No, and it's worth being precise about why. IR35 is a rule about people who work through their own limited companies; I don't. I'm a sole trader, engaged business-to-business under written terms. What matters for you instead is employment status generally, and the engagement is built to be self-employment through and through: I control how the work gets done, I work for multiple clients, I can bring in associates, and there's no obligation on either side beyond the SOW. If your accountant or legal team want to look under the bonnet, I'm happy to walk them through it.
Covered from the first conversation. My Terms of Business include a confidentiality clause that runs for five years after we finish, and it cuts both ways. If you'd rather use your own NDA before we talk specifics, send it over; I sign sensible ones without fuss.
Then we stop, and the exit is priced fairly. Retainers roll monthly with 30 days' notice. Project work is billed against milestones you've accepted. Anything paid in advance for work not yet done comes back to you pro rata. And a "Let's just talk" session is free if it's not useful within the first ten minutes. I'd rather lose an engagement than have a client feel trapped in one; trapped clients don't refer.
Three reasons, honestly held. You get the person you met: no pyramid of juniors learning on your invoice. You pay for judgement, not overheads: my prices are a fraction of a firm's because there's no office tower inside them. And accountability is undiluted: one name on the work, findable at the end of a phone. What a firm offers that I don't is an army. If your problem genuinely needs forty people, I'll say so and help you buy the army well.
Whichever the work needs, agreed in the SOW. I'm based in England, about an hour from London, on site across the UK regularly and remote everywhere else. Two decades of global work taught me when a problem needs a room and when it needs a video call; diagnostics usually deserve some days on site, ongoing rhythm works well remotely.
Me. Where an engagement needs more than one pair of hands, I bring in trusted associates I've worked with for years, and I remain responsible for every line of the output. You'll always know who's doing what, and the person accountable never changes.
The first conversation, usually this week; there are evening slots if daytime is impossible. A Diagnostic Day typically lands within a fortnight. Retainers and projects start when the SOW is signed, which is two pages of plain English rather than a procurement saga, so it's rarely the bottleneck.
Still weighing it up? The cheapest way to find out is a conversation: book a free 30-minute call or start with Let's just talk.