One method I’ve found that’s helpful of giving some insight into potential “jobs” or “clients” offering work is to run a quick company check.
At this website you can instantly get a profile of the accounts of any UK limited company:
It gathers data from the companies house, where all UK companies have to file accounts and tax returns.
For example: I might run this check by any company posting in the commercial forum if I am interested.
For example its useful to discover things such as; listed as dormant, with £0 cash at bank, £0 assets, £0 liabilities, yet trading for 2 years. And perhaps the website indicates a healthy business. Interesting.
Doesn’t mean anything.
I did a background check on a company in the UK and they looked legit. And they ended up paying me nothing for 2 months of work.
If you work with a company, do things in small, well defined milestones, and build the relationship and trust up from there.
It tells you how financially healthy the company is, if they are in debt, if they are legally active, solvent, if the people behind it are who they say they are etc.
How did you carry out your background check?
If you PM me the name of the company that wronged you with I’d be happy to interpret the check for you.
Yep, looks like they closed without ever submitting accounts or tax. A smash and grab perhaps.
There is also a risk score associated with a company which helps to look at. If they don’t submit accounts it will be low.
Basically a check tells you the credibility of the company. How long have they been trading? Are they in the black? Do they have reasonable risk rating? Any Assets?
I would not necessarily say I would not do business with a new company however I would be more cautious and and employ more risk adverse strategy, (such as asking for money at shorter intervals, etc)
If a company has a longer track record I usually act in good faith, because they probably have more to lose than I do if it goes pear shaped.
We’ve asked several candidates to come clean about living in dozens past addresses, dozens of pre-paid phone numbers, usage of aliases off-line. None of them have explained about it we’ve stopped doing business with these people.
In certain cases, where these people harass us, the police have raided their addresses as they use false identities and identity-theft. You should have seen them run away when the police came with search warrant to investigate fake companies hiring for fake jobs and getting money for no works.
They are still around… Operating a false business or unregistered business, using aliases for job employment, logging onto proxies to hide your identity is not considered normal behaviour. Since we were not harmed by them, we simply mind your own business .
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