How to Choose Professional Advisors

You might be inclined to think professionals – doctors, accountants, lawyers – are pretty much the same in quality but that is not the case.  Yellow Belt

Basic statistics teaches us that a group of professionals will be scattered over a bell shaped curve known as a ‘normal’ distribution. 

Essentially, about 68% of them will be of average quality plus or minus a bit. 

About 15% will be above average and a worrying 15% will be below average (for more on the stats click here but a warning, it is mind numbing stuff).

So, when you recruit one of them you are most likely to get an average one, or a bad one with a total 83% probability.

That means you have to work pretty hard to get a good one.

You only want the best, even if they happen to cost more, because you don’t want to fool around with your business, health or your wealth.

Take your time to ask around your network for whom they recommend.  If you are impressed by the person making the recommendation then probably their recommendation is sound. 

One of your good professionals (say your accountant) is likely to have built up a bit of a network of other good professionals in other fields (say law).  Ask their advice when short listing candidates.

Don’t be afraid to audition your doctors, lawyers and accountants.  Go to them with a smallish issue that you need advice on, and which you know something about, and observe carefully the quality of their advice and service.  Perhaps you take the same issue to several professionals, when auditioning them, and see who does the best job.

If you are not too happy, try another.  It will cost you a bit of money but you don’t want to settle for second best with your wealth and health at risk.

Also, look for a professional with a number of years experience but not too much older than you if possible.  The reason is, once you have found a good one, you want to be with them for life. This is so that they can learn about your business and thereby be as helpful as possible.  You don’t want them retiring before you do and therefore making you start the whole process again.

Resources

Authors like Kiyosaki in the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series (Kiyosaki, 1997) have written about this.