As entrepreneurs you can choose to be either beholden to the quality, speed and practices of your advisers (legal, accounting, tax, financial, design etc.) or you can tell them how you expect them to conform to your changing preferences.

Over time I have had need to fire my travel agent, bookkeeper and financial adviser, as my business growth and lifestyle needs have changed. I don’t choose to cede control to others. You shouldn’t either.

Yet a great many entrepreneurs I meet, out of excessive loyalty or inertia put up with behaviour that is totally unacceptable from their advisers. Lawyers taking three weeks to respond to offers of critical growth capital, personal wealth managers encroaching into areas they are not an expert in (business strategy decisions), and missed tax filings due to the financial advisor’s poor discipline. This is your life, safeguard it.