Mortgage success story and TikTok sensation shares his industry insight
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In a highly competitive, results-driven business, mortgage brokers are often conditioned to focus on their successes, but arguably your so-called failures can prove every bit as useful in shaping a winning future.
Broker Bob Singh is, by any standards, a success story. He is director of his own thriving business, Chess Mortgages, which has been boosted by the 41,000 followers of his TikTok account, The Mortgage Maharaja, from which he dispenses advice to a rapt audience as much as one to two hours a day.
But Singh has not been afraid to chop and change throughout his career, to explore other, more beneficial opportunities – and he is proof positive that not being afraid to shake things up once in a while can pay dividends.
As a young man, he went to college but left early, without completing his course, to take up a job with NatWest, but left after 10 years with no definite plan because he wanted to explore what else was out there.
After a stint working in his family’s off-licence business, he turned to selling life insurance, but it was – in his words – “a flop.” Latterly, he launched his own estate agency business, but abandoned that when he realised the costs were prohibitive, and he stepped away too from a solicitor’s practice under the same name, after only two years.
“I'm an open book,” Singh told Mortgage Introducer, with refreshing honesty. “Selling life insurance was the worst decision I have ever made. I wasn't able to get back into banking or finance for two or three years, because that's when the recession hit, in around 1990.
“I always wanted to be an estate agent, but I didn't realise it was such a difficult business to actually make money, and you can burn a lot of money very, very easily in the estate agent sector. Having lost some money, I thought, no, this is a bit too much. I would not advise anybody to do what I did in terms of starting up an estate agency on their own. It's best to join a franchise or a network with a low cost entry level.”
“I’ve wasted a king’s ransom in advertising costs when social media was free! I took on an office larger than my needs and it sucked up cash when parts were not sub-let. I paid too high a salary to staff and suffered myself.”
He continued: “These are decisions you make, not really knowing which way to turn sometimes.
So it pays to stick with what you do best. Adding new income streams may not always bear fruit or give a good ROI.”
Having control over your business is key, urges Singh - and he believes it’s important to pass on the benefit of your experience to others.
“I don't mind sharing my failures in the hope that somebody can learn from them,” he shared. “A lion can’t kill till it tastes blood. A business has to experience failure to learn from it.
Someone once said you’re not a businessman unless you’ve been bankrupt once! But I’ve learnt that failure is often due to thinking you know it all when you actually don’t - the sooner you realise that, the sooner you stop losing money. Following a blueprint is key, as is budgeting.”
Read more: What's your Plan B, if AI replaces brokers?
The career successes which led to TikTok fame
So, what of the successes which came Singh’s way when he dared to make a change; which mark him out today as an industry authority and a trade-marked social media sensation who often gets spotted when he’s out and about.
Singh became an assistant manager at NatWest early in his career, he did several years at respected London brokerage John Charcol, he worked for a multi-award winning independent financial adviser in the West End, broadening his wider knowledge of finance, he opened his own broker firm in 2004 and was named best newcomer within its network in the first six months. During this period, he was the top business writer over a number of consecutive years. Eventually, he decided to go it alone, away from a network - today, his business is directly authorised.
“I felt networks didn't really add that much value,” Singh explained. “I didn't see them playing a big enough role in growing our business.”
What, then, has Singh learned from his successes – and his failures?
“Mortgage broking and serving your client base is a full time job,” he noted. “I've learned that you can't do it all yourself, particularly if you're busy. A lot of brokers will try and do the marketing themselves, they'll do the admin, they'll do the submissions and the follow-ups.
“You're trying to work like a dog, but not really efficiently. I've always had a PA, and maybe two assistants because I'm not a good admin person. So, I think you've got to be the face of the business, advising people and getting the business in. Let somebody else do the admin and the processing, because that will save you time.”
He continued: “Since I've adopted that approach, we've been able to process a lot more cases on a monthly basis. You definitely need to be out there networking with the lenders.
Sometimes it's who you know, not what you know, though you do also need extensive market knowledge. People joining the business now have got the advantage of technology in their favour and they're from the generation where they adopt to technology a lot easier.”
Since Singh has been on TikTok, the business has grown ‘out of all proportion’, he shared.
“I don't think the message is actually filtering down to the people who are not busy, that they need to try these new things,” he reflected. “If you've not tried any social media, you've got to because it's free advertising. It doesn't cost you anything apart from your time. On some days we are inundated with phone calls, so I think that's the biggest message I can send to the broker market.”
He added: “I thought TikTok was for kids and it was for messing about and doing silly dances and that sort of thing. Everyone calls me The Mortgage Maharaja - I can't go incognito anywhere, you know, even at the airport - it’s fun.”