4 minute read
Brokerage insight
Empowering women for career success
From humble beginnings 20 years ago, Suzanne O’Connor and Melita Beilicz have built up their highly successful all-female brokerage to support and encourage women in the mortgage finance industry
CANBERRA-BASED brokerage Dominion Finance has just celebrated 20 years in business, and director Suzanne O’Connor knows it’s come a long way and much has changed in that time.
Prior to launching the brokerage in 2002 with co-founder Melita Beilicz, O’Connor different aggregators, with three of the changes out of our control, all with different customer relationship CRMs and databases, which always causes a lot of upheaval to our business.”
O’Connor says loyalty is really important to business success.
“I have many clients that have come back
spent 10 years working at NAB, where she started out in 1987.
“It’s here where I first met Melita,” she says. “Melita left NAB and went on to St. George and then joined Bendigo Bank, where I joined her a short time later.
“It didn’t take long before we realised we could offer the customer a superior service offering, and from our dining room tables Dominion Finance was born.”
When O’Connor first began working as a broker 20 years ago, she says it was very different to how it is today.
“Brokers were only writing less than 20% of loans, and there was not a lot of regulation. Over the years the industry has changed so much, and along with that we’ve had five to me numerous times for loans, along with their families and friends.
“Our current staff have been with us for many years, as our goal is to take capable young women from loans process officers to highly successful brokers. I care a great deal about the positive impact I can have by helping both clients and staff achieve their goals.”
Dominion Finance specialises in residential home loans and investment loans and is committed to providing excellent service. It also handles a small amount of commercial lending.
The brokerage has a wide range of clients, and while many are public servants due to its Canberra location, its customers also include tradies and small business clients.
“I have found over the years I will do a loan for someone in a particular industry, for example paramedics, and they will tell their colleagues about me, and then I’ll be doing loans for many Canberra paramedics,” O’Connor says.
“By offering excellent service, I have found that my clients will tell their family, friends and colleagues, and this produces a lot of new enquiries each day.”
One of the defining features of Dominion Finance, which helps it stand out from other broker businesses, is that all its staff are women.
“When Melita and I started in 2002 we would go to PD days and functions, and we
DOMINION FINANCE AT A GLANCE
Owners: Suzanne O’Connor and Melita Beilicz
Location: Forrest, ACT
Year founded: 2002
Services offered: Residential, investment and commercial lending
Number of employees: 6 mortgage brokers and 3 support staff
The Dominion Finance team (from left): Amber Redmayne, mortgage broker; Molly McDonald Crowley, mortgage broker; Suzanne O’Connor, director and mortgage broker; Melita Beilicz, director and mortgage broker; Leonie Walz, mortgage broker; and Alicia Wilkinson, mortgage broker. Support staff (not pictured) are Jamie Evans, Lauren Viney and Eskie Gavel
would be the only women in the room,” says O’Connor.
The pair made a conscious decision to help change this. O’Connor says they knew from their own experience “that this is a great industry for women with young children as you can be flexible with your working hours”.
“We would often do our appointments at night to work around the family timetable,” she says.
“We also look to mentor, nurture and support women in our industry in any way we can. This is an industry with very flexible hours and without a predetermined salary level, so women can thrive throughout all stages of their lives.”
So, how does Dominion Finance inspire women to join the male-dominated world of mortgage broking?
“We work on the philosophy that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’, so hopefully if young women see this team of females in finance they will consider this industry as a femalefriendly industry,” O’Connor says. “Over the years, Melita and I have really seen this change, and it’s fantastic.”
Dominion Finance has experienced tremendous growth in the last 12 months.
“We’ve written our highest loan amounts in our history. With the boom in house prices and people’s fear of missing out, we’ve seen an increase across the board from new home buyers, investors, refinancing for better deals, and people buying holiday houses as they could not travel overseas.”
O’Connor says she really enjoys seeing clients purchase their new homes.
“I also try to make them feel relaxed and comfortable to ask any questions they have and feel they have a trusted adviser who is always available.
“It’s especially satisfying working with young first home buyers and setting them off on their life wealth journey; or assisting generations of the one family who all know me as ‘their broker’ who they can completely trust.”
As for the future, O’Connor says the next 12 months are going to be challenging, with rising interest rates and inflation.
“We have many of our clients coming off fixed rate loans that we will have to work with to achieve a great deal for their next home loan.
“Personally, I’m looking forward to a holiday,” she says. “It’s been such an intense past two years – a break would be wonderful.”
