Adapting to life as a business owner

The career of a mortgage broker is very adaptable and has seen many make the move from advice-giver to fully fledged business owner.

But how hard is that transition and what does it take to succeed? Brokers turned business owners have offered their views on setting up a business, the challenges of doing so, and the issues with expanding the firm.

Setting up a mortgage brokerage business 

Scott Taylor-Barr (pictured), financial adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management, said he is currently in the middle of the transition from adviser to business owner.

“At the moment, I am the sole adviser and, even if I do expand and attract more talented advisers to my brand, I am not sure I will ever want to step away from giving advice totally, I just enjoy it too much,” he said.

The transition, Taylor-Barr said, has been relatively straightforward as he has had a huge amount of support from the network, The Openwork Partnership, that he chose to partner with.

“Their Route To Principal training program, which is delivered face-to-face over a 12-month period via their in-house business school, is helping to set the firm on the right track from day one and making sure I have the contacts and skills to make it work,” Taylor-Barr said.

That being said, just like any big change, Taylor-Barr added that it is equal parts scary and exciting.

Overcoming challenges of owning a brokerage

Mike Staton, director at Staton Mortgages, said one of the main challenges when making the transition is understanding that someone else can do the job to the same standard as you.

“It has taken me over five years to be able to step back and allow others to come in to handle my clients - I will still write business because of my love for the job, but I am confident I have a great team behind me to be able to step in my shoes,” he said.

Staton added that taking a step back was important for his work-life balance and an important move in becoming a fully-fledged business owner.

“I wanted to get out of the living-to-work attitude and spend time with my family before I lost them, it had gotten to the point where I did not even walk my baby son out of the hospital,” he added.

Expanding a mortgage brokerage

David Sharpstone, director at CIS Mortgage Advice, made the transition back in 2016, moving from a corporate estate agency to establishing his own brand.

“I had been planning my exit strategy from the previous year, and felt that to be successful I needed to be an expert in one particular niche,” he said.

As such, Sharpstone decided to focus on self-employed construction workers paid through the CIS Scheme.

Sharpstone added that this was a massively untapped market, and he knew it would be easier to laser-focus his marketing message on one group of people, rather than trying to reach everyone.

“My first hire was an administrator, which enabled me to focus on marketing and sales; this seemed like a tough decision, because I was now responsible for someone else’s ability to pay their bills as well as the worry of whether I could afford it,” he said.

In the end, however, Sharpstone said it was the best decision he made in business, and it soon enabled him to generate enough leads to take on four mortgage advisers.

“Letting go is tough, and trusting others to meet my standards is stressful at times, but looking back I would not change a thing,” he said.

What do you believe are the pros and cons in adapting to life as a business owner? Let us know in the comment section below.