Page 133 - James Caan - The Real Deal

12 · Growing the Business

genuinely didn’t know how to make the decision in question
because it was a technical legal matter.
I would sometimes find myself with a bill for lengthy legal
negotiations and wondered why I hadn’t just picked up the phone
and sorted out problems directly. Wouldn’t it be great if you could
just get lawyers in the same room with their clients and get
everything agreed in a couple of hours rather than after weeks of
negotiation by fax? But as most lawyers charge by the hour, they
have an incentive to drag things out. It was genuinely disappoint-
ing to me to find out that lawyers are not exactly what they’re
cracked up to be, and I had similar run-ins with various
accountants. I thought I was paying them to sort things out for me,
but they were always reluctant to take responsibility for their
work. If the Inland Revenue got in touch about an accounting
mistake, I expected the accountants who had done the work to sort
it out, but they would never admit they’d made a mistake.
‘With all due respect James, you signed the forms.’
‘You told me that was the best way forward.’
‘It’s not for me to tell you what to do. When you sign a set of
accounts, you are responsible.’
‘I don’t understand: I thought that was your job, after all, you’re
the accountant. That’s why I come to you.’
‘No James, my job is to point situations out to you and it’s
your job to make a decision, so when you sign a set of accounts,
you are saying that you’ve checked and agreed with all the
numbers.’
‘Yes, but you prepared them . . .’
Again, I was really frustrated – what’s the point of an
accountant if they’re not actually accountable for the recommen-
dations they make?
Having the new administrator removed some of these hassles
from my day-to-day life, but when she started, we didn’t have
room for another desk. The solution was to get a cordless phone,

123