What does growing your business look like to you?
I think we can agree on the outcome of growing your business—increased income, which should lead to increased profits.
How does the journey from now to then look for your business? It’s certainly not linear, or a straight line, nor is there a single route for you to navigate.
So, what will your path to growing your commercial finance brokerage look like?
Increasing client numbers
Business is a numbers game. The more clients you’re doing business with, the greater your income. If you calculate your customer acquisition cost versus revenue correctly, then the margin and profitability will follow the increase in client numbers.
Growing professionally
I’m not here to say that who you are isn’t adequate, but consider how adding professional qualifications and skills could present a better version of yourself when working with clients.
New qualifications could perhaps open the doors to additional revenue.
New qualifications could perhaps open the doors to additional revenue.
Offering more services to existing clients
I’m not an advocate of the ‘supermarket checkout’ approach to selling: “While you are passing, how about….”
However, commercial finance brokers commonly start their business specialising in, and with experience in, specific market segments, and less often are generalists. For example, they have referred businesses in commercial mortgages, specialist BTL, and/or bridging, and now they’re a commercial property finance broker.
You can offer more services to your existing clients that are connected to transactions you’re already doing for them, for example, commercial insurance, foreign exchange, conveyancing, or capital tax allowances.
The client will have to access this service through another source if you do not support them, so wouldn’t the client experience (and potentially outcome) be better if you can act for them in both areas?
You could also diversify the commercial finance products that you work with existing clients in. For example, if you periodically support trading business clients with owner-occupier mortgages, then these same trading businesses are likely to access business finance through another broker a few times a year.
If they trust you with their most valuable asset, would they not welcome the chance to work with one trusted advisor in areas such as asset finance, business loans, invoice finance, or tax funding?
I distanced myself from the ‘supermarket checkout’ analogy earlier – but I’ll happily recommend that you adopt the ‘one-stop shop’ approach!
Adding new revenue streams
Resource constraints can often limit growth ambitions. If you’re run off your feet with all the commercial mortgages and specialist BTL cases you’re working on, how could you consider starting to service clients in asset finance or business loans as well?
An advantage of being an Appointed Representative on a commercial finance network is that while you may be concentrating on your areas of expertise, there should always be additional product areas that your business could access – and bringing in another specialist to work in a different product area can instantly add revenue to your business, as well as open up multiple cross-referral opportunities for you both as you offer more services to your existing clients as well.
At Fiducia Commercial Network, we invest resources and time in helping our Appointed Representative (AR) members grow their businesses.
It starts with a business plan as they join us, ensuring we put the right resources into supporting their business at the right time.
We help our broker members identify product areas and ‘plug-in’ services that support and help their clients with transactions.
The Fiducia Commercial Network proposition provides our AR firms with a commercial finance product range that represents potential additional revenue streams for their businesses. We also provide critical business support, with our internal BDMs there to help with the difficult and complex and celebrate successes with them.
With Fiducia Commercial Network, you’re part of something bigger – imagine what that could mean for YOUR business.
Mark Grant, Managing Director – UK, Fiducia Commercial Network
April 2024.
About Fiducia Commercial Network
Fiducia Commercial Network is a commercial finance ‘Appointed Representative’ network created to allow independent firms to provide commercial property finance and trading business finance options to their existing client base and network.
Joining the network provides opportunities for professional brokers to offer a full range of commercial finance solutions by acting as an Appointed Representative (AR) with the full support of the Fiducia Commercial Network team.
The Fiducia Commercial Network membership includes FCA authorisation and reporting, PI insurance, and NACFB membership, plus business, compliance, finance, system, and admin support from a company with over 20 years’ experience in commercial finance.
If you’d like to discuss joining Fiducia Commercial Network or you’d like to apply to become an Appointed Representative…
To discuss Fiducia Commercial Network or to apply to become an Appointed Representative email the team via by clicking this link.
For all media and marketing enquiries contact – pr@fiduciagroup.co.uk
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