Chairman’s blog Thursday 24th August 2023

A dull and dismal morning was not reflected in our happy band of members and guests who assembled raring to go. Our number included Blake Hammond, here to inform us about the new venture in the Hammond empire and Michelle Andrews acting as sub for Matt Barry

The Performance League

With one week missing from the month this will be a four meeting month and currently four members have beaten the 100 point mark led by Terry Maylin with 122 points so far.

Education Presentation

Toby Acton can always be relied upon to produce something with method in it. This time it was the Eisenhower matrix that showed how to balance urgent and non-urgent work with important and non-important work. Once you have done the computation you are left with the 4Ds; do, diarise, delegate or delete. Could this be another reason to ‘like Ike’

Membership Matters

Terry Maylin confirmed that Fran Brabham Neil is no longer able to continue with her membership and we offer our best wishes to her for the future. This leaves two very desirable slots open namely Estate/Letting Agent and Mortgage Broker. We are only a week away from September when most people will be back from their hols. Let’s get these two seats filled as soon as possible.

The 60 Second Round

Last week’s Oscar winner was James Humphreys who, in his absence, was replaced by Stuart Smallcombe as adjudicator. His presentation told of a customer of 25 years standing who is now on his third telephone system; which is not only a tribute to the quality of service that Stuart’s company provides but probably the last system that will be necessary as everything is now going into the cloud…. From cloud to smoke. Brian Painter was consulted by a husband and wife who wanted to stop smoking. Reasons for doing so included an annual bill for them both of around £14,000 and the loss of three family members to lung cancer…. Back to smoke again and Rosemary Driscoll’s client who was travelling to Canada and who at the last minute she was able to divert to avoid the flames that were engulfing his travel destination as well as producing smoke.

Paul Rogers was looking for buy to let clients who he believes he can get back onto a fixed rate where this has been lost.

Neil Bellham was working at the annual ‘hash festival’. He described a massive catering commitment that was necessary. The weed can obviously make you hungry.

Vincent Goode adopted the name ‘Clive’ only for rhyming effect at the end of his presentation. Clearly having the title Mayor of Gants Hill Village, which does rhyme with pillage and spillage, is not enough for him

Toby Acton produced an exercise in verbalization starting with meeting and training; including and confirming ….and so it went on. It made a change from metaphoring.

Terry Maylin explained how a director’s personal guarantee is a tool to help a business maintain credit control…. and coincidentally, I can produce a template at a very reasonable cost to fill in this gap in your credit protection armoury. Speak to us promptly on this as it may rescue you from bad debts.

Howard Bullock, back from holiday, has gone green on us, or rather a client of his has. This client is particularly concerned over ensuring his investments support climate change. It is apparently possible to be ethically correct and still support fossil fuel companies if they are part of the process of decarbonizing as part of their development strategy. This is quite useful for the investor who wants to take full benefit from investing in profitable companies.

Treat of the day was Leann Reason demonstrating the plans and drawings she produces to help illustrate her advice to clients looking to transform their properties. These were so  well presented that they caught Stuart Smallcombe’s eye and she was our Oscar winner for this week. Congratulations Leann!

10-minute presentation by Paul Booth

Paul booth illustrated the benefits to clients who consult him rather than other accountants, in particular those who are not qualified. Getting him to organise company formations, bookkeeping software, company bank accounts etc produced a good aide memoire for all of us when we seek to recommend him, An effective way of presenting his services and helped support Brian Painter’s view that he is an ‘interesting accountant’.

Referrals and Testimonials

This round took us to the end of the meeting which we left to be confronted with drizzle and dullness. I am pleased to say that at the time of writing this blog the sun is now shining so I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day.