Business entrepreneur and Better Business Summit keynote speaker Maxine Horne has shared the no-nonsense tips she said could make or break growing businesses.
Horne – the woman who scaled a single Gold Coast phone shop into ASX-listed company Vita Group – has revealed some of her top business advice to mortgage and finance brokers.
Pulling on her decades of experience in scaling business operations (and interactions with countless businesses in her role as a Shark Tank shark), Horne has concluded that strategy, cash discipline, and self‑awareness are what determine long-term success in business.
Speaking to The Adviser ahead of her keynote speech at the Better Business Summit 2026, Horne urged brokers to stop thinking in narrow industry labels and start studying the broader environment in which their business operated in.
She said owners needed to understand the “landscape” they were playing in, from customer behaviour to competitors’ strategies, so that they can better differentiate themselves from the crowd.
“Knowing what your competitors are doing... why do clients like going to them? And why would a client come to you as opposed to them?” is important, she said, so that brokers can then determine how they can supersede the competition and translate that into a concrete, resourced plan.
When execution eats strategy
The next step involves defining the “vehicles” through which the service would be delivered, she explained: “What plan do you need, what skill set do those people need, what experience, how much capital, what technology is out there?”
The corporate veteran also reiterated the importance of moving at the right speed, particularly if a business had stumbled upon a gap in the market.
“Have you come across something that nobody else is doing? If so, what’s the pace at which you have to move?” she said.
Horne outlined that owners then needed to decide on execution and how they would maintain the conviction to stay the course.
“I think any entrepreneur needs self-belief. A strategy is great, but is worthless unless you execute it,” she added.
Risk, ego, and the reality check
Indeed, Horne warned that business ownership and entrepreneurship are not for everyone.
She said each person had an internal “riskometer” and that those who were risk‑averse should think twice before launching their own venture.
“Ask yourself, am I adverse to risk? If you are, my answer to you would be don’t go and run your own business,” she said.
The “ideal” business operator, in Horne’s view, is someone who has a “riskometer scale of 7 or 8” on the 10-point scale.
“They can see the opportunity, but they check themselves and think of all the possible things that could go wrong,” she said.
She also cautioned that ego was a silent business killer.
“Ego has no place in business, particularly your own because people do things based on ego that they shouldn’t,” she said.
Running the business like a household
Drawing on her own experience building Vita Group into a national network, Horne warned that early momentum could fade quickly and that owners need to assume some months could fall short.
“If months two and three don’t perform as well as you thought, what’s your backup plan?” she said.
She pointed out that for most mortgage brokers – where revenue only arrives once a deal has settled, typically months after writing the original loan – building this buffer was even more essential.
“It’s a matter of how many loans you sign, and then those loans have to mature before you start receiving commission; it’s even more difficult for brokers to factor in cash flow and budgeting,” Horne said.
According to the entrepreneur, the most important ‘trick’ she developed was ensuring that enough was saved for the business operations, particularly for quieter months.
“The biggest saying I use for any business is cash is king, you need to have at least six months’ worth of cash to fund your business,” she said.
“I would have little savings accounts everywhere that would pay the electricity, lease, wages, and each week I’d put money into these accounts as it came in,” she said.
The maths behind sustainable sales
As such, Horne suggested that a realistic financial plan is required for any sales targets.
“It’s either coming from savings, or it’s coming from a loan that goes into your P&L and your cash flow forecast,” Horne said.
“So, you give yourself a target,” she added and reverse-engineer how that target would be achieved.
Horne illustrated this with a simple pipeline equation based on her own experience of conversion rates.
“If I have three appointments and only one of them is going to come through, in order to get three appointments, I’ve got to make 20 phone calls,” she said.
“So, if I need to write 10 loans to hit my target, that means I’ve got to sit down in front of 50 people a month.”
“Then eventually, as time goes by and you work out that you’ve got a really good hit rate, you can do five a month,” she said.
Horne underscored that if owners were not evaluating their model, particularly in the early days, the numbers would quickly drift off course.
You can hear more top business advice from Maxine Horne at the Better Business Summit 2026.
The Better Business Summit will return in March and April 2026 with the backing of principal partner NAB, bringing a five-state roadshow designed to help brokers sharpen strategy, lift performance, and stay ahead as competition intensifies across residential, commercial, and specialist finance.
Running across Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne, the 2026 summit will feature a full-day agenda led by senior industry figures, elite performance leaders, and digital and AI specialists, with each event capped at 500 attendees.
Click here to book your tickets and don’t miss out! Did you know The Adviser Premium Members go for free? Become a Premium Member here.
For more information, including agenda and speakers, click here.
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