The BEST Businesses service that we offer has 3 good principles to help narrow down your search for a local business. At the moment we’re focusing on BEST Accountants in Walsall, however you apply the same 3 principles to other business searches. In the last month alone I’ve needed to find different local tradesmen for various reasons, including a plumber, window cleaner, roofer, and skip hire. It’s often the same frustration – trying to sift through who’s out there, decide which ones to go for, and then making sure you get a fair job and price done.

So here’s these 3 principles again to help apply for any local business search:

1. Find the choice of businesses out there. Often it’s through internet searches, but good-old word of mouth or off-line advertising like adverts and flyers can work just as well. Make sure you look for genuine ones – those with good reviews or ratings online, or with references available, and listen to what others say. Also, think out the box a little – so maybe you can look outside your fixed geographical area because they’re really good and will travel or communicate well, and maybe you need to re-look at bigger or smaller sized firms as there are pros and cons for each type. Plus look closely at what services they offer, both what you need now but how you might need others from the the future (I had to consider general cleaning when looking at window cleaning).

2. Narrow down your options against your check-list. You must have a set benchmark for choosing, no matter how crude or few these are – even if it’s simply just the cheapest. But it could be time and speed of service, good customer service and wider services available. Once you have this you can start zooming down your list of possibilities to trim down to a few. Always try and have a fresh-head when you do this, so leave a day or so and come back to it with a fresh perspective as all that research up until now can then cloud your choosing judgement.

3. Make sure you instruct them correctly. So get everything clearly understood and then confirmed in writing, but still maintain the right friendly spirit. Often speaking in person or over the phone is best and then following up in an email or letter, and make sure you consider things like payment terms and after-service. There’s also the checking bit beforehand, the references and testimonies, and looking through any documents like insurance cover and risk assessments, and checking their membership with any stated trade bodies.