A Doddie colleague once arrived late at the dental show because they had missed their train. They were getting the train to London and at the station they asked the attendant “is this the train to London” they said “no”, so they didn’t get on it.
It was however the train to Birmingham, which is where they needed to change in order to get to London! Of course the whole team enjoyed taking the micky out of him (no name mentioned!) for the duration of the show and he tried to argue it was the attendant’s fault for answering the question incorrectly. However, we would say he asked the wrong question. Regardless of who was at fault here, the point is that good communication is vitally important in order for anyone to do their job properly. The same applies to accountants – the clients we have the best relationship with, and we perform the best for, are the clients that tell us EVERYTHING.
To get the best advice from your professional advisors you should include them in your plans at the earliest possible opportunity. Ask their opinion BEFORE you do things and give them the complete picture of both your business and personal goals and aspirations. That way we can help you achieve them in the easiest, most efficient way. Making decisions purely based on what you want to achieve right now can sometimes impact what you have planned for later in life.
If you ring us up and ask a one-line question, 90% of the time we will ask you at least 5 or 6 questions back. Not because we are being awkward or nosey but because we can only give the best advice when we can see the full picture. It’s the reason we often can’t answer questions from potential new clients. It’s not to be unhelpful or because we don’t know the answer but to answer a question with only half a story is when well-meaning advice can go horribly wrong, and we really don’t want to leave you waiting 3 hours for the next train to London when you should have been on your way to Birmingham!
