F.A.Q

Our Consultancy Services


The areas of support we can offer include the following (all incorporating VRS to ensure access for the deaf and hard of hearing communities):-

Business / personal administrative support
Business planning - start up & advanced
Business - board positions
Business sales, purchases & restructures
Company secretarial
Compliance advice
Consumer rights
Contracts
Data Protection & GDPR
Debt issues
Defamation review
Directors duties
Due diligence
Discrimination
Dispute resolution (non litigious)
Due diligence
Employment matters
Event management
Executive mentoring & coaching
HR policies
Human rights violations
Insurance
Intellectual property
Legal tenders
Mergers & Acquisitions
Non executive
Ombudsman complaints
Personal assistant (legal & compliance matters)
 Shareholder support
Sports & entertainment
Will writing

Should you be in any doubt as to whether we can assist, please simply ask and we will be happy to let you know openly and promptly if we can


Can you support new start up businesses?

Yes, we offer support to start up businesses on financial terms that reflect their early stage status. In certain cases we may consider accepting shares in a start up company in lieu of fees if ongoing support is required (as it often is with businesses at this early stage of evolution), should that be the favoured customer arrangement

What are the benefits of appointing an oversight non executive director or mentor?

The appointment of an oversight non executive director at any point in a company lifecycle (and particularly one with basic legal and compliance knowledge) provides an experienced independent input to Board decision making and the operations of the company as a whole. It can assist grant, fund raising, growth and turnaround activities as a whole.

The appointment of a mentor helps professionally and personally develop company officers as it gives them an experienced, independent ear to bounce ideas and strategies off away from the day to day operations of the business. This can be invaluable to the creation and progression of new ideas as well as to the general emotional wellbeing of the key officers upon whom the organisation and its employees rely day to day

What is the value of seeking early guidance on a potential dispute?

The risks of Litigation this day and age are extensive, both emotionally and financially. There are no guarantees of success or recovery of costs at the end of the process, whatever the outcome. On that basis, it can be very prudent to seek reasonably priced early guidance as to the question of whether or not a case exists, and if so what its chances of success are, before embarking on formal Litigation. We can offer this limited service with an assurance that our conclusions will be balanced and forthright

I am deaf or hard of hearing. Can you still assist me?

Yes, absolutely. We fully appreciate the challenges faced by the deaf and hard of hearing community. And in keeping with our aim to make our services available to all, we have interpreting specialists who can make sure that your objectives or problems are clearly understood and dealt with in the appropriate manner without prejudice or disadvantage. We are extremely proud of this offering which is unique within the consultancy services market

To what extent & on what basis do you provide basic legal consultancy services?

⁸We are NOT a law firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society, the Bar Council or any other regulator, nor do we or any of our agents or employees at any time act as or hold ourselves out expressly or impliedly as solicitors, barristers, accountants, regulated corporate financiers or any other regulated persons. We are an unregulated general business consultancy, and as part of our service we provide limited basic legal consultancy support, but NOT in what are described as "Reserved Activities" that can only be performed by regulated and registered solicitors and/or barristers, such as actions amounting to the conduct of litigation, preparing certain documents relating to probate and conveyancing, acting as a notary and administering oaths. A full list of our services can be viewed in the following F.A.Q's. We do not hold any customer funds and operate on an agreed payment against consultancy invoice basis only. While our consultancy customers do NOT enjoy the same level of complaints, privilege or insurance protection as they would using a regulated organisation, we hope our extremely competitive price point provides access to basic consultancy support for those who might not be able to source it otherwise. We also commit to full customer contractual confidentiality to the extent we are not duty bound to disclose information by the law

How long have you operated?

We have been offering the consultancy services we list in one form or another for over a decade. Via the establishment of Paloma Business Consultancy Services, we aim to now provide an even more cost efficient alternative to the long prevailing consultancy support model. This, we hope, will help afford our customers access to valuable consultancy services that would otherwise be outside their reach and thus deny them an even playing field

Are you well networked?

Absolutely. We are networked both nationally and internationally with key decision makers whose impact, influence and expertise can be drawn upon to support the needs of the customers we service as and when appropriate. If there is a service we cannot provide ourselves, then our extensive network enables us to point you confidently in the right direction of travel towards an appropriate provider with a service and charging philosophy that reflects our own

Can you represent me in Court?

As we are NOT a firm of solicitors or barristers and nor are we individually solicitors or barristers ourselves, we cannot represent you as such, because these activities are restricted to such regulated persons. We may be able to support you as what has become known as a paid or unpaid "McKenzie Friend" (this term comes from a legal case called McKenzie v McKenzie in 1970 where the court decided that an unrepresented party be allowed to have a friend in court who was supporting him), but this is very rare and we would have to determine the viability of this on a case by case basis to assess whether it were appropriate/permissible. We would also have to obtain the Court's authority to do so in advance. We are not, however, prevented from assisting you to resolve disputes before they escalate to what may be construed as the conduct of litigation, which should always be an important consideration given the risks and costs of going to court. If one of our consultants is engaged as an employed agent of a company, they can naturally represent the interests of that company directly in court if authorised by the company and court to do so in their capacity as that company's employee representative. That representative could, for example, be an employed non executive director, the benefits of which are covered in another F.A.Q.

What is your price point?

We work with each customer to establish a pricing mechanism that works for them. Our representatives work from home and leverage technology to make customers lives easier. Consultations are mainly held over the telephone or at virtual meeting rooms on zoom, and each customer is allocated a dedicated Paloma WhatsApp Business contact number for ongoing communication where this is appropriate. Our overheads are therefore minimal so we can afford to be compassionate on our fee structures, whether engaged on a project specific or ongoing monthly basis. Our pricing policy aims to make us accessible to as wide a demographic as possible

Are you insured for our service offerings?

Yes, our business consultancy services are insured. Not to the same extent that for example a regulated law firm or firm of accountants would need to be, but this is reflected in our customer cost savings. We hold professional indemnity of up to £1 million per claim, which is more than sufficient for the work we do. If we needed to increase this on a specific project basis for any reason, then is something we would look at closely. We additionally have a robust internal complaints process that can be accessed by our customers at any time, though as a testament to our delivery capability, our operators have excelled in the Consultancy arena for over 10 years now on a non regulated basis and have not had a single claim or complaint made against them in all that time, a fact reflected by our Customer Credits, which can be viewed by clicking here

How many instructions do you take on?

We are small but agile unit that would never take on new instructions that we felt we did not have the capacity or authority to do full justice to. This is reflected in our careful analysis of any new approaches which involves seeing around corners to some extent to ensure we are the right fit for, and can perform, the work in question or sought. We pride ourselves in quality and differentiation, so this cautious management of workflow is critical to ensuring optimum performance for all our customers equally and without exception

How do you embrace technology in your service provision?

We constantly measure ourselves against the accessibility, accuracy, quality and speed of our customer communications. We therefore embrace modern technology to facilitate this. As well as highly secure and firewalled telephone, email and virtual meeting rooms, we provide at our cost a unique, end to end encrypted, dedicated business Whatsapp Business facility to all customers where this would streamline our service. This enables us to issue important updates in real time, with accompanying handheld visual or audio notifications of two way receipt, for a immediate, time sensitive customer service experience. We find that this offering is extremely valued by customers who work with us on a continuing basis as well as the deaf and hard of hearing communities we aim to service equally and without disadvantage. We further hold cyber insurance in case of third party online attack to the value of £250,000 per breach, providing added comfort to our customers that their interests are safeguarded

So how do I start the ball rolling?

There are various ways you can contact us. You can contact us free via our Reach Out page directly or email us at query@palomabusiness.com to leave a message giving us brief detail of the support you are looking to source. We will off the back of that organise a free initial remote consultation where appropriate, at which we will be open and honest up front as to whether it is something we can and / or are permitted to assist with, and if so at what best value price point. Please note that to safeguard your confidentiality, telephone messages and calls are not recorded. Our approach is friendly, approachable, informal and constructive, so please do not feel nervous about being open with us and we endeavour to reply in one form or another to every single enquiry we receive