and the early support was pivotal.
“I couldn't speak more highly of my LMG BDMs. The people I deal with at LMG are really upfront and honest around the support. There are a lot of people who want you to succeed.”
Aggregator fees are a significant consideration for brokers, especially when they’re starting out. But Jaime said new brokers needed to recognise the outgoings as an investment.
“Moving from a bank to a brokerage, you need that help,” Jaime said. “You can write loans, but you probably don't know how to set up Google or how to make sure that the website's operating most effectively and LMG can help with all that sort of stuff which is invaluable in my opinion.”
The community that Loan Market has fostered has also been important in Steph’s growth.
“There's a world of difference between the support I receive from LMG to what some other aggregators would give,” she said.
“When you go from working in a branch or a team environment to a mortgage broker, you're often by yourself. So, in addition to Corporate, the biggest support to me was actually other mortgage brokers in Loan Market: people I could ring that were going through what I'd been through or had walked that path before.
“I could easily ring them and ask, ‘Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? Do I need to keep doing this?
“Between my aggregator and other brokers, there’s always someone to talk to.”