‘’After I finished my A Levels, I decided that I wanted to go straight into the world of work rather than going to university, and I got my first proper job working for Nat West in London in 1986. I worked there until 1996 in many roles, but the most enjoyable by far was working on the West End mortgage desk where my skills in talking to people were put to good use.
Eventually I had enough of the commute so moved to a job at the Woolwich in Sevenoaks, before being offered a role with a large national mortgage brokerage based locally in Seal. This was a great opportunity for me and I knew I could do the job well. The skills required came easily and I really enjoyed it. I worked for them until 2005, by which time I was in my late 30’s and really wanted to start my own business. It felt like the right time, so I took the plunge. I had a good boss and we parted on great terms, and I still really appreciate every opportunity that they gave me.
We launched our mortgage broking business in 2005 and re-named to Mother Goose Mortgages in early 2007. The credit crunch of 2008/09 forced us to make some radical changes to our lives and business. You learn a lot about yourselves and your business when the environment is tough, and it made us look hard at what worked and what didn’t. We decided to re-focus on building relationships, on really getting to know people and their needs, and that has served us well ever since.
We’re in a good place now, the mortgage technical bit is numbers and core knowledge, but the soft bit is talking to people and finding out exactly what they want from the transaction. The soft questions help us to understand the true nature of what our clients want to achieve.
The most rewarding thing for me is my family. I’ve got two great teenagers that I really enjoy spending time with, and we live in a lovely community in Speldhurst. I’m Chairman at the village cricket club (I am a very average cricketer!), where we have a big junior section and I have helped coach them over the years. I help run the village bar at our annual fete and have also helped out as a junior leader with the local Scouts. Back in 2008/09 nobody wanted a mortgage, so we spent a lot of time with our kids and getting involved in our village community, and we’re reaping the rewards of that now.
At the moment, we just want to continue to grow our business organically. We have built our reputation and business by ‘word of mouth’ and if happy clients continue referring us at the current rate, our business will have more than doubled in ten years. That works for us.’’
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Mother Goose Mortgages are a small, friendly, professional company based in Tunbridge Wells, on the Kent/Sussex border, offering financial services for Home Buyers or remortgages alike. We are very proud that the vast majority of our work comes from personal recommendations from existing clients and word of mouth, which means that our customer base now expands across the UK and continues to grow year on year.
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