It’s an exciting week for the Success & Broker team as we celebrate our first year in business!
We can’t believe it has already been a year since Ruan decided to step away from his Brisbane-based brokerage firm, Time Home Loans, and take a much-deserved (albeit short-lived) break.
We’ve come a long way since we started working on the Broker JournalTM between school pick-ups and drop-offs. The last year has seen us create our Pathway and Proventus programs, launch the LVR podcast with Marissa Schulze, tour the country telling the Success & Broker story, and gain clients across multiple aggregation models.
We’ve been busy!
The past 12 months have been transformative for our team, with many, many learnings along the way. So, today, we’d like to share the top three lessons from our first year in business — and give you a sneak peek into what’s in store for Success & Broker over the coming months.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
1. Know Your Value (And Stick By It!)
What’s the expression? ‘A jack of all trades but a master of none?’
If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t be all things to all people – and that’s okay! In the early days of starting a new business, it’s normal to want to go above and beyond to meet a client’s every need or fill every industry gap, but it’s not sustainable (trust us, we’ve tried).
We’ve learned that to deliver the best results for clients, it’s far better to hone in on your unique talents and do what you do best. For us, that means remembering to be a broker first and a coach second. Small talk isn’t really our thing — we prefer getting stuck into the nitty-gritty details right away! We know this approach might not be for everyone, but once we decided to tell our clients upfront that we were straight-talkers who meant business, everything else fell into place. From here, we created programs that aligned with our brand values and helped our clients gain new business.
2. A Connected, Engaged Community Is Invaluable
Our industry has a reputation for feeling a little lonely sometimes; that’s why we’re proud to have built such a close-knit community of like-minded people through the Success & Broker Proventus Program. The community is collaborative, inclusive, and second to none. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that the care and support our members show one another is enough to make you fall in love with the program alone.
Of course, this is no accident; we built this community with intention.
Before onboarding any new member, we always conduct a two-hour, in-depth business review to understand their needs, goals, and values. We also encourage rigorous, honest conversations with our current members to make sure the program is the right fit. We firmly believe that by putting these steps in place, we can maintain a culture of connected and engaged members who are excited to grow and learn together — priceless!
3. Remember To Put Your Family Plan First
There’s no sugarcoating it; the first year in business is tough. It’s a busy, brilliant time, but without communication and boundaries, it’s easy for your personal life to suffer. We travelled a lot over the past year — a massive privilege for Success & Broker but one that meant numerous flight delays and long days for our team.
So, as we journey into our business’s next level of growth, we know that we’ll need to pay special attention to keeping the pressure off our family unit. We’ve previously written on the blog about the importance of your family plan, how it differs from your business plan, and why it should come first.
It’s safe to say that we still stand by this notion after one year in business.
Honestly, there’s absolutely no point in winning in business if you’re burned out, and miserable or your family suffers at home. The family and business plan should work together to prevent overwhelm and create balance – an essential to go the distance in this industry.
We like to say that our business is about influencing and driving outcomes for better results, not just in business but in life. The bottom line? Don’t get so wrapped up in ‘hustle culture.’ Work on your family plan first so that your family feels supported and excited for your business plan to thrive.
So, What’s Next for Success & Broker?
There you have it: our top three lessons from our first year in business. Now we’d like to spend some time looking ahead to what’s in store for Success & Broker over the next 12 months.
Our focus moving forward will be on setting stronger foundations within the industry by bringing leadership management tools to the market in 2023 – something that we believe will be a game-changer for our clients. Unfortunately, we can’t say too much more at this stage, so you’ll have to stay tuned for more announcements in this space over the following months.
On another positive note, we’re thrilled to announce the Success & Broker team is growing! We welcome Denise Roach, who’ll add a new dimension to the business. Denise is highly experienced in corporate sector training and has worked with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia team for 30+ years. We’re confident you’ll learn much from Denise — as will we!
It has been a brilliant year for our team, and we’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved so far. But, of course, we’ve only just scratched the surface. If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest industry news and gain deeper insights about our first year in business, subscribe to our newsletter.
