The trend among small business owners in the UK seems to be increasingly to use their accountants as financial and business advisors.

In research conducted by Venture Finance, 78% of SMEs said that they could rely on their accountant to give them unbiased financial advice. While this advice does seem to mainly be concerned directly with business issues, accountants are also providing personal financial advice on issues such as investments, insurance and savings plans.

Personally, I would far rather trust my accountant to give professional, financial advice than an 'independent' financial advisor or a representative from a bank.

Rather sweetly, only 46% of accountants rated themselves as the most trustworthy in the financial services and legal sectors. However, you can bet that independent financial advisors and others selling financial products would love to be trusted by 78% of their clients. It is, of course, a trust that shouldn't be abused and I, personally, would hate to see accountants move too far away from their core competencies. Nevertheless, it's good to see that the relationship between small and mid-sizes UK businesses and their accountants is one based on trust and understanding.

I work with a lot of accountants over at Just Accountants.co.uk and pretty much each one has a different idea of their 'ideal client'.

We have accountants that don't like to work with cash only businesses; accountants who only work with contractors; accountants who specialise in start-ups and new companies; accountants who prefer owner-managed businesses with a turnover above £200,000 p.a - the list is ever growing.

I know this stuff because they tell me. And - if you are trying to find an accountant - this is information you will need to know too. However, put simply, most accountants would prefer the income from a client than not. And who can blame them? There are thousands of chartered accountants out there and they are all competing for business.

Nevertheless, when you are trying to find an accountant, whether you are self-employed or the financial director of a multinational corporation, you need to find out what type of clients that accountant prefers. That way you will end up with a responsive, helpful professional who can assist you as you grow your business.

For that reason, I recommend against comparing accountants on price. There are some great fixed fee based accountants out there and there are some good ones who are comparitively cheap, but if their preferred client is an owner-managed limited company and you are a self-employed hairdresser, then you are not necessarily going to get the service you need.

Accountancy, more and more, is a service based business and you have the right to expect that your accountants will be ready and willing to assist you. But you do need to ask the right questions.

Ask your prospective accountant if they specialise in any particular area, call them up at 5:15pm on a Friday afternoon and see how easy they are to contact; try to arrange a meeting for a time that suits you, not them. All these things will indicate whether this is the accountant for you.

Of course [beware, unsubtle promotional pitch coming], you could always find an accountant through Just Accountants and we'll put you in touch with accountants that are right for you : http://www.justaccountants.co.uk/quote.html