Step Up to the Job of Running a Business

The best and most successful mortgage loan originators work for themselves. They might have the logo of some company on their business card or get their paycheck issued from a big national bank, but in their minds and hearts they work for themselves.
They got into this business not just for the upside financial opportunity to make big money, but for the freedom and flexibility to be their own boss and exercise their entrepreneurial spirit. As one top producer recently said to me, “Every great loan originator is essentially self-employed. The day I decided to stop working for someone else and start working for myself is the day my career changed forever.” That’s good advice, considering it comes from a guy who last year funded over $56 million dollars.
People who work for themselves think and act decidedly different from people who see themselves as an employee of some company. Rather than looking to their company to feed them leads and make them successful, they take complete ownership for their results. If you are interested in acquiring this “I-own-it” mindset in your mortgage loan origination business, here are seven things you’ve got to have:
1. You’ve got to have goals. Clear, challenging yet attainable goals serve as the measurement of your progress and success. These include annual and monthly loan production volume goals, unit goals (closings), income goals and purchase loan versus refinance loan application goals. If you don’t have those now, you’re not a business owner; you are just another loan originator working on someone else’s goals. If you have specific goals like these, you are on your way to the second key element to running your own business, which is…
2. You’ve got to be accountable. Don’t expect your boss or anyone else to hold you liable for your goals; that’s your job. If you hit your key goals each month you should congratulate yourself and celebrate your success. If you fall short, you need to schedule a one-on-one coaching session with yourself and explore why you failed and what you must do differently to get back on track. Business owners are responsible to deliver on their promises and goals. That’s what makes them owners.
3. You have to be disciplined. Who is responsible to see that you get to the office on time every morning, put in a full day’s work, and follow through on your intended plans? You are. Sure, you can spend your time running personal errands, chatting with your co-workers, texting friends or slipping out early on Fridays. Just remember that your boss is watching (that’s you!) and he or she sees everything. Some originators are highly-disciplined in how they operate their businesses and manage their days, and it shows in the exceptional loan volume they produce and the big paychecks they cash every month.      
4. You have to invest your time wisely. Any job at any business is mostly about trading time for money. When the business is yours it becomes vital that you are aware of how your time is spent every single day. What is the highest and best use of your talents? That’s where you should spend the bulk of your time. What should you not be doing? That’s what you let go of, hand off, or hire and pay others to do. Are you aligning yourself with top quality real estate agents and other referral partners who can contribute positively to your business? If you want to prosper and grow, it is essential that you are. Do you accept and work on quality loans from quality borrowers? If you don’t, your business will suffer and possibly fail. Time, as we all know, is money. How you spend your time and who you spend it with will dictate how much money you can make.
5. You have to invest in your business. Businesses cost money to run: money for marketing, advertising and customer contact. It costs money to upgrade technology, to join networking groups and industry associations and to attend seminars and learning events. It takes money to buy good books and CDs to discover successful sales and business practices of others, and to buy thank you gifts for your clients and referral partners. Where does that money come from? “Employed” originators expect their companies to pay for these things. Business owner-type originators pay for these things themselves, and they do so willingly.
6. You have to be proactive. Business owners see opportunities, make decisions, and take action. They aren’t waiting on success to find them or expecting the market to drive their results month after month. They are in the “driver’s seat” calling the shots and leaning forward. To run your business, you’ll have to do likewise. You will need to take some risks, try new things and expand your comfort zone into new markets and new loan products. Think of the most successful business owners of our time. Doesn’t “proactive” perfectly describe every one of them?
7. You have to create customers. The primary mission of every business is to create customers. It doesn’t matter if you are in computer software, the airline industry or home financing, the more customers you can create the more successful your business will become. As the business owner, you are the rainmaker. You are the one charged with finding new customers and the one responsible to retain your existing clients so they can come back to you again and again and tell all their friends about how wonderful you and your company treats them. You can possess all the knowledge, skills, experience and mortgage expertise in the world, but it is the number of customers you serve that ultimately defines your success.