A Bit Of Ego-Massaging

I think I'm fairly lucky with my chosen career. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea and there are days when you want to strangle the nearest member of staff but I work in an office where I can come and go as I please, have uncensored/unmetered access to the Internet for those moments when my concentration slips and it's better than driving a bus - and as somebody who did once drive a bus I know what I'm talking about.

This morning I had one of those meetings that you just wish you could replicate every working day of the year. About four years ago two young electricians came to see me about moving their business from their current accountants to us, we had a good meeting and then nothing. It's times like that you wonder if you've given the wrong impression, perhaps the yellow shirt and purple braces were over the top that sort of thing. Anyway about three months after these lads had been in I got a phone call from somebody saying that he had a small engineering business making parts for the aircraft industry and was outgrowing his current book-keeper and felt he needed an accountant. We had a meeting went through what he expected from me and I told him what we could do for him and then I said, "As a matter of interest, why did you ask for me specifically?" "Oh, my brother saw you about three months ago, he wanted to change but his partner didn't, he gave me your card and said if you ever need an accountant go to this bloke, he knows his stuff." So we took on a new business of two husband and wives in partnership.

Anyway four years on and the engineering business is booming but there are problems looming with recruitment problems and a possible recession, the company has done well and gone from a standing start in 2004, it was a partnership for three years prior to that, to a position now where its worth over a million pounds. So we are going through the accounts, talking about the sort of stuff that makes most people's eyes glaze over and I go into a little speech about where the business is heading, the change of tax rules on capital allowances for next year and we talk about staff. After listening to me for about five minutes, well it seemed that long, the wife looks at me and says "You should work for relate, you analyse people so well," and the husband says, "you've just said exactly the same thing as we said to each other last night, that's amazing."

I came out of that meeting after an hour or so feeling ten feet tall and thinking that it had all been worthwhile, not for their comments initially, but because the current mantra of the accountancy profession is "Know your client," and in this case it seems I do. So that leaves another 300 or so to work on!