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Five Greatest Ideas for Running the Board Effectively • 107

local office away from the main trading centres will have more experience of
smaller, growing businesses and also have more time for you. His example was
to choose Liverpool rather than Manchester.
Accountants basically charge time and materials for as much of their work as
you will let them get away with. When you pick up the phone on them they are
like your telephone company and charge by the minute. Negotiate a fixed cost
for as much of the list of items they are going to perform as possible. Keep
reminding them to tell you when you are asking them to do something that is
not on the list but will cost extra.
The fees for doing the due diligence part of an acquisition or merger is a diffi-
cult area. Fundamentally you do not have time to negotiate with them and
they will charge you royally for their advice. You may very well have them
working at nights and at weekends and they will charge accordingly. The only
good news is that this money does not come out of the profits of the business
when you have bought it, but comes off the goodwill at the time of acquisition.

Idea 63 - Understand your roles and responsibilities

There is a lot of legislation covering the roles and responsibilities of directors of both
private and public limited companies. Make sure you have a passing knowledge of
these. If one of your companies does fail and someone, anyone, has been involved in
wrongdoing, you can have a blot on your escutcheon for a long time, and a reputa-
tion that never goes away. Pay attention to this at all times. Read the board minutes
with a legal eagle eye, and you should not go wrong.