Podcast #12 - Local, to regional, to national… How to scale your brokerage

In episode 12 of the Growth Series podcast, Jeremy Duncombe, Director of Intermediaries at Accord Mortgages, is joined by Darren Pescod, owner and CEO of The Mortgage Broker LTD to discuss how brokers can scale up their businesses. They talk about Darren’s personal experience of growing his business from a one man band to a major player in the sector, as well as how mortgage broker businesses can manage the challenges of scaling up.

At The Mortgage Broker LTD, being part of the first wave of mortgage businesses to use digital marketing techniques such as pay per click advertisements and search engine optimisation helped them generate leads across the country. They used these national leads to evolve into the telephone based operation they remain today. Darren highlights how continually finding new ways of doing business is essential to rapidly increase your number of leads.

Although factors like location are always big challenges when moving from being a local operation to a regional one or national one, having great employees is always the most important thing. Finding the right staff and then making sure they are in a position to deliver their best service can be tough, especially when a business is growing fast.

Making mistakes is part and parcel of scaling up a business. Darren emphasises that you’re never going to get it right 100% of the time. The best thing you can do is learn from your mistakes and use the things you don’t get quite right to do it better when the opportunity arises.

When you hire the wrong staff you need to get them out of the business quickly, whereas when you find a great member of staff you need to provide them with enough incentives to stay. This can include options like the flexibility to work from home, a friendly office environment and a competitive salary.

When it comes to organising a growing team, establishing common goals is important. These allow you to create a shared sense of purpose and a happy team. They should also enable you to keep the business as a whole moving in the right direction.

The Growth Series is a dedicated resource that aims to help mortgage brokers grow their business using digital and communications marketing techniques. For more hints and tips on how to grow your business, you can sign up to the Growth Series for free, here.

Podcast #12

0.00  - 1.10 Welcome and introduction

1.10 - 24.05  In conversation with Jeremy Duncombe, Director of Intermediaries at Accord Mortgages, is Darren Pescod, owner and CEO of The Mortgage Broker LTD, discussing the process of scaling up a business, specifically detailing:

• Darren’s own experience of growing The Mortgage Broker LTD

• How to find new ways of lead generation

• Coping with the challenges of growth

28.03 - 29.13 Outro