In an exclusive interview with Australian Broker, Mendy Ash, from Bizcap, shares reflections on his journey as a business development manager (BDM) and provides unique insights into the industry, illuminating the intricacies of broker diversification into SME lending.
Having spent nearly 10 years on the consumer side of the industry, Ash made the transition to Bizcap in the last six to 12 months. He expressed enthusiasm about assisting consumer brokers in diversifying into the commercial space, describing the move as a great change.
When asked about industry trends, Ash highlighted the increasing push from aggregators and mentors for brokers to diversify. He noted a significant uptick in broker-introduced volumes over the last six months, with the previous month setting a record.
“What we’re seeing is challenges in the mortgage space and brokers looking to do more with their self-employed clients, including offering business loans and commercial loans, where we specialise,” Ash said.
Watch now: Taking care of business for SMEs
As many brokers are diversifying and seeking to provide lending services for their clients beyond traditional mortgages, especially amid the downturn in the mortgage market, the Bizcap BDM emphasised the unique offerings of the SME lender.
Ash said Bizcap provides brokers the flexibility to write deals themselves or refer clients to the company’s specialists for tailoured solutions.
“What we have at Bizcap is the ability to let the broker refer the deal where they can continue to focus on what they do well in the mortgage space and let us internally write the deal and pay them the referral fee,” Ash said.
“What it does is it helps them grow their revenue with clients, with us, 60% of the time, taking additional funding every time a client takes additional funds.
With the work done internally, brokers can just focus on “thinking and offering and speaking” with their SME clients about their cashflow needs.
He also talked about the advantages of Bizcap being privately funded.
“It gives us BDMs the ability to get on the road and explain to brokers how we look to make deals work,” Ash said. “We try to get as many deals as we can approved where it suits the clients’ needs. We don’t have the sort of warehouse facility, red tape of some other lenders which gives us the ability to think outside the box, which we do very well.”
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