Private Report

To: The Business Owner

From: Richard Calderwood FCA

Business Owners Across the UK
Embarrass their Accountants
in Hard Hitting Sage Survey

But one savvy accounting firm, at least, is miles ahead of the pack
- result - their clients are achieving revenues, profits, and tax savings
well above their average peers.

Here – prospectively – is information that can, quite possibly, lead to substantial revenues,
profit and cash retention upgrading, and significant tax savings too,
for your own business

Dear Business Owner,

You will be interested to know, as indeed I was, that major frustrations have been highlighted in a survey of business owners in the SME sector. It is very likely that you too, even though you personally may not have been involved in this survey, may have similar concerns and dissatisfactions. And quite rightly so.

Here’s what happened . . .

2301 business owners responded to this survey. It was commissioned by Sage and conducted by YouGov, and identified, by degree, a serious discontent by business owners with the provision of services supplied to them by their accountants.

Certainly, many dozens of the business owners and directors we talk with every year feel similar levels of discontent to those identified in the survey. There is a yearning – even a demand – for their accountants to provide them with a greater level of tangible business building guidance and tax savings advice.

The survey revealed that 55% of business owners felt that the working relationship with their accountant could be dramatically improved. Sadly, 76% of business owners don’t even believe their accountant can help them increase their revenues!

Not only that, less than a third of those surveyed felt their accountant had saved them any money at all, whether from business efficiencies, profit strategies or tax planning.

Business Owners and CEO’s demanding much more

As you see, a shockingly high number of directors and CEO’s are left wondering what their accountant does for them, other than the basics. And almost certainly you too are probably not receiving the critical additional business building, marketing, cost savings advice, tangible methodology and strategic tax advice you want and need to optimise your business.

In fact, through our own meetings with, cumulatively hundreds, of entrepreneurs at the many networking events, seminars and workshops we’ve put on or attended over the years, I think it’s no exaggeration to say that thousands, probably tens of thousands, of fellow business owners across the UK are left wondering why, in one of the most trusted of all relationships in business, their accountant is failing them in many critical areas.

Accountants mistakenly believe that ‘quality of service’ is valued by clients above all else. It’s not - it doesn’t even make it into the clients’ top three criteria. The Sage survey notably revealed that 49% of the business owners felt that ‘understanding business needs’ was the single most important criterion in their choice of accountant.

Are you too questioning why you seldom receive proactive and reliable business or financial guidance on improving the well-being of your business? Would you like advice on how to save money, how to minimise your taxes, and how to tangibly build revenues, profits and market domination?

You’ve got be ruthlessly savvy in all departments to optimise your profits and minimise both your business and personal taxes. And, as one of your most trusted advisers, your accountant has a key role to play.

In a minute I’m going to offer you a completely complimentary (no obligations or ‘strings attached’) opportunity to discover precisely what your individual organisation can do in the areas of profit structuring and tax sheltering to improve cash retentions which can amount to thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of pounds savings.

Proactive, aggressive and effective tax planning is the key

This is precisely the area where your accountant should be giving you proactive and best business guidance - assuming of course they are sufficiently knowledgeable commercially, to help you. And pre-supposing too that they have the very keenest of tax intelligence and the necessary information about some of the (possibly aggressive, but very effective) tax schemes and opportunities that come and go at each yearly budget or revision of the tax legislation.

Here’s the bottom line: your business - unless it is today receiving this level of proactive, aggressive and expert tax planning and profit structuring advice – almost certainly is being denied profit sheltering opportunities. Plus, it is being drained, to some degree, by unnecessary tax payments and lost profits. Why would you want to put up with this for even a month longer?

Fortunately, for you and for those many other business owners, numerous firms of accountants are now beginning to learn how to become more proactive and to do more for their clients. Many are attending a range of ‘business advisory’ courses put on by various national training groups and the respective accounting regulatory bodies.

Although it takes times to gain the necessary experience as well, this at least is gradually enabling more accountants to become better business advisers, better at understanding marketing techniques, and better at advising on tax mitigation.

All of this is good news for you. But regrettably, according to the Sage survey, these firms are still few and far between.

Not all accountants are failing their clients

My guess is, that about 10% to 15% of accounting firms are very good, to the degree of expertise that I myself would entrust them with my own profit structuring and tax mitigation advice.

If you are fortunate to have one of these 10%-15% as your accountant, then you can ignore the Sage survey and crumple this letter straight into the bin.

But if you are unsure, then you owe it to yourself, your business, your future, your staff, and your customers to find yourself an accounting firm that definitely is amongst these 10%-15% — and do it quickly.

Two accountants you can trust

One hundred and eight business in Kent – under the watchful guidance of two seasoned tax and profit canny accountants - are currently surging ahead of the majority of their competitors, making more profits and generating more cash flow now than virtually any of their peers (throughout the country - not just Kent).

Not only that, their tax bills are under the tightest of control.

In fact, these two accountants are getting such a name for their savvy, tax efficiency and profit structuring ability that businesses from around the UK are beginning to seek their professional advice.

The secret is the relentless pro-activity of these two accountants. You never need ask them; they are always seeking ways to optimise your profits, minimise your taxes and therefore enable you to accelerate your growth and market position.

Meet the two men

Let me introduce myself and my business partner.

My name is Richard Calderwood and, together with my business partner of 26 years Stephen Askew, and a great team behind us, we run - modesty aside - what our clients revere as one of the most proactive firms of Chartered Accountants in the country.

In fact, I’m proud to report that, during a customer advisory panel, our clients - on average - rated what we do for them, a dazzling ¹¹/₁₀ - precisely because the proactive work we regularly do always includes effective tax planning, business building and business structuring work.

Apart from our professional qualifications, which I consider to be the very least of what we offer, more importantly our clients benefit from the accumulated 29 years of hard, frontline experience, expertise and business savvy, working with hundreds of SME businesses. The optimising methodology we pass on enables our clients to rise above their competitors so rapidly that they quickly surpass even their most enthusiastic forecasts by, from our experience, in excess of 2.5 times.

What we bring to the table, for every client that we accept, is certainly optimised profits and tax savings. These can translate into, not just thousands but, in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds annually . . .

How would this level of improvement in profits and cash flow affect you?

Because of our experience and breadth of knowledge we are able to help virtually any business that comes to us for advice, and your business almost certainly is no exception, as long as your revenues exceed £500,000.

An invitation to accept a complimentary, fact finding

30 minutes to discover whether you could benefit from our expertise

Stephen and I are taking on a handful of new clients this year, but only those we feel qualify.

How do you qualify?

Firstly you need to want a far greater service than typically you would receive from those 85%-90% of accounting firms identified in the survey. Secondly, we want to discover from you whether you will actually benefit and be able to tangibly grow your enterprise in a significant way when you operate with our proactive involvement.

Your name has been hand selected from a list of targeted local enterprises, of a certain size and maturity. We would appreciate the opportunity to meet you, share with you what we are able, potentially, to do for you and your organisation, and enable both you and us to ascertain whether there is a mutual, highly beneficial, prospective relationship to be had. ie. significant growth in revenues and profits, cash flow optimisation, and highly effective tax strategies.

Frankly, until we talk, I don’t know how we may be able to help, or to what degree we can help, or even if you want the help. But if potentially you are interested then you are very welcome to talk to us on a completely complimentary basis, with absolutely no obligation whatsoever.

But here’s what I would like you to do first – go now to www.burnsWaring.com. There you will find a wealth of information, advice and strategy for your particular size and maturity of business. On the right hand side of the sight you will see a the ‘special report’ entitled “Despite Mr Brown . . .” It is something I would like you to receive and read before anything else. Simply enter your name and email and you will automatically receive this 25 page report. It contains information that you can take away, apply and profit from almost immediately where the circumstances are right for you.

Then, after reading it, and then letter above, you decide whether you qualify as a prospective new growth and tax efficiency client of ours. If you do, please call me, right now, on

01227 766666 or 01622 201201

and I will be delighted to talk with you and arrange a complementary initial exploratory consultation with you. It will fun, expansive, revealing and highly profitable for you. And from that meeting we both can decide whether you become one of the handful of new clients we take on and work proactively with over the years ahead. (and if you are not, please feel free to continue using the ongoing material, advisories and strategies on this site and continually being added to. It’s here free for you to make full use of.)

Yours truly

Richard Calderwood FCA

Partner - Burns Waring