checkOUT September 2003 - Price Cut for Sole Traders and Partnerships

If ever I even fancy myself to be a 'man of the people', working to build checkSURE into the UK's most innovative risk management and company information services portal has put paid to that particular fantasy. Before starting checkSURE, I stood for directly elected Mayor of my home town (see the 'Mayor' link at the bottom of this page for more on this if you're at all interested) and think that I have considerable experience of listening to intensive feedback and also making a reasoned argument. But nothing prepared me for the campaign that some of you have been running about the content of checkSURE's reports on sole traders and partnerships. Even with the very best sole trader and partnership online report help facilities; it's been like listening to a low murmuring squeak!

Since these are reports on small-unincorporated businesses that have to declare little or nothing to anyone other than the Tax Man they are, by definition, the closest things we have to a personal credit check. Yet more often than not our data partners do manage to give these businesses a comprehensive credit score. Now to me that's quite an achievement. Yet the way some of you have expressed your views on this matter you'd think that this was a piece of cake. Clearly, in some instances, the expectations of a small minority of our valued customers are beyond our reach.

Sole traders and partnerships do not produce 'public' accounts. However, verifying an address, telephone number, staff employed, 'proprietor' or senior partner/manager, whether the business has county court judgements and how long it has been trading, is highly valuable commercially and is arguably much harder to glean than data which has to be legally submitted to a public body such as Companies House. What's more, most sole traders and partnerships on the checkSURE system appear to have been 'credit scored'.

Consequently, I know when I am beat. Even though these reports cost more to produce than those for limited companies we have decided to reduce the price on them to only £8.95 plus VAT. So whether you are checking on your local plumber, decorator, lawyer, therapist, accountant or pet shop you will save money.

We hope that this takes us closer to calibrating your expectations of value with what you get in these valuable documents. If you hear further squeaking relating to this matter then it's all to do with my pips and our profit margins. Still, this is a far healthier sound than having customers say that they don't appreciate what we do.

Click here for more information on checkSURE reports on sole traders

Click here for more information on checkSURE reports on partnerships

Click here for more information on checkSURE limited company reports

Don't worry if you have forgotten how to log in. Your username is the email address at which you received this and the checkSURE service will email you the password you registered with upon request. Simply go to the login screen.

Yours in struggle,

CEO
checkSURE