Founded by Damien Roylance in 2015, Entourage was born with a simple mission – to provide award-winning service from a team that listens to the needs of everyday Australians, and they’ve done just that.
Emerging as a leading brokerage in the country, Entourage has received widespread industry recognition for customer satisfaction, winning Australian Brokerage of the Year in 2022 and their second office in Mornington, Victoria, named New Brokerage of the Year in 2023.
So the natural question is, how did they get here? What has contributed towards their success and how are they growing so rapidly?
Damien and co-director Vincent Moore both come from humble beginnings but with a clear vision to create something bigger than themselves. Damien started his broking career in 2006, while Vincent started in 2013. Both learned the tools of the trade, quickly learning that entrepreneurship was something they desired early on. Damien shares, “I was an employee, and then I got a bit of a taste of being a partner. My business partner was 10 years older, so I did a lot more of the business ownership tasks like paying the bills, etc. giving me a strong sense of what running a business involved.” Entourage was born in 2015 with a clear mission:
“From day one of Entourage, all I wanted to do was build a brand. I wasn’t interested in being known as the top dog, or promoting how we should work from 8:00 till 3:00 AM in the morning. My whole goal has always been how not to be that top dog. The mission for me has always been to give back to my team. And it means we’ve invested in our people and worked hard to make Entourage a place of belonging.”
The ambition
Entourage’s vision is to evolve the brand as a leading boutique brokerage. As the team grows, the business is expanding its reach to service more customers by launching two new offices in 2023 – Entourage Mornington and Entourage Byron Bay. Roylance shares, “We [the entire team] sat together in Byron Bay last financial year and asked ourselves, what’s our big hairy audacious goal?” He adds, “It’s to be valued at a billion dollars in 15 years. Not just write a billion, but be valued at that. Which you know, sounds a lot, but a billion dollars these days isn’t as big as it was.”
In pursuit of this vision, Entourage focuses on hiring top-tier talent with the drive to be the best professionals in the industry, and investing in their growth. By building a team with the right people who believe in the Entourage mission, Damien believes they’ll succeed, “If we’re together, I believe we can pull it off.”
The solution
Entourage’s continued focus is reinvesting in their business and the communities in which they live and serve. To build a recognisable brand that’s known for its quality and commitment to its customers.
Retention and staff satisfaction are key pillars of their growth strategy; one of the many reasons the business maintains high staff retention rates is due to an exceptional work culture that creates a sense of togetherness. Being part of Entourage means being part of a deeply passionate group of people who all value the same things. They’ve been recognised in the Top 20 Best Places to Work (<30 employees) in Australia three years running by the Great Place to Work ® program.
The team places a strong emphasis on the mentality adopted by the All Blacks rugby team that no task is beneath anyone. Everyone goes above and beyond for not only their clients but their team too. It’s not a business that’s championed solely by brokers, focusing on building a team of Customer Service Managers who are the engine room of the business and have received recognition as some of the industry’s best loan administrators. Everything this team sets their mind to, they achieve. “We put a strong focus on achieving a goal of 80% of deals being one-touch. We’re now at 86%, so we’re gunning for 90%.”
“We invest a lot in our people in their first 12-24 months to set them up for success in the long term. A lot of businesses then face the challenge that once a broker becomes more profitable, they’ll leave and go and start their own thing. But there’s a bigger picture at play, like this billion-dollar business goal compared to having a much lower-valued trail book on your own. That’s our mindset, that if a broker is on board with the vision, why leave it? People get protective about selling shares in their business, but what we learned from the advice of those that came before us is that a small percentage of something is worth a lot more than a big percentage of nothing.”
Entourage also believes in giving back to the communities in which they serve by sponsoring local sporting organisations.
“I love sports. One of our team members sponsors the little athletics club that her daughters go to; she loves athletics. We love supporting kids in sports, and this funding means a lot to them. Giving makes you feel great. Give back a little bit if you can—we’re not giving millions of dollars, just a few thousand here and there, which can go a long way,” Damien explains.
Their love for sport and community also extends into their marketing initiatives, with the team focussing on maximising the number of lead sources, using a wide range of platforms, including LinkedIn and Google ads, while also leveraging influencer marketing with the likes of sporting icons Josh and Nick Daicos, Olympian Genevieve Gregson and previous winners of The Block, Josh and Elyse.
The business is attracting more customers through value-adding brand awareness activations that result in genuine social proof. “We don’t want to sell ourselves short by relying on one lead source.” Damien adds, “Each of our residential lead sources links to LMG’s My Lead Generator platform based on brokers’ specialisations to build their pipelines.” Entourage leverages many different aspects of the LMG offering, including My Lead Generator, which enhances lead capture and tracking, providing a seamless integration with the Online Fact Find.
The results
Since partnering with LMG, Entourage has experienced exceptional growth, doubling its settlement volumes each fiscal year to reach almost $550 million in FY22. Damien attributes this success to the diligence and dedication of his team, along with the support provided by LMG. Expressing his deep appreciation, Damien says, “We’re grateful for LMG’s role in supporting our potential and identifying areas for growth, no matter how small.
Participating in LMG’s Profit Pulse & Succession programs has also been instrumental in the business’ aspirations to grow through acquisition. “Our strategy is to grow our business through marketing as well as the purchasing of books which are really hard to come by,” further positioning Entourage on a trajectory that’s well on track to achieving its daring goal of $1 billion by 2035. The collective accomplishments of the entire team have propelled Entourage to LMG’s most prestigious status, Chairman’s Club, representing the top 1% of businesses in LMG and amongst some of the best broking professionals in Australia.
The team are active members of the LMG community, fostering relationships with brokers across the country that extend beyond scenario workshopping, opening their doors and enabling other brokers to learn and collaborate with the team. “I got invited to go camping with some QLD brokers last week. While I couldn’t go, I loved that we have that relationship.”
