Making Something From Nothing: Craig Muttitt Of Maxim Financial Solutions & FOMO Mortgages On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid of failure. Things do not always work on the first or even the tenth attempt. Don’t give up.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Craig Muttitt.

Craig Muttitt is the Managing Director of Maxim Financial Solutions Ltd, a mortgage and protection financial services brokerage that currently has over 5000 UK clients.

Originally from South Africa, Craig studied Law and Business at the University of the Witwatersrand. Craig has been living in the UK since 2001 with his wife Natasha, daughter Ashleigh and son Wade. Craig has been involved in the mortgage and insurance industry for over 20 years and although the financial services industry has gone through a lot of changes and some challenging times over the years, Craig has loved every minute of it.

Helping clients achieve their goals of purchasing their very own home, whilst ensuring their families are protected from the terrible financial effects of death and illness, is why Craig finds his career so rewarding.

Maxim has always prided itself on the quality of our advice and exceptional level of client service, however, to most people, mortgages can feel a little complicated, cumbersome and confusing.

This is why with his latest venture, Craig wants to disrupt the financial services industry with a fresh, brand-spanking-new mortgage broker, FOMO Mortgages — watch out guys, there’s a new kid on the block!

FOMO’s mission is simple, to help people find the best mortgage deal for their needs.

What sets FOMO apart from any other mortgage brokers is its distinctive branding (have you seen how cute that little purple monster is), tone of voice and philanthropic efforts. For instance, for every mortgage written they’ll be supporting a chosen charity!

FOMO is all about the consumer, with existing marketing strategies underpinned by competitions and activations to give back to them, and the wider community.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in South Africa with my parents and 2 younger brothers. We had a great childhood. We were always playing outdoors and running around in the warm weather. We played a lot of sports, rugby and karate were my two favourites.

My parents taught us the importance of hard work and education from a young age. They taught us that nothing in this world is for free and that you need to be motivated and have the drive to succeed. Sport taught me the importance of teamwork and the will to win, but also the importance of being able to lose gracefully and how to learn from defeat.

Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I have always liked the motto of Sir Francis Drake, Sic Parvis Magna: “Greatness from small beginnings”.

Every great adventure has started with a first step. To achieve your lifelong goals, all it takes is making that first step, and if you are truly determined and focused, you will succeed.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Although I read the occasional motivational book or autobiography, I don’t actually read a lot.

I prefer to be inspired by people around me, and by people in the world doing great things who are making a positive impact in their industries and communities.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

A lot of us come up with great ideas but I agree, the difficulty is translating that good idea into a successful business and brand.

I truly believe that you must not be afraid of failing. You must be prepared to put in the hours and the hard work. You must not get disheartened by negative people, and believe me, there are always people wanting to rain on your parade.

I don’t like to associate with negative people, I always try to surround myself with positive like-minded individuals. With Maxim and FOMO Mortgages, the goal has always been to build a team around me of very talented individuals. Individuals with the same work ethic and mindset that I champion. In most cases, these individuals are a lot more talented and know far more than I do. Never be afraid of working with people who are better than you- it is the only way to learn and progress.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Research and understanding your industry are very important, but you do not need to be deterred if something already exists. Believe in what you are doing and focus on the benefits and USPs your business can offer. Focus on your strengths. Our company FOMO Mortgages aims to disrupt what is already a very established industry by being innovative, embracing technology and offering our clients a fresh new approach to securing a great mortgage deal. All of this is facilitated with a simple customer journey and absolutely no confusing industry jargon!

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Our business is a customer services business. We are financial advisors specialising in mortgages and insurance so we didn’t have to file a patent or anything like that.

We registered our company and secured our trading names, styles and registered our company trademark and logo. I would always recommend when starting a business that you speak to and enlist the services of the right professionals. Speak to an intellectual property lawyer to protect your IP and ensure that all your legal paperwork, contracts and shareholder agreements are correctly drafted and in place from day one.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

Don’t be afraid of failure. Things do not always work on the first or even the tenth attempt. Don’t give up.

Have a plan but don’t be afraid if you need to change it.

Plan your diary and block out time for yourself. Don’t allow distractions to get in the way of the tasks at hand.

Although you like to think you know everything, don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to those more qualified or suited than yourself.

Remember to have fun. At the end of the day, your business will be far more successful if you are enjoying what you are doing.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Speak to the people around you, your friends, your family and get their opinions. You might not like what you hear but take everything on board. Do your research, and understand your industry and your market. Have a clear objective of what you want to achieve. Read as much as you can and get a clear understanding of the things you are less competent in.

Formulate a plan, understand who you might need to bring onboard for assistance and guidance and have a clear understanding of your costs.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I would personally try it on my own. There is a lot of information out there that is readily available and free- you just need to search for it. Development consultants can be very expensive and may want an equity share.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

I’d always recommend steering clear of venture capital if you can.

With venture capital, you can lose control over your business and potentially lose valuable time pitching to them.

If you have the funds, try to do it on your own. Bootstrap until there is no other feasible way to scale by using outside investment. You may find that you make enough revenue to reinvest your profits so you can continue to grow.

Also, lean on your network, call in favours and offer contra deals where you can. This can be a great win-win as it provides the opportunity to swap expertise, meaning you both benefit from one another’s unique skill sets.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I would like to think that we have a positive influence on our clients’ lives ensuring that they achieve their goals and that their families are safe and protected. At FOMO Mortgages, we work closely with our charity partners to help improve our local communities by tackling homelessness, working with children and planting trees to help offset our carbon footprint. We also hope that we can be an inspiration to other businesses to help them grow and contribute to society.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would love to be in a position where we could help eliminate homelessness and hunger and bring comfort to families less fortunate than ourselves.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would love to have lunch and a beer with Elon Musk, in fact, he went to school in Pretoria South Africa. Our schools played rugby against each other although I am not sure if Elon played rugby though?

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.