When the going gets tough……

Last week the strapline for PWM caught my eye. It says, ‘Let’s not go back to what was not working’.

The current news is so gloomy now certainly is a good time to look at things afresh.

Taxes are undoubtedly going up. Last week: the New Statesman said, ‘the UK tax take was set to rise to its highest level since the 1950s by the middle of the decade’.

It would be convenient to blame it on the Chancellor trying to replenish the coffers – post covid, but the writing was on the wall even before the pandemic arrived.

With the voting population getting older the political decision of this government to push up taxes and increase the funding for the NHS rather than lower taxes and cut costs is what it thinks will win votes. If this is right, then high taxes are here to stay regardless of which party gets into power.

Brexit is another miserable story. Last week the Public Accounts Committee reported on the ‘clear increase in costs, paperwork and border delays.’ For all those who hoped for light regulation and lower taxes on leaving the EU – there is little of that – so where should we look for increased wages, rising profits and cutting costs – we need to look at the way we work differently. Here are a few of my ideas…

Rather than raising wages, which Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England unsympathetically suggested we should not do, let’s look at other ways to increase revenue by increases in incentives and bonusses for increased production?

Many years ago, I was working as a private client lawyer for a client’s ‘homme d’affaire’. We would map out a project or the next steps in a project and then he would set an unrealistic timetable and ridiculous deadlines. We would often spend hours agreeing what and when the work needed to be done by.

Several years later, we were having a coffee and reflecting on our work together and I asked him why he always set such ridiculous deadlines and maddening work schedules.

He smiled and said, ‘Your firm does not charge overtime or higher rates for unsocial hours, so if I set tight time schedules so that you would have to work into the night and at weekends when there was little distraction I get a bigger ‘bang for my buck’ and the deadlines mean that there are only so many hours in the day which sets the ceiling’.

He was very wily, and I have on many occasion pondered on his words.

My daughter works for a US law firm. She is paid a bonus for working unsocial hours and at weekends – which gets passed onto the client if he wants his work done urgently. To my mind this makes so much sense she gets paid more for working harder and the client pays more for work done quickly.

This is one idea, but profits should not just be about raising revenue, they should also be about cutting costs. Forbes is on record as saying that post covid ‘95% of CEO’s are looking for more ways to engage customers’ and ‘97% of executives say the pandemic sped up their digital transformation.’

Now two years since the pandemic started to affect the way we work, we can begin to evaluate how we work, how we could work better and how we win business – and professionals should be rewarded for doing so.

I would like to suggest a bonus is paid for the introduction of work to the firm, but also for raising the profile of the firm such as in writing blogs, preparing a podcast, taking time to tweet and so on, this is valuable promotion and should be encouraged and rewarded.

Over Easter 2020, I wrote my book ‘Reimagining the role of the Private Client Industry’ post covid. Since 2006 I have been critical of the time wasted in travel and ‘networking which has a high cost and low return on investment’. I began researching how winning business for the private client industry could be done better. But my quest was like banging my head against a brick wall – why? Because there was no other way to market, and networking was an enjoyable perk of the job. That was until Covid.

In August 2020 I collated my research and launched Caroline’s Club which brings together four digital elements to marketing: remote networking, blogs, podcasts, and a digital directory. We have now had just over one year of testing, and the feedback has been great. Noel Craven of Quartet Investment said ‘I have already won business. Thank you to Caroline’s Club’ and Jane Gilbert of ESJG said ‘The meetings were huge fun’.

Also, private client professionals, by being better informed about what other professionals do for their clients can then better serve their clients. Therefore, when the opportunity arises, they can recommend another member of the club to their client and their contact details are readily available from the digital directory.

Although, we have a great spread of members from personal protection, insurance, private client lawyers, accountants, and bankers, we are also discovering that every private client professional has a slightly different experience than another, a different personality and a different story which makes each professional unique and different

Caroline’s Club also recognises ‘leaders in their field’. We want to give each recognised leader an introductory membership to our club FOR FREE.

Please let me have your comments and don’t forget to register for Caroline’s Club – it’s FREE to register and you can then learn more about our exclusive award winning club of leading private client professionals who are keen to win business and build trust with clients simply register here