Former franchise broker’s three-year milestone as an independent business owner 

In 2022, after three years with a major franchise broking group, Melbourne broker Daniel Haikal decided he was ready to launch his own brokerage.  

Since going independent, and choosing to partner with AFG as his aggregator, Daniel’s business, Haikal Finance, has grown steadily year-on-year, and now settles over $35 million a year. The move also afforded Daniel greater flexibility in marketing and his chosen technology suite, as well as deepening his relationship with customers, who return for repeat business and happily refer family and friends.  

As part of a franchise group, Daniel says he felt like “just another broker” one step removed from his clients. By establishing a business that bears his own name, he created “something very intimate and relatable to my clients, which emulates the trust and transparency that I want to have – as opposed to a big corporate company.”  

A strong foundation 

Thanks to his mortgage broker father, Daniel learned about the ins and outs of the industry earlier than most: “I always wanted to do it from high school, but Dad told me that you don’t make much money in the first couple of years, so it’s best to go get a job and build up your savings before you jump in.”  

Taking that fatherly advice, Daniel built up enough savings from a warehouse job to buy his first property, giving him valuable experience of the lending process. In 2018, he jumped into the industry via the franchise model, which provided “the leads and training” to help him find his feet.  

While appreciating this kick start to his broking career, Daniel was disappointed when the franchise group outsourced loan processing to an offshore team, with little broker oversight. “The files would get passed to a team, so I was dealing with a different person for every application I lodged,” Daniel says. “I wanted to look after the application from start to finish and be across the whole process.”  

Knowing that he’d lose his trail after leaving the franchise model, Daniel waited for the right moment to go out on his own, while building up a solid financial buffer to accommodate the transition period.  

A partner for a new phase  

Daniel says AFG was his clear first choice for Haikal Finance’s aggregator partner, with particular mention of their attractive commission model and award-winning technology.  

“It took me about four months to build back my client book, which had taken three years with my previous group,” Daniel says. “At the same time, Dad stepped out of the industry and passed on all his clients for me to look after. The timing of everything just worked out really, really well.”  

Daniel appreciated the blank canvas offered by AFG to tailor his technology stack according to his needs, coupled with on-demand, tailored support. “Being tech-savvy, I picked up the systems pretty quickly,” he says. “The support I relied on was how to scale my business and increase my numbers.”  

To this end, Daniel worked closely alongside his Partnership Manager, Jerome Zaldivia, to create a detailed business plan that included financial projections, risk management strategies and a clear implementation roadmap.  

Daniel cites BrokerEngine as one of the biggest reasons he chose to partner with AFG. “I’m a huge advocate for BrokerEngine,” he says. “Watching its transition from three years ago to now, as BrokerEngine Plus, has been huge.”  

Following the rollout of BrokerEngine Plus, Daniel spent the quieter Christmas period implementing the platform’s direct lodgement to ApplyOnline into his business processes, which now saves a minimum of 30 minutes spent on every application.  

The view from the other side  

Since going independent, Daniel says 90% of his new business leads come from glowing word-of-mouth referrals, and his settlement volume has grown by over 30% year-on-year.  

Haikal Finance has developed a particular reputation for helping first home buyers, and Daniel makes special mention of AFG’s diverse lender panel and resource library, including a downloadable first home buyer guide that he shares with clients, which is a benefit of AFG’s SMART Marketing program.  

In early 2024, Daniel also hired Haikal Finance’s first additional team member, an admin assistant/loan processor in the Philippines. “Hiring someone is probably the best decision I’ve made,” he says. “Having checklists and tasks set up through BrokerEngine has also made processes a lot smoother, as not everything is sitting in my head.”  

Looking back over the last three years as an independent broker, Daniel says he loves hearing clients’ positive feedback because he knows he’s earned it: “Hearing from clients how smooth the process was, from document collection through to settlement, is definitely a proud moment to reflect back on the business and the systems I’ve built.” 

Daniel’s story shows what’s possible when you back yourself as an independent operator. If you’re considering making the switch, find out how AFG can support you every step of the way.