Broking Success: Prospering with a positive mindset

Describe your insurance journey?

I started at Aon Global in London in 2009, which an amazing place to work because it is the home of insurance. From Aon I went on to Marsh [in August 2014], and relocated to Manchester. 

It was the best decision I ever made because it allowed me to be able to see the wider industry and understand retail insurance broking outside of London.

So, I had a head of office role for two years then was regional leader of the North and Scotland for five years until 2019.

In 2019, I decided to resign. Marsh had been fantastic for me, but it was time to do something different and fully embrace the entrepreneurial instincts that I had developed while I was in Manchester. 

I spent a year on gardening leave, which I used to co-create a boutique specialist broker, and that was the beginning of Broadway Insurance Brokers.

We officially launched the business in March 2020 – a time we all remember because of Coronavirus.

How has Broadway performed since it started?

When we launched Broadway and recruited our first staff, we went into think-tank mode for six months and began to trade in August. Since then, it has been a very busy two and a half years, and by the end of the year we will be at £10m gross written premium.  

I would not have expected us to be [this successful] at this point; we budgeted conservatively. But we are in the midst of a rapidly consolidating broker marketplace where there are fewer options for the typical customer we work for. 

Positive client sentiment, and our own commercial acumen, are other reasons for our growth. We do not just cater for clients’ insurance needs, but we have also focused on their financial and psychological happiness.

Positive client sentiment, and our own commercial acumen, are other reasons for our growth. We do not just cater for clients’ insurance needs, but we have also focused on their financial and psychological happiness.

When it comes to recruitment, we have also made sure that we hire excellent people who are trusted advisers. 

We put a lot of emphasis on people and hiring the right candidates. This is especially important because when organisations get to a certain size it becomes harder to consistently deliver on the people side of the business.

Where would you like Broadway to be in three years?

[Relating to that last point] I would like to have embedded in Broadway a world-class training and coaching programme because it is so important to support people. So, we are going to try and do something different for new starters, and also introduce a future talent programme.

We do not want to turn people away straight away, because what we are finding is that there are [potential recruits] who I know with the right personal development path will be right for us in 12 months.

We have made sure that we hire excellent people who are trusted advisers. We put a lot of emphasis on people and hiring the right candidates.

Therefore, we are not going to end their journey or disrupt it; we are going to help them get to where they want to be. We will coach and develop them in the background, personally and professionally.

I want to ramp up our GWP too, and how we do that is key. So if we focus on the £10m GWP by the end of the year and then look for incremental gains, you can see this organisation being more substantial in three years’ time.

The plan is for our business to go from centralised to decentralised. Currently, we are a centralised business in Cheshire, which is our headquarters.

But in the near future you will see Broadway rebrand slightly and we will be move into other geographies with the purpose of encouraging product and geographic expansion.

How have you found the start-up industry since you began?

It has changed, even over the past few years because of the Covid-19 pandemic and other economic and political factors. Broadway has been fortunate, but I think it is because we are a flexible and hybrid organisation. We are not trying to recreate a culture that was 150 years in the making. 

Over the past three years, the insurer community has been key to our success by creating a dynamic where we have true insurance partners.

As a start-up, we began at a pivotal watershed moment in time, with the Covid-19 pandemic, and it has allowed us to be well-placed for what has happened subsequently.

The start-up community is something you can only really grasp by doing and understanding it.

What I have seen, particularly in insurance broking, is that it welcomes well thought propositions that have substance and a willingness to execute a well-defined plan. 

Over the past three years, the insurer community has been key to our success by creating a dynamic where we have true insurance partners. Partners who allow us to have a broad distribution in the marketplace – both commercially and personally – and want to co-create and grow as we do.

What is the present main focus for Biba in the Greater Manchester region?

Currently, it is the access to the industry. We are putting a lot of time and effort into educating and promoting our industry. We are going out and giving Career Day presentations and forming connections, but it is for the benefit of our own organisations.

We are also focusing on diversity and inclusion, and try to make sure the committee is well balanced as that is of paramount importance.

Are you still part of the Business in the Community and what does it entail?

The trust is excellent. I sit on a development committee across the northwest, and they do wonderful work for disadvantaged children, raising funds and organising events. 

The trust is an outreach charity promoting responsible business practices that works with companies in the UK and internationally that have the ambition to improve their impact upon society.