Name: Glenn McMahon and Ron Bradley
Company: Smartline
Current role: Principals
Years in broking: Glenn - 5 years and Ron - 2 1/2 years.

Where has the majority of your business come from over the past six months?

On the residential side - a split between refinancing and standard home loans. On the commercial side - a split between refinancing and commercial investments/business loans.

What is the highest selling product over the past six months?

Basic variable loan

Where do you intend to increase business over the next 12 months?

Already offer commercial loans and leasing. Plan to focus on reverse mortgages over the next 12 months as this provides a steady stream of business that will offset the quiet periods for standard home loans.

What is the most effective form of advertising for your business?

Local paper. Advertise weekly. Bendigo's has a relatively small population of 100,000 and most people read the local paper.

The majority of my referrals come via:

Clients (word-of-mouth). This has increased since we opened the new shop-front.

No. of loans settled per year:

240 ($47m)

Record month:

30

Average month:

20

Average loan amount:

$250,000

Short-term goal:

To continue to contact our existing clients and work closely with them and our new clients to make sure they can handle the current volatile interest rate environment and to ensure they are in the best possible position now and for the future.

Twelve-month plan:

To continue to build our business to an average 25 loans per month @ $250k and consolidate our position as the leading mortgage broker located in Regional or Central Victoria.

Preferred lender and reason:

We don't have any preferred lenders as we try to match our client's need with the most suitable product. Whilst there is a huge number of lenders and products available, many are very similar and therefore in many cases it comes down to service levels both during the course of the application and after funding.

Biggest career challenge and how was this overcome?

Changing our 'banking' mindset. Banks tend to take a standard approach to home loans but there are literally hundreds of mortgage products available so we now consider the application on its individual merits and think 'outside of the box' to find the right solution.

Every broker needs...:

Strong administration and marketing support and good organizational skills.

In my spare time, I like to...:

Glenn - cycle and muck around with the kids.
Ron - play golf.