Not a pitch, and not a proposal. An hour spent working out what the real problem is, whether we are the right people for it, and what a sensible first step would be — including when that step is not us.
People are reasonably wary of a first meeting with a professional firm, usually because they expect to be sold to before anyone understands the problem. It is worth setting out plainly what ours involves, so the decision to have one is easier.
We start with how the business runs
Not with our services. What the business does, how money moves through it, where the pressure currently is, and what decision is waiting on better information. Most of a useful first conversation is questions.
- What prompted you to look for help now, specifically.
- What the finance function looks like today — people, systems, who does what.
- When the month closes, and what is produced when it does.
- Which decisions you are making without numbers you trust.
- What has been tried before, and why it did not hold.
We will often say the problem is not the one you described
This happens frequently and it is the most useful part. A request for better reporting turns out to be a reconciliation problem, because no report built on unreconciled data will ever be trusted. A request for costing turns out to need the close fixed first.
Saying so early is worth more than agreeing to the original brief. The alternative is an engagement that delivers exactly what was asked for and does not solve anything.
If the first thing you need is not something we do, we will say that, and where to go instead.
What we will not do in that conversation
- Quote a fee before understanding the scope. A number produced in the first hour is a guess, and it will be wrong in one direction or the other.
- Produce a proposal on the spot. Anything written that fast was written before the meeting.
- Give a view on your specific tax or compliance position. That needs the actual records, not a description of them.
- Ask for confidential financial information. Not at this stage.
What happens afterwards
If there is a fit, you get a written scope: what we do, what stays with you, what the rhythm is, and what it costs. If the right first step is a short diagnostic rather than an ongoing arrangement, we will propose that instead — it is a smaller commitment and it makes the larger decision better informed.
If there is no fit, that is a legitimate outcome of an hour well spent, for both sides.
Practical points
It takes about an hour. It is free and carries no obligation. Bring whoever actually knows how things work — that is frequently not the most senior person in the room. And if you have a recent set of management accounts to hand it helps, though it is not necessary.
Where an engagement later requires statutory audit, prescribed certification, statutory valuation or legal opinion, that work is performed and signed by an independently engaged licensed professional. We say so at the outset rather than at the end.