After a successful career as a Mortgage Choice broker, Vince Camilleri is now enjoying the more relaxed pace of semi-retirement. But his legacy lives on with sons Glyn and Luke now at the helm of the family business.
The Camilleri family is clearly very tight knit. Luke and Glyn finish each other's sentences, laugh at the same one-liners, and importantly, share their dad's passion for Mortgage Choice.
Now aged in their 30s, Luke and Glyn have grown up as part of a Mortgage Choice family. Their father Vince invested in his first Mortgage Choice franchise in 2000 following a 25-year career with the Commonwealth government, and it wasn't long before Luke came on board to lend a hand.
All four kids in the business
“I was pretty young – just in my early 20s, when I first started”, explains Luke. “And while I had no experience, I'd always been interested in banking. I could see Dad's business was growing, he was getting a lot busier, so I started out looking after the loose ends – dropping off letters to clients and doing basic data entry for loan applications.”
At that stage, Vince was running his franchise from home, and as the business picked up pace, son Carl, fresh from completing high school, joined the growing team. But things were about to change. Luke recalls, “It was in 2002 that the business really hit full-on and we moved into a shop front office.”
Recognising the career prospects that his dad's business offered, younger son Glyn joined the business straight from high school. And Vince's daughter Sarah came on board as an administrative assistant, meaning Vince had all four of his children working in his Mortgage Choice franchise. “It was amazing!” recalls Vince. “At one stage, we had 53 years of combined experience!”
“Incredibly exciting”
Although Carl and Sarah later moved on to different career paths, Glyn and Luke relished their involvement in Vince's business. “We were all living in the family home at that stage” says Luke. “And yes, we talked a lot about work at home. But it was incredibly exciting. The business was starting to make serious money – more than we'd ever seen, and it was an amazing experience to live, breathe and drink Mortgage Choice and be part of a growing business.”
Glyn adds, “One of the advantages of working together as a family is that Luke and I can disagree about things but it's all water under the bridge five minutes later. That's always been the case, and I think it's really helped us develop plans to manage the growth of the business.”
Shifting to the next generation
For the two young guns - Luke and Glyn, the next logical step was to develop a workable succession plan with Vince.
“We first broached the idea of taking over from Dad in about 2006,” says Luke. “At that stage Vince was heading into his 60s, and our energy levels were different from his. We wanted to take things to the next level while also making it easier for Dad to ease into retirement. So succession was something we discussed as a family over the next ten years.”
“We give the business more love because we're family”
Fast forward to early 2017 and Vince was ready to hang up his work boots. These days, his sons are managing two separate Mortgage Choice franchises out of a shared office, and while Vince still takes an active interest in the business, he admits he's rarely in the office before 10am.
Some things change but plenty stays the same. Glyn acknowledges, “As a family, we're all still committed to the same cause. We can push things so much further because we're all loyal to our Mortgage Choice franchise, and I believe we give the business more love because we're family.”
Luke adds, “Not only have Glyn and I been able to grow a solid business, we have also been able to ensure Dad enjoys a comfortable retirement.”
