Kiwi Business Story: Lucia Xiao from Finax

Lucia Xiao is the owner and founder of Finax, an Auckland-based mortgage, insurance, property education and coaching/mentoring business. Lucia has built a NZ$17m property portfolio in just five years.

Location: Auckland 
Business Type: Mortgage advisory, Property Investment coaching  
Founded: 2016 
Number of employees: 18 
Current Business Situation: Rapid and accelerated growth over past 18 months 
Relationship with The Icehouse: Owner Manager Programme Alumni

How did you arrive in the business?  

I formed the business in 2016. I have a background in banking and finance with ASB. Initially it was just me and an assistant at Finax for about four years and then 18 months ago I started to see this as being a real business for more than just myself. In August 2020 I started employing more and more people and it was during Covid that the business really started growing. 

What are your current challenges?  

About four years ago I realised I needed to invest in myself. I have good financial knowledge, but I didn’t know how to run a business every day. I didn’t know much about marketing, and presenting, and some of the other important skills I needed to make the business grow – like how to manage people.  

In August 2020, I saw Covid as a great opportunity as people were uncertain about the situation, I engaged a marketer and that made a huge difference to the business. We used to rely on word-of-mouth referrals but then customers started getting to know us through our marketing. 

We’re very active in showing ourselves as being a different sort of advisors and offering different funding options. I was able to pitch the story quite well – having a banking background plus a property investment background makes us different from mortgage advisors, who are quite limited in what they can offer.  

We have grown very fast, employing more and more people, but the ratio was wrong around the number of income-generating staff we employed against the number of support staff. So, I had to do some restructuring of the business recently. Now the ratio is better and that was a learning curve for me as well.   

What did you do with The Icehouse?  

I am very driven and ambitious, and I am the sort of person who is always exploring new challenges. If I can do one thing very well then it motivates me to try new things. I’d tried a couple of business programmes before, in Australia, but they were not quite right!  

I first heard about The Icehouse about three years ago. At that time, I didn’t meet the criteria as we weren’t trading at $3million but because we have grown so fast, I was able to engage last year. I did Owner Manager Programme 54, which has only just finished, and it was really good. 

What were your key takeaways?  

With the regular catch-ups, you have to do your homework! I liked doing the business profile. It gives you an opportunity to work out where you are at and where you are going. Your peers get to know your business and you get to know there’s, so when they are asking questions, you are learning as well.   

The coaching involvement was also great. I loved hearing from all the different specialists and even though a lot of stuff I already knew, one thing that really came through was that you become quite intimate with the group as you share the issues you face as an owner – and you learn from that.  

One of the most important things was the network. Before OMP, I didn’t really know that these awesome charted accountants existed or that there was help available to set up a board. So, I met a lot of amazing people I’d never heard of! It opened my mind to how important networking is and how that pivots into other business opportunities. 

I do have a five-year plan and would like to go public and there is much more I would like to tap into.  

How do you weave those takeaways into the business? 

I’m currently helping my team leaders take more ownership in their roles so I can have more time to run the business – because before OMP everyone was always coming to me for help!  

I want to provide a platform that allows people to grow, to help them get a better overview of the business so they can be better leaders and upskill young professionals to help them get to the next level.   

Thanks to OMP, I have implemented some good tools into the business, like MyHR, and I’ll continue to use them. I am using staff KPIs to help drive performance. I now have the tools to take me through the whole process and that makes it easy for me.

 
Have you worked professionally with any other alumni since doing the programme/workshop? 

I’m already talking to some of the network about future partnerships. I know there will be a few alumni from the network who I will use. OMP for me was really about the people and the knowledge you get to share.  

I’m also using Icehouse Central a lot and I am sending a team member on to The Icehouse Leadership Development Programme later this year. 

What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a business right now?  
 
The first thing you need to know is ‘what’s your purpose?’, What are you going to do? What are you going to do for your people and your community? What value are you adding?  

A lot of younger businesspeople talk about how much money they are going to make. If you think like that you are setting yourself up to fail. You need skills before you can be an owner, so, if you’re fresh out of university, get a job, learn from your mistakes, and then really focus on your purpose. There are times when it’s tough, but never give up!

Check out Lucia’s podcast with The Icehouse.  
 
Follow the link for more information on Finax and its extensive range of products and services.