Peter Samuel Cugno, chairman and CEO, Secret! University

As published in Scotsman Guide's Residential Edition, June 2005.

You might think you are the best loan officer at your company. Regardless of your experience, you might feel your company’s owner is clueless. And you might conclude that you can do a better job than the owner, any day of the week.

Knowing this industry is entrepreneurial at its core, you quietly plan to make a break for it and start your own mortgage company.

You know in your heart you haven’t been well-trained. But you think, “Sales are sales,” so you should be fine running your own operation. Your boss taught you that referrals are the only way to attract potential new applicants. And you’ve got tons of referral sources. You ask yourself, “How hard can it be to run my own firm?”

It is hard. But not impossible.

From salesperson to businessperson
As a loan officer, you frequently thought you were in the business for the money, not the risk. You focused exclusively on your own commission and sales. Now, as an entrepreneur, that attitude has to change. You want your share of the American dream — to own your own business. But you need to do it right. Don’t do things halfway, like your former boss might have.

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