First and foremost, Happy New Year, Earthlings! Each New Year gives us a chance to look back over the previous one and celebrate our successes as well as reevaluate those endeavors that may need some refining. This is especially important in the credit union mortgage industry.
While it’s great to look at what we did right (and certainly celebrate our successes), it’s even more valuable to examine what we can do better. We do this on a day-to-day basis at myCUmortgage—the New Year is simply an ideal opportunity to clearly focus on our plan moving forward. On a personal level, we think of these as annual resolutions, but they are no different than your credit union’s annual goals.
So what are the top resolutions for the credit union mortgage business? I happened across an article on The Balance that looked at this from a more general small business approach. What I discovered is that many of their resolutions apply to our industry as well. Let’s take a look at a few and put them in the context of credit union mortgages.
Learn Something New: Investing in your professional development is important if you plan to succeed in helping more members into homes. By attending training, you keep current on the mortgage tools available to you that can be used to better assist members. Plus, you increase your personal knowledge of individual solutions and the industry in general, allowing you to provide the expert guidance your members seek.
Set Realistic Goals: I love what The Balance had to say about this: “Goal setting is a valuable habit if the goals lead to success rather than distress.” No more pipe dreams for you—keep your goals to things that are attainable and produce actual results. Don’t let unrealistic goals frustrate you.
Delegate and Do More: This is the story of my alien life! Even with multiple tentacles, I always take on too much. The fact of the matter is we all have a lot to do, but if we’re going to truly treat our members with the five-star experiences they deserve, we need to take some things off of our plate. Be it a small task like making the name tags for an upcoming home buyer seminar or something bigger like analyzing the latest data from weekly myCUmortgage reports, it’s something you can entrust with your colleagues and gives them the opportunity to show what they can do.
Promote Your Business Regularly and Consistently: Marketing is not a flash in the pan, one-and-done tactic. Not only do you need to get your members’ attention as well as that of potential new members, but you need to nurture them and continually feed them additional and new information about your credit union and mortgage solutions.
Make Business Planning a Weekly Event: Much like marketing, you don’t want to make your business plan at the start of the year and simply set it on the shelf; you need to make it a living, breathing document that you attend to on a weekly basis. Such activity helps ensure you’re on track to meet your goals and set new goals as they become apparent. Weekly myCUmortgage reports, as mentioned above, are great tools for your weekly planning.
Network: What better tool to get new ideas and expand your reach in the credit union mortgage industry than networking. Join local groups and organizations that allow you to get out amongst your colleagues and potential members. Make sure to set a strategy when approaching these networking events and get the most out of your time… and theirs!
Give Back to Your Community: This is the Credit Union Way, after all, and it’s another opportunity to expand your networking while supporting a good cause. Helping out with charitable and special events speaks volumes about the dedication of your credit union to the good of the community.
Put “Me” Time on Your Calendar: This resolution is two-fold. First, it’s a commonly used tactic in productivity training. I always thought it was a great idea, but it wasn’t until recently that I implemented it with fantastic results! Until you take time for yourself and your own responsibilities, you don’t realize the number of interruptions you experience throughout the workday.
The second part of this is to use that time to treat yourself. You work hard, and your members see that. Don’t you think they want you to take some time to do something you enjoy? You already know the answer to that one!
Don’t Just Make Do; Get a New One: Sure, budgets are real and you need to stay within their boundaries; however, if you have equipment that doesn’t perform as it should or certain aspects of your facility make it hard to work effectively, your productivity suffers. Invest in a solid foundation and tools—physical and digital—and the return on your investment will be plentiful.
Drop What’s Not Working and Move On: I’m definitely a culprit of trying and trying to make something work the way I want and not recognizing that my efforts are becoming futile. Don’t be a victim of this. Yes, whether it’s a mortgage product, marketing campaign or new partnership, you need to give your tactics an opportunity to succeed. But, you also need to be cognizant of potentially overinvesting your energy into an impossible cause.
These are just a few potential resolutions for your credit union business. See which ones work best for you, your credit union and your members. Use this list as your launch pad to an exciting and successful adventure throughout 2020, and always remember that Mort and the experts of myCUmortgage have your back. Onward and upward!