Why you shouldn’t wait to grow before getting help
Hiring can be a daunting process, especially for a solo brokerage looking to expand – but according to one expert, failing to address an increasing administrative burden could be seriously hindering your business.
Broker Profits Vault founder James Veigli says that many mortgage brokers wait far too long before getting help – something which inevitably holds them back, and can cause them to hit capacity far too early. He says that in order to run an efficient brokerage, there are two fundamental things that a broker needs to do from the get-go – outsource their loan processing, and get a second pair of hands to deal with admin.
“I often hear bad advice being dished out on when and how to hire, and a lot of brokers tend to think that they don’t need help until they reach a certain point,” Veigli explained.
“This stops many of them from growing, when what they should be doing from day one is figuring out how best to leverage their skills. A broker shouldn’t be doing hours of low-level paperwork when they could be seeing customers, networking, generating leads and bringing in deals.
“They then wonder why they’ve capped out at only a few deals per month – and it’s because they’re trying to do everything themselves.”
Veigli recommends that brokers remove administrative duties and loan processing from day one, whether that’s through an outsourcing provider or by hiring a virtual assistant. He says failing to do this can quickly result in a broker getting bogged down with time-consuming admin – something which won’t be making them any money.
“If it takes 10 hours from finding a customer to closing the loan, at least half of that is data entry, compliance, follow-up – all things that you can pay someone else to do,” Veigli explained.
“Cost can be a hurdle, but these days there’s no need to go through the physical process of hiring when you can hire a much cheaper virtual assistant.”
“The next thing we recommend is to hire a para-broker, or a customer support administrator,” he continued.
“But you also need to have a plan, goal and a model that suits your brokerage. You can’t just take the model of another successful brokerage and apply it to yourself. For example, if your plan is to be the main broker and have a support team around you, then your journey will be very different to that of a business owner who wants to have a team of brokers.
But for a brokerage of any size, those tasks are the first two no-brainers that everyone should do.”
The team building stage is one part of The 10X Broker Plan, a free online workshop for mortgage professionals who want to grow their business. To register and get the full plan – click here.
