From Beauty Salon to Specialist Broker: Why Listening is Amar Dhanota’s Most Valuable Professional Skill

Not many mortgage brokers trace their expertise back to a beauty salon – but for Amar Dhanota, co-founder of London FS, it is precisely where she learned the skill she values most in her work today. In an in-depth profile for Mortgage Introducer, Amar reflects on a career path that began at Barclays at sixteen, took a turn through entrepreneurship, and eventually led her to co-found a specialist brokerage arranging funding of up to 3 million pounds for medium and high-income earners across residential, commercial and development finance.

The years she spent running her own beauty salon taught her something that cannot be studied for an exam: how to actually listen. Sitting with clients, hearing not just what they said but how they said it, learning the importance of confidentiality and trust – these were the foundations she would later transfer directly into client-facing mortgage advice. Today, she deliberately avoids launching straight into numbers or product options at the start of a client conversation. Instead, she takes time to find out who the person is, what they actually need, and what they are worried about. For her, a mortgage relationship should never be purely transactional. It is a philosophy that continues to shape how London FS co-founder Amar Dhanota works with every client.

Running her own business gives her the flexibility she values – but she is clear-eyed about what that demands in return. Late nights, weekend work and the emotional weight of taking on clients stress are all part of it. Her way of managing that pressure is intentional: if a situation becomes overwhelming, she steps away, goes for a walk, and comes back to it. The answer, she says, is nearly always clearer on the other side of that pause.

Read the full profile on Mortgage Introducer.