MPA catches up with the award-winning broker team that achieved the most growth year-on-year within the YBR network.
Yellow Brick Road Randwick, ideally wedged between Sydney’s CBD and popular beaches has increased its revenue by 105% in the past year.
YBR Randwick is not a new branch either, but in its fifth year, making this achievement all the more impressive.
Co-principal and wealth manager David Chia who founded the branch four and a half years ago, told MPA what was different about the past year was bringing on board co-principal Hung Chuy and trying new ideas out to grow the business.
The branch received top recognition at the YBR annual conference awards in Adelaide, beating over 250 branches nationally for “Outstanding Branch Achievement”, “National Young Gun Lending” for Chuy and coming in a close second for overall “National Branch of the Year”.
“It’s a great achievement for our team here,” said Chia. “It’s quite an accomplishment but I suppose we want to grow more and more every year we can.
“The success is pretty much all of the trial and error that we’ve learnt in the last four years coming to fruition.”
“I believe the business growth we are seeing is because our philosophy is to work with integrity and exceed our client’s expectations every time,” said Chuy.
The two co-principals wrote about $160 million in total loans between them last year and Chia says this year they are aiming for at least $200 million.
“That’s a lot of paperwork between the two of us,” he says but something he sees as achievable especially since he is now broking full-time.
Chia is also a qualified financial planner and was juggling it with broking but a year ago he brought on a financial planner so he could focus soley on broking.
“Before I was trying to do both and it just got too much. I like doing both the planning and also the broking but I can’t be good at doing both at the same time.”
Chia has been in financial services for the last 20 years as an accountant but his passion for property investment and working with people made him turn to broking.
“The skill set in broking is a more than the actual numbers itself … being new to industry, there were a lot of things that I had to learn from scratch.”
Chuy is still under 30 and became a broker only a year ago after roles in residential and business lending with Westpac.
The team moved to a new location within Randwick to increase their office space for the growing team of eight.
YBR Randwick now has four brokers, a financial planner and three admin staff who between them speak Indonesian, Teochew, Hindi, Gujarati and Sinhalese
Chia, whose wife also works in the business, says it can be quite a juggling act at times balancing business with life outside work.
“Writing those loans is a lot of work as I’ve also got a young family – two kids under ten,” he says. “Being a broker, it’s flexible but you’re still putting a lot of hours into it.”
But he says being a broker is rewarding and enjoyable and if the people are your focus, the numbers will follow.
“It’s more about the interaction with people and helping people out – if you don’t like to help people, you’re in the wrong business!
“Look at the best interests of your client, because the client knows if you’re doing the right thing by them. Look after the client, work hard and things will grow by themselves organically.”
YBR Randwick is not a new branch either, but in its fifth year, making this achievement all the more impressive.
Co-principal and wealth manager David Chia who founded the branch four and a half years ago, told MPA what was different about the past year was bringing on board co-principal Hung Chuy and trying new ideas out to grow the business.
The branch received top recognition at the YBR annual conference awards in Adelaide, beating over 250 branches nationally for “Outstanding Branch Achievement”, “National Young Gun Lending” for Chuy and coming in a close second for overall “National Branch of the Year”.
“It’s a great achievement for our team here,” said Chia. “It’s quite an accomplishment but I suppose we want to grow more and more every year we can.
“The success is pretty much all of the trial and error that we’ve learnt in the last four years coming to fruition.”
“I believe the business growth we are seeing is because our philosophy is to work with integrity and exceed our client’s expectations every time,” said Chuy.
The two co-principals wrote about $160 million in total loans between them last year and Chia says this year they are aiming for at least $200 million.
“That’s a lot of paperwork between the two of us,” he says but something he sees as achievable especially since he is now broking full-time.
Chia is also a qualified financial planner and was juggling it with broking but a year ago he brought on a financial planner so he could focus soley on broking.
“Before I was trying to do both and it just got too much. I like doing both the planning and also the broking but I can’t be good at doing both at the same time.”
Chia has been in financial services for the last 20 years as an accountant but his passion for property investment and working with people made him turn to broking.
“The skill set in broking is a more than the actual numbers itself … being new to industry, there were a lot of things that I had to learn from scratch.”
Chuy is still under 30 and became a broker only a year ago after roles in residential and business lending with Westpac.
The team moved to a new location within Randwick to increase their office space for the growing team of eight.
YBR Randwick now has four brokers, a financial planner and three admin staff who between them speak Indonesian, Teochew, Hindi, Gujarati and Sinhalese
Chia, whose wife also works in the business, says it can be quite a juggling act at times balancing business with life outside work.
“Writing those loans is a lot of work as I’ve also got a young family – two kids under ten,” he says. “Being a broker, it’s flexible but you’re still putting a lot of hours into it.”
But he says being a broker is rewarding and enjoyable and if the people are your focus, the numbers will follow.
“It’s more about the interaction with people and helping people out – if you don’t like to help people, you’re in the wrong business!
“Look at the best interests of your client, because the client knows if you’re doing the right thing by them. Look after the client, work hard and things will grow by themselves organically.”
