Broker profile - Patrick Cranshaw, North Brisbane Home Loans
Patrick Cranshaw has been in the mortgage broking business for more than 12 years. His business, North Business Home Loans is now going from strength to strength after getting through the GFC and what had been a “soft” market in Queensland until recently. We asked him a series of questions to see if we could get to the bottom of his success.
How did you get into the mortgage broking business? What did you do before?
I was a “Bank Johnny” for 16 years with ANZ in New Zealand. Then I relocated to Brisbane in 2000. I worked at Wizard Home Loans as a BDM throughout QLD before helping to set up the Remax Real Estate Finance division. After that I worked as a broker inside a Remax office for around 12 months and then decided that I could probably have a crack at doing this myself. The rest is history!
What are your top 3 ‘must do’s’ for a successful business?
- Stick around! 80% of success is just turning up!
- Get online. That’s where people will find you. 24% of our new business over the last 12 months has come from internet searches.
- Listen and be genuine. People can see through the BS!
What’s a mistake you’ve made that you’ll never make again?
Over the years I’ve been conned into spending too much on various sorts of advertising… from Yellow Pages, to Moving Trailers, to Videos in doctor’s waiting rooms – I’ve even tried School Calendars! OMG I would have literally spent tens of thousands of dollars!
What works ten times better is keeping it simple. We now work 3-4 websites to generate leads and work on improving relationships with our referral partners. We also subscribe to Connective My Marketing.
How do you promote your business – what advice would you give others about promoting your business?
We have our websites, Facebook, True Local and Google places which all generate leads for us. Because 85% of people use smartphones and Google to find stuff, we can now compete with the big guys on a more specialised local basis.
This works especially well if you have genuine and proper reviews linked to your pages. Not just something you have cut and pasted onto your site under testimonials – you need legitimate reviews. That’s how Google ranks and rates your business and value in your local area.
I would advise brokers to set up a business network group. Meet fortnightly and educate them! Then you will have 20 or so extra sales people and voices advocating your business, telling prospects what you do.
I also suggest you get onto the newsletter service that is provided by Connective. [Connective Gold or Silver My Marketing Subscription]. It is professional and it keeps my face and my business in front of my clients and referrers monthly!
What achievements are you most proud of?
We are currently raising five children in a blended family! Yep, that would be it! Anyone who has kids knows it’s the toughest gig. But when you have three from one set of rules and two from another – and you bring them all together – holy moly! Lucky I have a patient wife!
On the work front, I am proud that I am still here. 12 years before and then after the GFC! I am also proud of being able to contribute to the mortgage broking industry. It’s great that around 50% of all new loans are written from us brokers. Long may it continue!
How is your business tracking? How many employees do you have? Will you be adding more this year?
We are doing much better this year than over the previous 2 years. Getting the business back to where we want to be! For me right now it is a balancing act of getting enough new business to support another writer. I’m also weighing up how hard I want to work!
We outsource our loan writing and administration which frees up time to focus on clients and communication. If we could get a writer on board who is hungry and happy to seek out new business, then yes we would love that. But they are hard to find!
If you found Patrick’s interview inspiring…
Why not follow Patrick Cranshaw and North Brisbane Home Loans on Facebook? Want to adopt some of Patrick’s excellent marketing tactics? Talk to your local Broker Support Manager about our monthly My Marketing eNewsletter that comes with a Gold or Silver My Marketing subscription. We also recommend you check out Connective Socialise – a great way to engage your clients and prospects online. For more information, email us at [email protected] – or just talk with your local BSM.