From childhood friends to mothers and business partners, Elouise Dooley and Alissa Childs have been making waves in the broking industry with their unique brokerage Two Birds One Loan.
In this Q&A, we find out how this dynamic duo first met and started their own business, found their first clients, some of the highlights and challenges they’ve face throughout their career as brokers, and their top tips for new brokers out there.
Here’s what they had to say:
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How did you two first meet and set up Two Birds One Loan?
Alissa: Elle and I have been friends since high school, we met in year 8, so it’s been around 20-odd years at this point. We’ve got a tried-and-tested friendship; we finished school together and went off into our own careers at the same time.
At first, we went on to do different things, I joined the banking industry and Elle joined more of a marketing-type industry, but we still spent most of our weekends together.
The conversation to start our own business first began around the time we had our first children. We were both in corporate roles and looking to return back full-time and we just felt like it was time for a change.
We both lived in similar areas to one another and we came up with the idea that I could change over industries and I have all the skills and relationships to start up the brokerage, along with having a background in finance.
It was something I knew I could do and I always thought I would do it, so once the conversations began, we started putting plans in place.
What was the transition into broking like for you?
Elouise: It was a big jump and big decision for me because I’d spent all of my corporate career working towards a marketing career. I was working in a corporate field at the time, but I was doing more in the realm of marketing analytics.
There were a lot of background numbers and price sensitivity and all those types of things, so my head was always in a spreadsheet. I wasn’t doing marketing activations per se and I was always on the lookout for something different.
Alissa and I had always dreamed of starting our own business that was flexible with our kids and that would earn us a solid income. It was really a no-brainer for us.
The transition itself was quite good. When I was on maternity leave, I did all my studying and I was actually quite excited for the change, especially to be able to call something my own and not have to travel into the city every day.
Why did you decide to start your own business instead of buying a franchise?
Alissa: I think we wanted to do something more unique. We always thought we would do something different and make waves in an industry that’s a little bit bland, so hence the name Two Birds One Loan.
Elle came up with the name with her marketing experience. I don’t think we ever saw ourselves being just Mortgage Choice or Aussie Home Loans brokers. We wanted to be unique, so we never even considered buying a franchise, we really wanted to set ourselves apart from everyone else.
How did you go about finding your first clients?
Elouise: Originally when we started, we had these big audacious goals where we thought we’d start with settling $5 million a month and then the actual reality of bringing in 8–10 million worth of leads and settling five of them was a lot harder than we anticipated.
We both grew up in the Hills District and we’ve both got large networks of friends and family, so we started doing loans for our friends and family and had them write Google reviews for us.
We went hard on our social media, too, which at the time (around five years ago) was something not a lot of brokers did. We made sure our Instagram, Facebook, and website were all up to scratch.
All of which we did on our own because we had the time to do it back then. So, in terms of getting our first leads through the door, I’d chalk it up to a big social media presence.
What are some highlights or challenges you’ve faced so far?
Elouise: We’re so proud of the business we’ve built and the fact that we’ve both been able to grow our families at the same time. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve managed to do it and reach a lot of the goals we’ve set for ourselves.
We’ve been able to move into an office, hire new staff, and it’s been so amazing.
Alissa: I would say the journey itself posed quite a challenge because it has been so up and down. We took a huge hit of income for a long time, but five years in, we’re earning what we were earning, if not more, than what we had in our corporate roles.
Probably the hardest thing for new brokers is you just have to have realistic expectations on your earning capacity and you really have to be prepared to take a hit to your income for a period of time.
But you can get through that, there’s unlimited potential in this industry, you can just keep growing and growing. I love that the options are endless and that we can continue to write our story as we go along.
What are some top tips you have for new brokers?
Elouise: I think it probably would’ve been better for us at the beginning to bring in staff a little bit earlier so we could focus on actually building the business instead of just grinding away and doing everything ourselves. It would’ve been easier to have someone running the business in the background.
Alissa: There [are] even options if it’s not affordable to bring someone in. There’s a lot of companies that you can just pay per loan and I think everyone from day dot should be doing that because why spend your time putting out an application online when you could be going out and talking to a new referral partner?
If you'd like to find out more about Elouise Dooley, Alissa Childs and their business Two Birds One Loan, tune in to the Elite Broker episode From childhood friends to broker directors below:
