Andrew’s story
“Working with James Hair & Co is like having your own in-house Financial Director.”
I set up my own property development company 5 years ago with a business partner and needed advice on how to structure it. James Hair & Co was recommended through a family connection.
I wanted to make sure everything was set up professionally, but also as flexibly as possible. We discussed everything up front, like whether the long-term plan was to sell the business, which informed the best way for it to be set up.
Since then we’ve had a lot of interaction with James Hair & Co because for every development we do, we have to start a different company – the company will buy the property development site, but the development will be funded by a separate firm.
In fact we’ve started 6 or 7 new companies, which means we’ve had to have lengthy discussions in terms of structuring things the right way every time, as well as making sure we’re doing it tax efficiently.
Sometimes things can become even more complex!
Recently we worked on two developments which needed a special purchase vehicle because we had two buyers who wanted to buy both buildings separately, but they wanted to buy the companies themselves. One was a disused church on the Royal Mile, and one an old ornate office building, and they wanted to rent the apartments out as holiday lets.
So James Hair & Co had to liaise with our lawyers to create a company sale, and work closely with the buyers’ accountants to make sure everything was set up with all the financial documents that are required by law in place.
Saving time and money
Working with James Hair & Co is like having your own in-house Financial Director, but they’re not on the payroll (which would be an awful lot of money!). You have someone you can turn to who knows your business and circumstances well enough to give you the best advice and do the best for you.
If you brought someone else in to deal with that separately you would have to give them the whole back story for them to advise you properly.
James Hair & Co don’t have the same fancy offices or big name above the door as some of the others – and to be honest with you when I approached them I didn’t know if they’d be able to deal with these complicated projects – but they work on these projects all the time.
And it’s all about the people
They have the ability and expertise in-house to resolve complicated deals like these, but they’re of a size where your main point of contact is a head partner. You’re not passed down the line, you’re speaking to someone who knows the ins and outs of your daily business and you get better quality of advice than some of the bigger, more well known firms - probably for half the fee!
They have the bigger picture and can advise me on my own personal tax return too, because they know the details of the business, and both always overlap.
What I love most about working with James Hair & Co is that you get good, personal, knowledgeable service, and you know everything is being looked after.
To find out more about Stone Acre, please go to www.stone-acre.com
