Diversify with alternatives. We’re always trying to plan ahead for any scenarios. We’re trying to keep the company as nimble as possible so we can move in any direction.
We do most of our selling to the larger banks, the Wells Fargos of the world or the Bank of Americas. There was a push a year or so ago of those people maybe getting out of the business of purchasing our loans. In light of that possibility, we got licensed to sell directly to the agencies [Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae] so we had an alternate way of selling our business.
It’s important to always look at alternatives in case things change. Once you’re set for those alternatives, then you can change directions very quickly. If you’re stuck with just one or two ways of doing something and that goes away, a lot of times that puts you out of business.
If you have all your eggs in one basket, that’s a problem. If something changes and you’re not able to diversify, you’re in trouble. We’re always looking for ways to diversify our business. If somebody is selling a product and all their products go to Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart decides to stop selling that product, what is that company going to do? I’d want to be able to have other avenues. You always have to look for ways to diversify other avenues to place your product and be ready to move if the climate changes.
Don’t take your eye off your core focus, but just [keep] looking for opportunities to diversify your business in case things change.
Plan for the future. So let’s say one of our goals is to double our volume of sales in the next two years. We’ll break that right down to the minute detail: What has to happen in the IT department in order to make that happen? What has to happen in the accounting department to double our volume? Are we going to need more people? Are we going to need a different accounting system in place? What has to happen in each department, whether it’s adding more people, adding systems, procedures, whatever?
We have certain goals that each senior manager has to accomplish before the next monthly meeting. He would take his goals; he would then meet with his department [and] say, ‘Here’s what we have to accomplish in the next 30 days when I report back.’
We hold each other responsible for doing the big-picture items in addition to doing the day-to-day things. We also have a weekly meeting on this so we take an hour and a half to two hours every week to see how we’re doing on this.
We talk about it all the time. It’s in everything we do. At every meeting, it’s discussed, it’s reminded. You just have to plaster it everywhere.
How to reach: First Preferred Mortgage Co., (800) 700-5839 or www.firstpreferred.com
