Staffing v Systemisation — getting the most out of your business

I speak with people from our industry all the time who are always complaining about being too busy with admin, not having the staff, not having enough time to tackle new sales strategies and marketing, effectively left behind in the dust by those that adapt. We are heading towards the end of 2016 and I still walk into offices from all industries and see paper everywhere! So I want to share a few ideas that often go neglected as business owners choose to hire staff over improving systems to get the most out of what you have now.

Systemising technology

We are in the year 2016 where we have more new technology hitting the market on a monthly basis than we have had in the past decade. You should NOT have to leave your desk to compile a client file, you shouldn’t have to archive paper files (which I hear people still do), and you shouldn’t even have to leave your desk for a face-to-face meeting in a lot of cases. Systemising these areas can save you immense amounts of time, increase productivity, improve the client experience, reduce your overheads, and increase your profit margins. I feel our industry has lagged behind in the adoption of a new era. This needs to change before the online space gets too smart. And trust me, it will. If you think you have a problem that no software can fix, then go and build that software and sell it to all of us, because your problems aren’t only yours.

Staff

This could be a bit contentious, as I don’t have any full-time internal staff. However, based on the interpretation from the outside, it would appear I have a team. I noticed very early on that there is a glass ceiling on how much one individual can do without burning out. The mortgage broking industry has amazing outsourcing options available, both locally and overseas. You can even have deals processed whilst you sleep. Sometimes I then hear people say, but I don’t want the quality of my work compromised, it’s not for me. That’s why it is so brilliant: once you invest the time in training new staff to fit within your business, you reap huge rewards. Sure it’ll take a few months to iron out some creases, but it’ll save you $60,000 a year. It took me a number of attempts before finding the right people but it has certainly paid off big time.

I don’t mean to sound condescending to people not adopting new technologies and ways of doing business. I’m just frustrated that there are still a lot of people out there not getting the most out of their business as they are stuck in their old school habits. I recommend that you jump into the limitless forums available where mortgage brokers discuss processes and technologies available, and also speak with your aggregator BDM who is exposed to all kinds of weird and wonderful ways of running brokerages.