I was recently thinking about the value we place on experience and expertise, and I was reminded of the classic story about a ship’s engineer.

There are a few different versions, but it typically goes something like this… A ship’s engine failed, leaving its owners with no idea of how to fix it. They tried looking at it themselves, and they tried calling in various so-called specialists. However, despite all their best attempts, nothing worked, and nobody knew what to do.

In desperation, they brought in a retired engineer who’d been working on ships for years. He spent around 15 minutes inspecting the engine, before taking a hammer out of his bag and tapping on one part. Immediately, the problem was solved and the engine roared back into life. The man left, and days later, the owners received an invoice for £10,000. Horrified at such a sizeable bill for such a short period of time, they went back to the man and asked him to resubmit an itemised version.

He did so, and the invoice read:

• Tapping with a hammer: £2
• Knowing where to tap: £9,998

Of course, the moral of this story is that when you’re working with an expert, you’re paying for their knowledge and experience, not the amount of time it takes for them to carry out the work. Specialists like engineers, accountants and dentists carry with them a weight of expertise that a layperson simply can’t replicate. As dentists will know, a checkup may take “only” 15 minutes, but no patient can adequately carry out their own. Trying to do so would only lead to misdiagnosis, missed problems, and missed opportunities to get ahead of things.

It’s really no different when you’re working with financial experts like Hive. We know that fundamentally, our clients most appreciate that we can walk in, appraise a situation, and know where to tap the hammer. Some tasks may take a long time, while others may be faster, but the result is that your “engine” will continue running efficiently for a long time to come.

And that’s because when it comes to your practice’s money, management and marketing, certain things just need an expert. If there are problems in these areas, you’re unlikely to know how to fix them, or even to know what the problems are. This is to be expected – after all, you’re a dentist, not an accountant, so just as you wouldn’t expect us to place an implant, we don’t expect you to know how to understand complex costs, ascertain market position, or create a full marketing strategy.

In addition to this, there are situations where you might not even realise you have a problem. For instance, if you’re buying a practice, you could probably do this alone; but without advice, you might buy as a sole trader and consequently pay twice as much in tax. You wouldn’t technically be wrong, but you wouldn’t have the knowledge to know how to do it better. However, when you consider that doing it your own way could lose you 25% of the practice’s value, it’s an intervention you won’t want to miss.

And it’s not just the big decisions that are affected. Take into consideration things like director loans and dividends. Once you’ve paid yourself a dividend, you must pay the tax that goes with it. But if you can work with us to plan ahead, you can structure things so that you don’t pay more than you need to. This is just one more example of the various easy-win ways to save tax that many people aren’t aware of. In fact, we estimate that on average, our unique approach means we’re able to save dentists around £50,000 per year.

To really benefit from our approach, all you need to do is communicate what you plan to do, rather than telling us what you’ve done. This way, we can work together to put our knowledge and experience to the best use – whether we’re having a quick chat to see how you’re doing or devising a full financial strategy for your practice. The key is – as the ship’s engineer showed – knowing where (and when) to act.

If you’d like to find out more about how we could help you, get in touch for an initial call.