GB Financiials’ community engagement a ‘superpower’

GB Financiials founder Niti Bhargava expects significant community engagement efforts to result in her 90-day-old brokerage growing with purpose into long-term, sustainable profitability.

Bhargava, who restructured and rebranded the business with husband Varun Bhargava, said they had chosen to focus on community engagement from the outset.

“We are indulging in a lot of community-based activities, which is kind of a superpower, not only for business profitability; it helps us a lot in winning the targeted audience’s trust,” she said.

For example, Bhargava (pictured above) has continued running a quarterly financial literacy program. Initially for women from India, it has expanded to include anyone interested from migrant communities.

“For the last 18 months, we have helped all different backgrounds with financial literacy, including people from Arabic, African and Chinese backgrounds – everyone has been part of our program,” Bhargava said.

The program saw Bhargava recognised at the 2024 India Australia Business & Community Alliance (IABCA) Awards at Parliament House, as a finalist for the Community Services Excellence Award.

The business is active in cultural events, while Bhargava has been sought after as an expert for SBS radio interviews in Hindi and Punjabi languages, where she provides insight for these communities.

Bhargava has also been announced as a finalist for the Community Champion of the Year Award at the upcoming Australian Professionals of Colour (APOC) awards being held in November 2024.

Though Bhargava said GB Financiials was still in the “very foundation stage” of the new brand, it  deliberately took a different approach to that of many other brokerage businesses.

For example, the business is not focused on traditional referral partners like real estate agents and accountants, but instead businesses with similar views on doing the right thing for community.

“For example, we have just signed up a referral partner who has been in the NDIS business for a very long time. A core heart value they share with us is financial well-being of their employees,” Bhargava said.

“They actually give their employees the time to understand their financial well-being, in what is now a very crucial time period where we all are feeling the pain of cost of living.”

The power of community

Bhargava expects the community-centric approach to pay off for the business; for example, the financial literacy program recognition has already resulted in new business opportunities.

“That has opened the doors for us, for different sorts of professional partnerships, or with people who now recognise what kind of business we have.”

However, the business outcomes come after putting purpose first; Bhargava has been public about desire to put “purpose over profit, people over numbers and love over everything”.

Over the next two years, Bhargava said GB Financiials aimed to win itself a unique place in the community, where clients realise that it was not just a transactional-based mortgage broking business.

“We want to have that reputation, that image, where clients should know that, when they are coming to us, we will have the best interest for them in our hearts,” Bhargava said.

The business expects the socially responsible approach to be a key market differentiator, at a time when interest rates have been increasing and banks are still declaring higher profits.

“The clients are a bit angry, they are frustrated. I know brokers, and it can be quite hard to win the trust back from the client; to build that trusted community around you with your clients is hard,” Bhargava said.

 “That’s our main goal for [the] next two years, and definitely, you know, on the back of that increasing community of trusted referral partners and clients, that is going to profitable.”