it difficult to attract small-business clients.
Once they begin pounding the pavement and
participating in community meetings and
events, referrals become the magic word.
Regional Southern accounting firm Carr
Riggs & Ingram uses banker and attorney
contacts to meet new small-business owners, according to Louise Anderson, a partner
in the Florida office.
Padgett not only uses this system to take
on new business, but also to network existing
clients with each other. “Padgett is trying to
put more money in clients’ pockets by shar-
ing business contacts with them,” Sautner
explained. “A dry cleaner could be used for
uniforms at a restaurant. You put two cli-
ent bases together, and when you take them
apart, they’re both bigger.”
Sautner recently had phone conversations
with two prospective clients — a photogra-
pher and a day care center — that got his
wheels turning. “You look at what they have
in common to help these two people do bet-
ter. The photographer can take pictures at the
day care, and there can be coupons to the
day care center [distributed by] the photog-
rapher — coupons back and forth. Once you
put your imagination to it, there’s a dozen
ways they can interact.”
Small Biz
FROM PAGE
3
PARTNER UP
This kind of matchmaking becomes instinctual when viewing small-business relationships as partnerships.
“With smaller clients, you need to be much
more an advocate for them, a part of their
business,” CRI’s Anderson offered.
“The bottom line is that as long as we and
the client view ourselves as an expense, instead of an investment, [the relationship]
won’t be successful in the long run,” Sautner
added.
While the semantic distinction is small, the
financial implications can be large at a time
when small businesses are looking to trim
costs and shop the competition.
The National Federation of Independent
Business’s monthly small-business optimism index — based on the responses of 766
randomly sampled small businesses in the
NFIB’s membership — showed a small drop
for the fourth consecutive month in June to
90.8, with negative earning trends keeping
the sector in solid recession territory. In that
month, the second-year anniversary of the
recovery, 69 percent of surveyed owners view
the current period as a poor time to expand.
Of those respondents, 75 percent blame the
economy for their outlook and 10 percent
point to political uncertainty.
“The biggest challenge with smaller clients
is that, with what is going on in the economy,
they are more price-conscious,” said Mitra
Mamdouhi, partner at Washington, D.C.,
metro-area CPA, technology and consulting
firm Raffa. “Where they have been offered
opportunities to go with less expensive ser-
vices, the inclination is to go that route, even
though it may in the long run show them not
getting the service and advice they really
should be getting.”
Raffa has, in fact, lost clients that had no
choice but to value lowered expense over
‘We’re in the
middle of the
herd ... You
look to the
right, look to
your left, and
ask, how can
we help each
other?’
investment. Many of these clients were in
the mortgage industry, and when business
declined by more than 50 percent, “It was all
about the cost,” Mamdouhi said. “It didn’t
matter what kind of service they were getting,
they were inclined to make the change.”
The firm has dealt with this by being “more
flexible with billing, trying to let them do as
much as they can at their level, if at all pos-
sible. We give discounts where we normally
would not.”
FULL SERVICE
Sautner believes that businesses that have
survived the “Darwinian” environment and
adapted to their marketplace have done so by
focusing on service and personal contact.
“Sometimes people read newspapers too
much and struggle with the financial news,”
he added. “Large stores are trying to move
volume, [small businesses and us], we’re try-
ing to move service.”
From the firm perspective, this service
should be proactive and make small-busi-
ness clients feel as important as their larger
counterparts, stressed Mamdouhi.
Where time constraints inhibit this, tech-
nology can be useful. Carr Riggs & Ingram
uses e-newsletters, blogs and social media
when face time isn’t possible, shared Ander-
son. The firm also has a company Facebook
page.
FAMILY AFFAIR
The work of maintaining this personal level
of contact also pays off when management
changes.
“The businesses, individuals, family mem-
bers transitioning to the next generation are
all a part of the big picture for us,” Mamdouhi
continued. Service, then, is “not limited to
financial aspects of succession planning, but
includes family personalities, as dynamics
can be very different from family to family.
Having long-term relationships and knowing
the dynamics of businesses and individuals
can really be helpful to clients. What makes
sense to one plan you cannot apply to every
situation.”
Carr Riggs & Ingram provides QuickBooks
and cash management training and support
to their clients. “We sit down with the own-
ers,” Anderson said. “What do those financial
statements mean to them? A lot of small-
business owners don’t understand.”
Universal financial issues like college and
retirement funds that affect both sides of the
table make open communication and sup-
port that much more valuable, whether rang-
ing from the technical to the personal.
“We’re in the middle of a herd, bumping
shoulders with everyone else,” Sautner said.
“You look to the right, look to your left, and
ask, how can we help each other? Relating
more to your clients; it should be the easiest
thing in world — they’re going through what
you’re going through.” AT
