Harrow & Co director Jayden Brown is close to his goal of writing $100 million in loans a year and a half into starting his own mortgage broking business – and now he has his sights set on bigger things.
Having started up in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire in 2021, the brokerage has doubled its loan book over the last six months, during a period of interest rate uncertainty and reduced borrowing capacity.
This included writing $16 million in February 2023, well over Brown’s $10 million a month target.
Brown said the business’ sharp growth trajectory after launch resulted in him employing his first employee last month, and he has plans to put on another person at the end of this calendar year.
Brown is also considering buying a commercial office space to house his flourishing business.
“Right now, I’m really building a platform for something that will grow to be even bigger and better in the future,” Brown said. “That includes bringing the right people into the business to help me.”
Growing a new business in an uncertain market
Brown is an advocate of the positive potential of the current property market and the opportunities that do exist for clients, rather than focusing on the negatives that dominate the media.
“There’s truth in the saying, ‘be fearful when other people are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful’,” he said. “Down markets are often the time to take advantages of the opportunities.”
Brown said customers in his area often came with stronger financial positions, but he was also servicing customers in other regions and helping local customers with outbound property investment deals.
“People are looking for investment opportunities, and we’ve had people buying in Perth and Queensland of late because the yields are higher and there are opportunities there.”
Brown said choosing staff to help win and service these clients for him came down to personality.
“You need a good image, but it comes down to if you can relate to people. If you can create that instant long-lasting relationship people will want to work with you not just today but tomorrow.
“If clients leave a broker, it’s usually because the relationship is not binding. If that relationship is strong – if they understand and know each other – they are unlikely to use another broker.”
Brown said he was very focused on customer retention and client service, with the understanding that the clients he serviced well now would result in many more client introductions down the line.
Maximising team success will mean business success
Harrow & Co’s initial success has been about doing the “right little things” every day, Brown said.
“When you’re doing the right little things every single day you’re building the bigger picture. It takes more than just one or two pages to write a book – if I do the right little things every day for eight hours – or more like 10 to 12 hours – then every single day that book is being written.”
Brown said it was primarily about client service and relationships, including reaching out to prospects and past clients to successfully generate both new business and referral leads.
“I have a strong rapport with current clients and I’m getting a lot of referrals form current clients,” he said.
Brown has also built a number of strong referral relationships – which he prefers to call friendships.
“People always like to use the words ‘referral partner’, but I prefer to think of them as friendships. They are friendships between two people who have built relationships with each other that want to help each other, and that want the best for each other.”
Once he hits his goal of writing $100 million in a year, Brown said his next goal would be for one of his team members to follow in his footsteps and write $100m in a year as well.
“At the end of the day if I’m doing well and they are doing well, then the whole company is doing well,” Brown said. “If you consolidate everyone’s hard work, I think that sets up a recipe for success.”
