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If your accounting career isn’t as fulfilling as it used to be, why not make 2024 the year you build a successful mortgage broking business?
Accountant one day, broker the next
07 March 2024
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3 minute read
Josh Sullivan
Franchise owner of Mortgage Choice Bowral
In broking, you can apply your financial knowledge and relationship skills to create your own business, your own way. There are no limitations to what you can achieve as a Mortgage Choice franchise owner.
This is exactly what happened for Josh Sullivan. After two decades working in accounting. Josh was inspired by a friend to look into becoming a mortgage broker.
“The idea of owning my own business and being my own boss was something that had always appealed to me,” Josh said. “My accounting background meant I already knew how to run businesses and manage people. I understood what type of financial information lenders were looking for. It was a great base to get into broking.”
After completing his mortgage broking training and qualifications, Josh purchased an existing Mortgage Choice business in April 2021 from the former owner who was retiring. Retaining the existing team and loan book meant he had a steady stream of business and revenue from day one.
“Having the trail commission from that loan book has given me a lot of comfort over the last 18 months,” he said. “I haven’t been impacted much from fluctuations within the market, because I have that trail coming in each month.”
“There’s a direct correlation between what you put into the business and what you get out of it. In corporate, you might be doing 60 or 70 hours a week and not seeing a change in your pay grade from year to year from all that effort. Whereas when you own a broking business, if you put in the hard work and get big results, then you’re directly remunerated for that effort. The amount of opportunity within this industry is huge.”
“There’s a direct correlation between what you put into the business and what you get out of it. In corporate, you might be doing 60 or 70 hours a week and not seeing a change in your pay grade from year to year from all that effort. Whereas when you own a broking business, if you put in the hard work and get big results, then you’re directly remunerated for that effort. The amount of opportunity within this industry is huge.”
What Josh loves most about his new career is that it has given him the opportunity to meet and engage with people in his local community, something he missed when he was spending three hours a day commuting to and from Sydney for his accounting job.
“I'm now embedded within my local community, which I love,” he said. “I’ve done loans for customers and we’ve become great friends afterwards. I have the freedom and flexibility to attend community events, like the local races, and go to concerts and assemblies at my daughter’s school.”
While his accounting background gave him a great head start, Josh still had to put in a lot of work to learn about broking processes and lender policies. He says the support of the Mortgage Choice team and lender Business Development Managers helped him navigate his first months of running his business. He also leaned on the Mortgage Choice broker network.
Josh said, “You can call anyone at any time if you’re having problems with a lender or processes or systems. I’d ask them, ‘How are you navigating this issue? What have you done in the past for this?’. Never have I had anyone say they didn’t want to talk to me or give away their information.”
If you’re an accountant considering making the move into mortgage broking, Josh recommends reaching out to the Mortgage Choice team to chat about whether the industry might be a good fit for you.
“Find out if there’s something about the industry that speaks to you and will help you gain what’s currently missing in your life – whether it’s time, money or community engagement,” he said. “Those things are all available and easy to access within broking. Have that conversation and they'll lay everything out for you so you know exactly what to expect and can plan for the future.”
If you’d like to know more about becoming a Mortgage Choice franchise owner or expanding your accounting business to include mortgage broking, chat to one of our Recruitment Specialists about your options. Book an appointment
