Cover
franchises
LJ Hooker Financial Services
Smartline Name: Chris Acret Years in industry: 16 No. of years with franchise: 15 How did you get started in mortgage business? Joined up with the Higgins brothers in the early days of Mortgage Choice. How has your career Chris Acret evolved? Started with Ernst & Young, worked overseas and travelled for a couple of years, joined Mortgage Choice in 1993, established Smartline in 1999. What makes your franchise special? Smartline has is a really positive and supportive team culture, smart marketing and exceptional software and systems. What’s been your biggest obstacle? For a while there it felt that we were swimming upstream, trying to build a quality business and a team culture in an industry that was all about volume and aggregation. But the tide seems to be turning. What’s been the highlight of your career? Seeing people come into business and make a real success out of it and the confidence that gives them is really gratifying. Also seeing the friendships that develop and the way our people get behind each other when they’re in need. It feels like we’re building something that people care about and makes a difference. What’s your long-term goal? It’s always been to build a quality business with 300 (happy) franchises that really stands apart.
“Although Peter Bromley is the general manager of LJ Hooker Financial Services and is seen as the founding member of developing the business since 2004, LJ Hooker Financial Services chose to highlight its top founding franchise owner, Sarah Dougan: As LJ Hooker Financial Services is a franchise business, we prefer to highlight the successes of our network rather than our corporate members” – company spokesperson.
Name: Sarah Dougan Years in industry: 6 No. of years with franchise: 5 How did you get started in mortgage business? I initially spent seven years with the lending arm of Associated Press (now Genesys Wealth Advisors) Sarah Dougan before making the transition to work within the real estate sector of finance with LJ Hooker Financial Services. I was working in lending from the financial planning side of things as I thought it was more interesting. I was then introduced to the team at LJ Hooker Financial Services and moved across to this franchise model. How has your career evolved? When I first started working under the LJ Hooker Financial Services banner I had one assistant working two days a week. From there I have expanded the business to the North Shore, Northern Beaches, the Hills area and Outer West. I now employ over 20 mortgage brokers writing $50m per month, and have even launched a financial planning pilot plus commercial franchise. What makes your franchise special? The trusted LJ Hooker Financial Services brand opens the door every time. You do not have to explain your background and who you are because of this. It’s also great to belong to the LJ Hooker Financial Services “family” instead of being out on your own. What’s been your biggest obstacle? The move across to real estate finance was a steep learning curve, made even more difficult by the fact that I was on my own. It was definitely harder and took a lot longer than I expected for me to get things moving. And I had to fund everything myself. What’s been the highlight of your career? I would have to say winning Business of the Year the first time for PLAN Australia and LJ Hooker Financial Services – the first time is always such a shock and shows that you are building a viable business that’s not totally reliant on just you alone! What’s your long-term goal? I would like to continue to build a great team and sustainable business model offering a ‘one stop shop’ solution for LJ Hooker Financial Services clients.
franchise facts The Franchise Australia 2008 Survey found that business confidence in the franchising sector remains high. Key findings of the survey include: • An impressive continued 14.6% growth rate in franchise systems from 2006 to mid 2008. • Business format franchised units represent some 3.7% of all small businesses in Australia. • Growth rate of franchise units is 15.4% up again from the 14.6% reported from 2004 to 2006. • Total sales turnover for the franchising sector was estimated to be $130bn • Total number of people employed in business format franchise systems is estimated to be 413,500. • Disputes in the franchise sector have declined with franchisees in dispute estimated at only 2% – these disputes tend to be in larger, older and more complex systems. • There is evidence of stability in the sector with 93% of franchising units remaining under the same ownership.
brokernews.com.au
43