Sometimes we think it would be good if there were business networking meetings where participants had to make the accounts of their business available for everyone else to look at.
We regularly download accounts from Companies House to do background research on companies that want to do business with us, or who we've talked to at a networking event of some sort. Even if they're just the abbreviated accounts that most small companies put on the public record, they can still be revealing. Often we find that a rosy picture painted by a director is somewhat unrealistic. Your eagerness to do business with someone is going to be affected - or at least it should be - if their company is £50k in the red, or just hopelessly behind in its preparation of accounts and returns. If you run a company and we talk to you for more than a couple of minutes, we'll almost certainly download your last accounts and have a look at them, so there isn't any point telling us things that are immediately undermined by the evidence of the public record.
But most people aren't going to check out people's accounts, they'll often just accept the assurances of a director or salesperson at face value. So I wonder if there would be any demand for a group where full disclosure of accounts is a prerequisite for participation. Perhaps people just aren't interested in knowing more about who they're doing business with. But maybe enough are interested that it could have some potential.
And, of course, if you're thinking of doing business with us - download our accounts!
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