The royal 'we'

JodieR

I've been having a nosey at many small accountant's websites lately as I'm in the process of updating mine and notice that 99% of them use 'we' when talking about themselves when I'm pretty sure that the vast majority are just sole traders/sole directors of a Ltd Company. I'm just interested in why you don't just use 'I'? Would you extend it to 'we' if your partner answers the phone & does a bit of admin for the business? and when you meet clients for the first time do they not look a bit confused that they're not walking into a fully staffed office?
I'm not having a go, each to their own, just interested in the rationale behind it.

burg

Personally our firm is myself and my wife. However as we are a limited company I would use we as I would be putting it from a company point of view rather than a personal point of view.

Monsoon

I use 'we.' I only started doing it when I got a business partner though, but now he's gone I continue with 'we' - I do have other members of staff so even though there's only 1 principal, there's still a number of folk in the office.

I think it depends what image you intend to project to clients. If your selling point is that you are on your own and so you can give personal service/ not have to charge high overheads and pass that saving on to the client etc, then it may look odd to say "we", as they know it's just you. However if you are wanting to project an image that's bigger than you are, then I understand the use of "we". As Ian says, trading through a Ltd gives another legal person meaning it's reasonable to argue "we"!