‘No worries at all. The service is for anyone running a business. It’s not a case of one-size fits all, we’ll tailor the conversation around your business and the things that would be most useful to you. 

‘It’s open to all NatWest business customers, and it’s free and entirely confidential. If you’re relationship managed, you’ll be familiar with the process, as they’re built into your regular catch ups. But you can also contact us anytime if you’d like to arrange a financial health check at a time that suits you. 

‘Our Financial Health Checks are for general planning and support with your business. If you’re experiencing financial difficulty, we have dedicated services to help instead.’

‘What’s covered will be different each time, as the health check is a conversation driven by you. We’re here to listen and to help you identify goals, priorities, future ambitions and to build a plan of action, if you’d like one.

‘It’s an in-depth conversation, and takes 40 to 90 minutes, depending on how much detail you want to go into.

‘We like to keep things up to the minute. So right now, for example, re-orientating after Covid will be a common topic we discuss. More generally, a typical review might cover things like a business overview, priorities and goals, any funding needs, savings and investment, risk and security, every-day banking needs and climate ambitions – all dependent on where you want to focus.

‘We might mention services and products where relevant, but it’s important to stress that this isn’t a sales conversation. It’s driven entirely by what you need and want to discuss. It’s about helping and understanding businesses and building a relationship, not pushing products.’

“A financial health check can help you take a step back from the day to day and think about the wider picture” – Louise Seymour

‘It’s an opportunity to share your plans, goals, concerns, and we’ll explore how we can help.

‘Having someone with experience to discuss your business with and bounce ideas off can be really useful. Just that process of talking things through is a great way of clarifying your understanding of your current situation and where you want to take things. And often this helps uncover something new – an idea, an opportunity, a plan, or just a way we can help with something you’re already doing and make it easier to do.

‘If you have products and services with us already, we can look at those too and we can check that they’re still the best options for you, based on our discussion.

‘The financial health check can also help you take a step back from the day to day and think about the wider picture. You can use it to consider wider possibilities and points of strategy. And you can use it to reflect on your long-term goals, both business and personal. It’s an all-round review, so there might be things we can support with from a personal banking perspective too. It’s all about exploring possibilities and joining the dots.’ 

‘We can arrange the meeting in the format that works best for you – that might be a Zoom or Skype video call or a phone call. When covid restrictions are lifted, you’ll also have the option to arrange a meeting in person.

‘It’s helpful to have your financial information to hand, and to come with anything you want to discuss in mind, but you really don’t need to do much prep. If you’ve done a health check with us before, we’ll already have those notes to draw on, and we’ll be able to pick up and build on those previous conversations.’

‘At the end we’ll summarise the plans and options we discussed. We’ll also send you a follow up email with that same information, so you can decide where to go from there. It could form the basis of a six-month business plan, a roadmap of goals and priorities, and we can arrange a follow-up session in six months’ time, to see how that plan is going and explore next steps.

‘In that respect, these sessions don’t need to be just a one off. They can be part of an ongoing conversation about your business goals and how we can best support you on that journey.’

Thanks very much to Louise for talking us through this service. If you’re interested in booking a financial health check you can call us on: 0345 7114477 

And you can find out more about the support we have for businesses at every stage of their journey here: Explore business support and services