Diversification has been key to not just surviving – but thriving – over the past 20 years for founder and director Elie Ayoub.
When Ayoub started Invictus Finance Solutions in 2005, his vision was clear: Build a brokerage dedicated to supporting small businesses.
However, he quickly realised that success in broking required more than just good intentions, telling LMG Group Executive, Commercial & Asset Finance, Stephen Scahill on the latest episode of the Broker Bulletin podcast, that while he wanted to hone in on the small business and commercial transactions, “you quickly learn that’s the long game in our world as mortgage brokers.”
The realisation that “you need those quick turnarounds to keep your place afloat” led him to expand into residential lending – a strategic move at the time which allowed him to stabilise cash flow while continuing to grow the commercial arm of his business.
A proactive approach to asset finance
Today, Invictus Finance operates with a team of 10 employees and two virtual assistants, having recently established an asset finance division of the business.
“We didn’t want to be reactive,” Ayoub said. “We put an asset manager in place, and it changed how our team thinks. Instead of just accounting for a client’s car lease in a serviceability calculator, we start a conversation about it.”
For Ayoub, diversification has been more than just a business strategy; it’s about delivering holistic solutions.
“It’s not about a transaction game,” he said. “It’s more about a client coming in to see you about a particular transaction, and you’re giving them holistic debt advice.”
“What it engaged me in to thinking, and also all the other staff in thinking is, what am I actually looking at?”
“If I’m writing this home loan and I know the client’s got a car lease, do I just plug it into the serviceability calculator and account for it, or do I actually start having a conversation with that client?”
“If you’re talking to the client about it, you’re having a meaningful conversation about it, you’re diarizing it, you’re accounting for it.”
According to Ayoub, “diversification could mean a lot of things.”
“You might just write residential but you’re touching a lot of things. When we talk to a client that’s just a home loan client, let’s call it a first home buyer, what’s driving that home loan? That home loan’s being driven by income/salary. Are we protecting that salary? Because if that salary disappears tomorrow, what happens? You can’t repay that home.”
“I’m not a financial planner. I can’t give financial advice, but I’m having a conversation with that client, and it’s another seed that you’re planting in the mind of the client,” he continued.
“Whether that client wants me to handball that off to somebody else, or they have someone they can talk to, it’s resonating back to Elie. Elie reminded me about this, so the client comes back for the next transaction.”
Protecting the business
Beyond creating strong relationships with his clientele, Ayoub sees being able to assist clients across many different areas of their lives as a form of business protection.
“Being a broker is twofold. You’ve got to protect your income, but you’ve also got to protect your asset. That’s why we do what we do. Otherwise, why are we doing it? One day I want to sell my business, I want to retire, I want to get some value out of it. ” he said.
“Relationships help to bring in the income because you’re forging that relationship with the client.”
The value of technology
To build out those cross-divisional relationships, the business owner said technology is now playing an increasingly important role for his team.
Invictus Finance was an early adopter of MyCRM Diversified, an evolution of LMG’s tech offering which enables brokers to manage residential, commercial and asset finance deals all within one central platform.
Features in the new-look platform include step-by-step digital applications, lender-ready credit papers, policies and calculators, but according to Ayoub, “the best thing this delivers is a recorded document that we can say to the client, ‘You came to us asking for help in small business and commercial; here’s a document that explains it to you.’”
While it has certainly created efficiencies across the business, Ayoub also sees the papers as a way to strengthen LMG’s collective reputation.
“It’s important that banks recognise who we are as a group and the quality of the submissions we provide,” he said.
And when it comes to the professional nature of the credit papers, “seeing is believing.”
For brokers considering expanding their services, Ayoub has one key piece of advice: “Be confident to ask for the business.”
“If you’re there talking about a vanilla home loan, and you notice that there’s leasing, you notice that there’s business-related products or a small commercial factory warehouse loan, talk about it.”
“Talk about it, but talk about it from your understanding of lending in residential land, and just apply the key concepts – whether it’s asset finance or commercial. Then, come back to your network of LMG brokers, your partnership managers, and see who you can pick up the phone and talk to within your network.”
For Ayoub, future-proofing isn’t about predicting what’s next. It’s about staying flexible, strong client relationships, and being willing to evolve.
Listen to the full conversation here.
