"Small-business owners usually wear multiple hats. The lack of management infrastructure means they require a trusted advisor sensitive to and knowledgeable regarding their varied business needs. Marketing in this environment is often subtle because the focus is on the relationship and addressing their challenges, not selling packaged services," says tax partner Tom Forbes of Sacramento, Calif.-based Macias Gini & O'Connell. Sean Haggard, tax specialist with Abrams Little-Gill Loberfeld (ALL), Chestnut Hill, Mass., adds, "They expect their trusted advisors to educate, offer solutions to their most pressing issues, suggest cost- and time-saving opportunities, and provide growth related strategies."

Expanding services and advising small-business owners on many of their business purchases remains the best bread-and-butter for many firms. "We like to be the first people clients call with questions about their financial well-being," says Steven Wouch, managing partner with Wouch, Maloney & Co., Horsham, Pa. "We have helped clients transition businesses from one generation to another, find outside employees, and negotiate contract terms, and have helped them through difficult financial and emotional times.

Appealing to the Client Base

The Entreprenuerial Advisory Services (EAS) group at Houston-based PKF Texas offers tax, financial reporting, and consulting services, frequently bundled together, to some 60 clients with revenue of $6 million to $100 million, according to Byron Herbert, director of the group. One client's testimonial claims Herbert saved a client $100,000 with one visit. Another client, an industrial-elevator manufacturer, saw profits shoot from $400,000 to $2 million. "It's not unusual to find a four-to-five percent improvement," Herbert reports, adding that most small-business owners and small companies find it hard, if not impossible, to look objectively enough at processes and the bottom line to produce such results themselves.

In addition to traditional accounting and tax compliance, the entrepreneurial services department of SS&G Financial Services, Cleveland, offers accounting assistance, outsourced services, business consulting, budgeting/forecasting, strategic planning, litigation consulting and support, HR and IT services, wealth management, and employee benefits, according to Kimberly Zagar, associate director of the department.

Phillip Sroka, partner with Miami-based Morrison, Brown, Argiz and Farra, which services some 2,500 small-business clients in its tax and accounting services department, notes some ways that his firm helps small-business owners:

• In the formation of the entity and the choice of the correct type of entity for the business, taking into consideration the type of business, ownership flexibility, tax ramifications, and family issues.
• In hiring of employees. "Sometimes we even function in the controllership role while the company has temporary needs or is in the growing stages," he says.
• Provide referrals for services such as attorney, banker, insurance agent, investment advisor, retirement-plan consultant, and payroll service provider.
• Review internal operations and controls for inefficiencies and segregation of duties.
• Act as consultant in numerous areas such as lease-versus-buy decisions, HR, financing options, and budgeting.
• Provide tax, estate, and succession planning.

Sroka says marketing to these clients often means targeting the owner, as opposed to the controller or CFO in larger organizations. "In addition," he adds, "in larger organizations compliance-type work is a major reason for being hired. All small businesses have compliance-type services to be performed, such as income tax returns, and some may require financial statements for internal or external purposes, but it's the additional services that are usually the main factors in the small- business owner's decision."

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