What are brokers going to be focusing on in 2024?

We’ve hopefully got some new staff coming. We’re in the interviewing stage, exciting, which is great.

We’ve also got some new collaborations for tech that we’re working on with the BrokerEngine portal – new add-ons and things to make the process easier again – so that’s really exciting.

We have so many professional days to look forward to and we can always take something new away from there.

So, hopefully within a year from now, my team would have grown and we are helping more regional borrowers.

I would like to become a mentor as well. I think that’s something that I would get a lot of pleasure out of trying to help women come back into the industry or women join the industry. I think that that could be a really rewarding job for myself and I think it’s something that would also benefit my staff because if I’m getting rewarded I definitely feel happy.

Ashleigh Pakis, Panache Financial

New areas of loan writing

This year’s focus is on SMSF lending. I’m educating myself a lot more and I’m talking to a lot more lenders. There’s also a bigger focus on asset finance. Part of this was a product of last year where we had such a massive push on asset finance because of the tax incentives till 30 June. But they’re going to come again so the first half of the year will be a push on asset finance, equipment finance.

In terms of what I’m doing differently, I’ve now partnered with some real estate agents, so I’m actually going out to open-for-inspections with them at premium properties, the $2 million-mark plus. So if any customer walks in I can help them with their finances.

Rishi Bhatia, KRIA Mortgage Managers

Expanding my franchise presence

The year ahead will really be concentrating on getting my new franchise Forest Lake off the ground. It’s my fourth franchise.

I’ll also hopefully be expanding and exploring Lendi Group’s supported model and then looking for more opportunities out there in the market to potentially bring on a couple of more stores.

There’s also an opportunity for some of my brokers who have worked with me to come on board as partners. I think that’s been the key to me being able to grow; being able to partner with really good people and also provide them with a career opportunity not only to be a broker in one of my stores, but to actually be a business partner with me and take that next step.

Danny Blair, Aussie Ipswich, Aussie Mt Ommaney, Aussie Kenmore, and Aussie Forest Lake

Bringing in more business

Our markers are obviously built on the commission that we can bring in. So it’s just trying to outdo what I’ve previously done in that space.

I will also continue to read books from different successful business operators. The one that sticks by me at the moment is The 10X Rule book by Grant Cardone. It’s about having 10 times your output, 10 times your goal. So for me, it’s about, what my best month has looked like, can I double that within the next 12 months? This is my first 12 months, so I had no idea what I was doing. So now, let’s set some good challenges here and go after it. So, for me, it it’s just about continuing to build that database as best I can and hopefully settle some good deals and continue to win.

Tom Rockliff, Commercial Point Finance

[Related: The Word: What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a broker?]