Brokerage owners on the struggle to step away from work for a break
Leading a business, with all the pressures that entails, especially in the mortgage business, can be hugely tiring over time. When you own the company, the toll it takes can be even greater – and getting away from work for a well-deserved break can certainly be a challenge. Building trust with a team that can step in to take the reins in your absence is not necessarily quickly achieved, and even if you are confident in your personnel, delegating the day-to-day running of the business may require a leap of faith.
Michelle Ford (pictured left), founder of JML (Financial) Associates, established her business almost 25 years ago, and knows firsthand the value of being able to hand it over while she’s away. “As a business owner, stepping away from the business can feel liberating, but only once you know everything is in safe hands,” she said. “Having the right people in place changes everything. Kate my practice manager and now mortgage and protection adviser is the absolute backbone of JML - she can run the business without me. That trust doesn’t come overnight, it’s built through years of hands-on experience, same values, and continuous training.
“In the early years, I found it incredibly hard to take time off. Like many business owners, I carried everything in my head and found it hard to delegate. But over time, you realise that holding on too tightly can limit your growth. The turning point for me was not just about finding someone capable but empowering them to lead confidently in their own right.”
What would be her advice to other brokerage owners? “Invest in your people,” she said. “Train them properly, share your knowledge, and give them opportunities to step up before you need them to. When you do that, taking a break doesn’t feel like a risk, it becomes a reward for the systems and trust you’ve built. It’s a proud moment when your business can run without you. It’s not just about taking a break it’s proof that you’ve built something strong and sustainable.”
For Gerard Boon, (pictured centre), managing director at Boon Brokers, stepping away from the business is a struggle. “Even though I have scaled the company and delegated its day-to-day operations, I still have the tendency to check in almost every hour,” Boon shared. “I know this is a bad habit - my partner constantly says ‘Stop checking your emails!’ I'm sure many business owners can resonate with this feeling from their partners. Unfortunately, I believe this habit stems from past trauma. When you start a business, the early days are tough. You're metaphorically firefighting new problems on a daily basis. Checking emails or contacting staff frequently is quite therapeutic, assuming the business is running well, as you can relax with the knowledge that your business is operating as it should.”
Boon is well aware that his ‘bad habit’ of checking in on the business is his problem, rather than any judgement of his staff. “My team look after Boon Brokers brilliantly in my absence and I have no need to worry,” he said. “I am becoming more comfortable with leaving the business to its own devices but I'm not quite ready to leave for days on end without making sure that our clients are being assisted to our high standards. It took at least a couple of years of firefighting and being a jack of all trades for the business, by working on every functional area, before I felt comfortable to delegate to others.”
He confided: “I worried that the business would struggle after I started to delegate, but the opposite happened. I would encourage all brokerage owners to delegate as soon as possible but take your time to hire the best people available. If you delegate effectively, you will be able to focus on the areas of the business that you excel in the most and, hopefully one day, you can take a holiday without feeling the need to check your emails.”
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Always being on call for clients
Ben Perks (pictured right), managing director of Orchard Financial Advisers notes that the nature of the job, and the rapport that brokers build with clients, means that they will happily call advisers directly and they are not deterred by an international dialling tone. He muses whether mortgage brokers actually take holidays. “I get it, it’s never bothered me,” Perks said. “Buying houses is an emotive subject and it can be a stressful time for borrowers. Honestly, I think the best way to enjoy your holiday is to make sure you’re all set up for remote working. I take my laptop on every holiday I go on and I am perfectly happy to jump online and take calls before the cervezas start to flow.”
Perks further suggests that, as a business owner, knowing that he can log on if any problems arise actually enables him to relax more while he’s away. “But, you do need to have downtime,” he said. “It is vitally important that your ship is able to keep sailing smoothly without you at the helm. In order to do this, you need to have a trustworthy team of people behind you that have a ‘roll up sleeves and get stuck in’ attitude.”
He added: “I have every confidence that while I’m away the team have the skills, knowledge and confidence to tackle any problems that arise, but I also let them know I’m at the end of the phone if needed.”
David Brown, director of Curzon Financial has just taken his first holiday since starting the business seven years ago, without taking his laptop, which he admits is ‘a big deal’. “I have three young kids and manage a growing company, which is incredibly stressful,” Brown shared in a LinkedIn post. “If cloning myself were an option, I’d do it, but that’s not possible at the moment.I work seven days a week, I’m constantly glued to my laptop or phone, much to my wife’s dismay, to keep everything running smoothly.
“Just a few years ago, I was in Mauritius sending emails on my wedding day. Someone once told me that I needed to make Curzon Financial bigger than myself, and that advice has stuck with me. After 18 months of hard work, I finally feel like I’ve achieved that. My team is incredible, and I trust them to handle things while I’m away. Life is all about finding balance, which I’m striving for.”
