Smartline Personal Mortgage Advisers have been labelled Australia’s top franchise.
Smartline took out the honour in the 2016 edition of the Topfranchise Awards, run by SEEK Business and market research firm 10 Thousand Feet. Smartline was also the only mortgage franchise in the awards’ top-10 franchises.
The awards see franchises judged across six categories; brand, passion, advice, marketing, support, expansion and lifestyle. Smartline was judged to be the top franchise in the areas of passion, marketing, support and lifestyle.
2016 is the eighth straight year Smartline has taken the number one spot in the awards and managing director Chris Acret told
Australian Broker he hopes that may help some brokers see the positives that can come from being involved in a franchise.
“People can have some different perceptions of what a franchise is. They might think it’s about shopfronts or territories or a brand or rules or whatever. With Smartline, it’s all about a system and a team approach. While everyone is going to operate a bit differently, having a best practice approach means that we can systemise the business to a much higher degree which is a huge benefit,” he told
Australian Broker.
“The other major benefit of the franchise is that you don’t have to re- invent the wheel and do everything yourself. It’s designed to provide you the support so you can focus more on the core business of writing loans.”
Smartline’s ranking in the marketing and support catergories is an example of that Acret said, with the company’s focus in those areas about helping brokers generate leads and repeat business while keeping operating costs down.
While Smartline is rated highly in a number of areas, Acret told
Australian Broker he believes there is one area where the company sets itself apart.
“I think the main thing is probably our culture. We have a very strong team culture at Smartline. It’s not like a corporate environment, or being on your own, it’s a community where you’re a part of something,” Acret told
Australian Broker.
“Our franchisees help each other, they share information and that’s a huge business benefit to everyone. They have great friends within the network and that makes the business much more enjoyable,” he said.
