We find out why Ms Richardson decided to enter the industry, how she manages to do everything at once, and the underlying appeal of mortgage broking.
15 years ago, Jennifer Richardson launched 123 Financial Group – a firm that, at the time, built upon her 30-plus years in accounting. However, in the time since, Ms Richardson has expanded into mortgage broking, financial services and, as of earlier this year, launched the women-centric finance literacy initiative, “Got Money Honey” – an act that mirrors both her work ethic and drive to support those around her.
We find out why Ms Richardson decided to enter the industry, how she manages to do everything at once, and the underlying appeal of mortgage broking.
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The Adviser: How and why did you become a broker?
I've been an accountant now for 30 something years. I built my business from a little home office when I had my three babies, and it just grew.
But something my clients would always ask me would be: “Can you do financial planning?” and “Where do I go to get a loan?”. I thought that if I'm going to service my clients to the full potential that I need to, I need to start getting organised as a mortgage broker and as a financial planner.
It’s one thing to want to provide your client’s with great support, but it’s another to offer them everything. Why not outsource?
I'm a control freak. For me, outsourcing was always putting your clients in somebody else's hands. I was referring originally to a financial planner and they let me down for my clients, and that for me was a bad look for my business.
That was a wake up call for me. I needed to know that those I would refer had the same philosophy for my clients as what I had. And I couldn't control that. Nowadays, I've got a financial planner and a mortgage broker in-house, and another recently-qualified broker.
What sort of loans do you write now?
At the moment, we’re probably doing about 60 per cent residential, 20 per cent commercial and 20 per cent equipment finance.
What do you most enjoy about being a broker?
I love finding a solution for people. And I think, for mortgage broking, what I love about it is that you get that solution, and the result, fairly quickly. With accounting, if you are doing something, it takes years to see whether it's worked. It’s the same with financial planning.
Sometimes, it's disappointing when you can't help clients with what they want, but I do love that there are solutions where you've helped someone achieve a dream.
Most of your team at 123 Financial Group are women. Was that a conscious decision or happenstance?
That came about because when I first started my practice, back in 2006, I wanted to support women with children. I deliberately picked women that had children – women that just wanted to work a couple of days a week.
It just fell into place that this was a great opportunity for women to come back into the workforce and still have that ability to do family things. That's how I ended up with all women.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago, when I put an ad out for a trainee accountant, that I had my first male apply for it.
You’ve also launched “Got Money Honey” – an initiative designed to encourage financial literacy for women. Do you think that there should be something more done to encourage this among women, or even across Australia?
Oh, absolutely. Nothing annoys me more than the gender pay gap. When we recently had Equality Day, I said to one of my staff that what really annoys me about this day is that we all jump on social media, but a week later, who's doing anything about it?
Is there any advice you would give to emerging brokers?
The biggest thing that I learned from my early days was learning to say the word, no. You can't solve everybody's situation.
I probably also wish that I'd gone more into educating clients – it’s better to have them come back with the right questions.
I’d also probably aim to learn each lender’s loan products in more depth. When you first start, every BDM tells you the overview of what they do – I wish that I’d picked four or five lenders and got to know their products more deeply, rather than the 24 lenders that come in your door.
You can find out more about Jennifer Richardson and how her tenacity for client support has driven her deep into the financial services sector.
Tune into the Elite Broker podcast with Jennifer Richardson, Running a full-range financial services business, below:
