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Making a Professional Negligence Claim In business and indeed in our personal lives too, we often have to instruct someone to advise us. This can be anyone from an accountant, auditor, solicitor, surveyor, engineer, architect, barrister, doctor or, indeed, many other professions – in fact anyone who holds themselves out as having specialist knowledge that we don’t possess.
Professionals, like everyone else, are only human and occasionally make mistakes (some unfortunately more than others). Often their mistakes can cause significant loss and damage to you or your business. So when would you be able to make a claim against such a professional? Find out in an article written by Gary Cousins, Woolley & Co dispute resolution specialist.
Your Questions Answered Q. As a consultant I try to get clients to sign my terms and conditions of business but some of the larger one’s refuse and insist I sign their contract. What sort of things should I look out for in these contracts?
A. There are a host of things to be wary of but the top 3 are:
1. Liability
What is said about your potential liability in case things go wrong? Is there a maximum figure and in what circumstances could you be liable?
2. Getting out of the contract
I can understand the temptation to look at the £s figure but you should also be aware how you can end a contract if things go wrong - you may want to get out of the deal as soon as possible. See if this can be done and by what notice. Also, what if you’re not paid—do you still have to keep working for them?
3. Insurance
Look at what you are asked to do and your liability. Do check that your insurance covers you in full for the contract. If in doubt, send it to your broker to confirm it does.
Of course if the contract you are signing is for a significant project you might be well advised to have a solicitor look over it for you - to make you aware of the potential pitfalls it might contain. Woolley & Co can normally offer this service at a pre-agreed, fixed fee. Call on 01789 267377 or send an email to Andrew Woolley to discuss your requirements.
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Sorting out Bad Debt At this time of the year, when you are trying to close down the finances at the end of the financial year, or just see your business end the quarter in a reasonable position, you might be looking at any bad debt in your business and wondering what you can do about it.
If you’ve already made the usual follow up calls and got nowhere why not try an approach which achieves an 86% success rate – the Woolley & Co fixed fee debt recovery service. For £15 plus VAT Woolley & Co will write to your debtor on your behalf, giving them 2 days to pay. On the rare occasion where the debtor ignores the letter, we also offer a very fast and cost-effective recovery service via the courts.
Email the details of any debts you would like us to recover to John King or give him a call on 01332 676880.
Making the Most Of Your Marketing Budget As Simple As 1,2,3? Consider this: If you run a small to medium sized business, your marketing budget is in many ways more precious that that of a larger company. Mistakes are really going to hurt!
Unless you can scientifically determine what is working and what's not, and build in a process where you can consistently improve your marketing message based on results achieved, you might as well invest your money at the casino.
There are a number of ways you can scientifically test your results to make sure your money is well spent.
Here's the first 3 of 5 steps you can use to use something called split-testing in your campaigns.
1. Identify what key 'advantages' your proposition delivers to your target audience
2. Deliver a two-step campaign that presents a (split-tested) 'hook' to your target audience (encouraging them to go to a web page for more info)
3. Set up 4 versions of your web page, 2 for each split-tested 'hook' (you can find software that evenly spits visitors to each page once they hit the URL)
For steps 4 and 5 and a full run down on how you can build structure, regularity and measurement into your marketing campaigns (the three ingredients you’ll need to get a return on your investment) click here.
Article by James McGilvray. James McGilvray is Managing Director of 8020 Development, a consultancy specialising in the improvement of marketing ROI. |
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