How to spend time wisely as a mortgage broker

Mortgage brokers earn their keep through commissions, so they don’t get paid like other professions might by the ticking of the clock. But as it does with any modern professional, time still plays a vital role in a mortgage broker’s life, because it determines how productive they are. If you spend twice as long to earn the same amount as the broker next to you, that means you’re half as productive. The key, then, is to make sure you’re using your time well.

The 80/20 principle

Think about all the different tasks you undertake in your working day. How many of them contribute directly to your revenue as a mortgage broker? If you’re like most people, probably very few. This is commonly known as the 80/20 principle: the idea that 80 per cent of the results come from 20 per cent of the efforts. In other words, not everything you do during the working day contributes equally to your paycheck.

Obviously, everything you’re doing should contribute at least indirectly (otherwise you could stop doing it), but the point is that you should spend more of your time doing the things that give the most bang for the buck.

Where does a mortgage broker’s time go?

For mortgage brokers, the thing that brings in income is settling loans. In a sense, everything else you do is ancillary to this. But as you may well know, a mortgage broker’s day is not one that’s only filled with this task. There are a million other things that have to be done in order to get to this final step: lead generation, interviewing clients, filling out paperwork, doing research, dispensing advice, working through compliance requirements – the list goes on.

The savvy broker will look at the makeup of their own workday (as everyone’s is different) and ask themselves, “How much time am I wasting on tasks that don’t contribute to me settling more loans?” Do you spend hours on social media? Do you have a lot of admin that could be automated? How much of your day is lost to a commute? These are the kinds of things that, if tamed, can increase your profitability per hour worked by removing those tasks that aren’t contributing to your business’s growth.

If you’re looking for a brokers group that can help you with your business goals (including becoming more productive), look no further than Redrock.