Sydney finance broker and director is reflecting on a productive first 12 months in his new career, in which he settled $135 million in loans.
Nicholas Wilcox (pictured above) began working at Blue Crane Capital in July 2021. He was previously working at St.George Bank as a commercial banker, a role which involved liaising with brokers.
“In 2021, I decided it was time to resign from the bank,” Wilcox told Australian Broker. “As I was leaving, just before starting at Blue Crane Capital, my wife gave birth to our baby and we went into a snap three-month lockdown all at the same time. It was certainly a very interesting time.”
Wilcox said during the first three months of his new role, he was unable to see clients face to face and all meetings with clients were via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
“Things shifted so quickly and people pivoted to make it through the lockdown,” he said. “I set the goal of settling $100 million in loans during my first year (July 2021-June 2022). It was an ambitious target, especially in my first year, but I am proud to say I achieved it.”
Wilcox said he doubted whether he could achieve the goal he had set himself.
“I thought I might not be able to do it because the sales pipeline cycle means you do not settle deals until after the first three months, so when I hit the end of the three months, I thought to myself I need to get a wriggle on here,” he said.
“Thankfully, I landed a couple of deals where another brokerage thought they had secured the deal, however the other broker couldn’t finalise it for whatever reason. We were so busy during last year with new business flowing through door, so it was a good time to be in the industry and keep pushing towards reaching my goal.”
Wilcox said he focuses on providing solutions for self-employed, residential property investors, high net worth clients and commercial property investors.
“It can be complicated at times but having strong relationships and connections with bankers across all segments – business bank, private bank, commercial and corporate accounts allow us to work and provide solutions with confidence,” he said.
“At the start of FY22, I finished my first six months to the end of the calendar year, so now I have been able to have a full calendar year to work hard on deals. Initially I wanted to reach $100 million, then I bumped it to $125 million earlier this year and now I successfully settled $135 million by December 31.”
Wilcox shared three key learnings that he picked up during 2022:
- Tap into your existing network
- Build relationships with referral partners (accountants, buyers agents and real estate agents)
- Build strong relationships with lender BDMs
Blue Crane Capital founder and managing director Chris Hall, who was named one of Mortgage Professional Australia’s Young Gun winners in 2019, also made the move from commercial banking to broking.
In November, Blue Crane Capital was announced as one of the winners of Australian Broker’s Fast Brokerages 2022, celebrating the nation’s fastest growing mortgage broker businesses.
