Jim Culverwell

 

It’s uncanny.

“If only our tenant clients would hire someone like you! It would be so much quicker and easier for us – and cheaper for the client. Not only that, the client would get a better deal!”

It happened again the other evening, in Winchester. There I was chatting away in a group that included a Commercial Property Lawyer and out came the same comment I always hear when I tell a Commercial Property Lawyer what I do for my clients.

Businesses lease and purchase premises all the time, but without the business owner seeking bespoke commercial property advice – a DIY job. The transactions mostly go through and sometimes there is not very much contention but it is often a struggle for the tenant’s solicitor to undo the damage without being so frank that they lose the instruction; and usually, some uncomfortable compromises are forced on the business owner who is unaware of just how much they have given away unnecessarily.

Time, money and stress are the costs to the business owner conducting the transaction without independent property advice. The solicitors tell me so every time.

“The solicitors must be able to sort it out. Isn’t that what they get paid for?” You might think so, but in fact – to their frustration and their clients’ detriment – the deal has been done by the time it lands on their desk. Too late to change the fundamental terms. Too late to wind the clock back and begin where the negotiation should have started.

The usual wrangle ensues between landlord’s solicitor saying, “This is an agreement. We are not willing to change anything”; and the business owner’s solicitor trying to rectify the worst mistakes that have, in all innocence, been allowed into the agreement by the DIY business owner.

The curious thing is this is such a well-recognised and acknowledged scenario.

Often it is the things that aren’t included in the Heads of Terms, that have the greatest potential for detriment. Things the business owner ought to have thought of but it’s too late. None of it is rocket science but it has the potential to blow up. Worse still, those little errors and nuances can simply just sit there, ticking, almost unnoticed, until they go off and potentially cost the business financially.

“If only our ‘tenant clients’ would get bespoke property advice, it would be so much quicker and easier for us – and cheaper for the client; not only that, the client would get a better deal!”

Well, that is where I come in. Bespoke property advice that could save your business valuable time and money.

I noticed this old story circulating again, recently. It’s such a great illustration of what it is to be an expert and how others, who may be expert in their own field, can miss and potentially undervalue expertise in others.

You know the one – it’s about the expert engineer called in to fix the machine and the owner questioning his invoice. The punch line goes something like: “£55.00 for attending site and tapping the machine with my hammer – and £1,000 for knowing where to tap it”.

We might sum expertise up as the ability to notice, recognise and deal with things others simply miss. Expertise may not always have direct monetary value. It may not be so complicated it can’t be understood by others when explained (“it’s not rocket science”) but it can nevertheless have a remarkable outcome.

Another great example of what expertise is, was during the Olympics, in the diving pool. Watching the divers, we often become “arm-chair experts”. Looking at the slo-mo and replays, commenting on over-rotation and “ooh that that must have stung!”.However, we were not judging, the judges were; and what is remarkable about them is that they didn’t see the replay in slow motion from all angles as we, the arm-chair experts did. They were making their decisions in those few seconds it took the divers to get from the platform to disappear beneath the surface of the pool, based on their expertise and the ability to see the detail in a dive “in real-time”. Quite clearly, they could see at that moment so much we missed, often even after the replays! They are experts and that’s why they were in the position of making decisions that led to medals.

In business, wise operators will surround themselves with experts who complement their own knowledge and experience. They don’t try to cover all the bases but focus on what they do best, buying in advice, support and guidance through their network. They don’t see it as a distress purchase but an investment.  IT, HR, property, law, marketing and so on; they are experts who deliver benefits that offset the time, cost and stress of “winging it”.

Who wouldn’t rather have an acknowledged expert on their side when they step outside their core skill set? What will we miss that the expert will (1) see, (2) understand and (3) either turn into an advantage or perhaps compensate for to mitigate a downside? The worst case is that we never find that out and go on paying for the mistakes! In our opening example, that could be the difference between the broken machine firing up as before because the expert dealt with it, or it is replaced as unrepairable because the expert was thought “too expensive”; a potential cost difference far greater than the £1,000 the owner questioned.

My expertise lies in commercial property. If you come to me for advice the likelihood is that I can save your business time and money. I can recognise and negotiate detail within commercial property leases that many business owners may miss. By using me to help take control of your commercial property decisions you will have an expert on your side.

One of my posts with this opening comment attracted more than average attention, perhaps because it rings true with many.  It was prompted by the following ironic scenario.

I was referred to talk to a couple of entrepreneurial young guys, eager to start a business together.  They were full of enthusiasm, which is always great to see.  They had identified the ideal unit for their business and wanted my advice and guidance on negotiating the terms of the lease with the agent acting for the landlord.

They had already identified the building, however, as their story unfolded and as they relayed their business model to me, there was a flaw in the plan they were telling me. It was so clear that I could not allow the conversation to go forward without explaining the basis and context of my concern to them.

Thankfully, after their initial surprise, they could see exactly what I was saying and why.  They understood my concern. Without the issue resolved, it was doubtful they would succeed in their plan.  My view was that it wouldn’t be worth the time and cost to overcome.

I suggested how they could ‘bottom out’ the matter and make a judgement about whether the object of my concern was truly fatal to their strategy.

The point of the story is this: whilst it had already been recognised by others that there may be an issue, they had been told by more than one person, “No, that won’t be a problem at all!”, which, in their enthusiasm, they had willingly accepted.  Where had all that advice been given?  Well, in the pub of course and clearly by people who lacked a professional understanding of the issues and the experience to advise!

The irony that struck me as I was explaining the reality and magnitude of the challenge, that we too were sitting in a pub.  Hence the conclusion of the tale is, you CAN trust advice from the bloke at the pub if that bloke happens to have over 35 years’ experience doing exactly what you’ve asked about!

Imagine you and I are walking through the centre of Portsmouth. Someone calls out from a car, “I need to get the Isle of Wight Ferry! I am in a hurry!” If someone called through their car window asking for directions, we may just simply tell them how to get to the ferry and that’s all the advice we need to give.

But, let’s unpick this a little and pretend for a moment that we’re experts in getting to the Isle of Wight. Have we met the driver’s needs? We answered their question and they might be entirely satisfied. Job done. But have we really done the best job we can for them, as experts in our field?

The driver has stated they are in a hurry.  Because we are experts in getting to the Isle of Wight, we actually know there are many ways to do that.  All different and each one ‘the best’ in certain contexts.  So we take a moment to find out what the driver’s ultimate objective is and what their needs are, beyond finding the ferry terminal.  We find they have a meeting in Cowes and then they’re coming back. We then find we are able to advise on the best way to reach that ultimate goal. It turns out the ‘best way’ for them is, in fact, to catch the hovercraft.  It is quicker to cross and by leaving the car behind, cheaper too.

If a business comes to me with a specific request – please help me buy this building to put my business in – and all I do is help them buy the building then I am a service provider. What can I offer a client as an expert in commercial property that will do more than simply point them in the right direction? I can enquire into the reasons behind the purchase and challenge the assumptions and motivations behind the request. I would inform the client whilst building their understanding of the implications and consequences of purchasing a property. I would also help the client to use the right mechanisms for owning the property and then leasing it back to the business. In doing so, I have shown myself to be an expert and an expert is in fact what the business owner needed, rather than a service provider.

I have not just met the client’s needs but have guided them towards a significantly better solution; perhaps one they had not contemplated. Even though they had all the data, they didn’t have the skills, knowledge and experience to point themselves in the right direction.

Experts add value – that’s what experts do.