accountants’ advice: be careful, quick, creative … and lean

businessman giving advice to female coworker

survey respondents look beyond tax season.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

just about every small business has an accountant, and smart business owners tap their accountant not just for tax prep but for general business advice.

and smart accountants offer smart advice. because what’s good for the client is good for the accountant.

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the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 2024 busy season barometer has harvested quite a bit of smart advice with an open-ended question about the best advice for small businesses.

responses bounced all over the business ballpark, but a lot of them warned of change and economic turbulence.

stay lean

andrew pfau, who offers services on long island, n.y., sums up a lot of it with “stay lean, train and retain your staff, don’t over borrow, treat every customer as if they were your only customer.”

cam matheny, reporting in from west virginia, echos that and adds more: “stay lean,” he says. “make sure you are doing what’s best for the clients/customers you have now before expanding into new areas/markets/products.”

carey dempsey, with alabama’s impact cpa, agrees with the lean part: “keep overhead low,” she advises. “tighten up quotes. stay away from debt.”

likewise with houston’s cyndi bannon, who simply says, “watch costs and manage capital.”

why lean? here and there we heard the voices of doom. matthew jones sr., for example, says, “run lean and thin and have lots and lots of spare change for hard times.”

be wary

and ronald chech sr.’s voice says, “avoid borrowing and be cash rich. be prepared if the administration changes this election. be wary if the administration does not change.”

be wary – and prepared.

“do tax planning and financial planning several times per year and do realistic cash flow and forecasting, maximize retirement services,” says texan cpa gerald stieferman.

touching base from malvern, pa., tony coladonato of coladonato cpa has even more words to that effect. tell your clients this: “be careful. even in good volume, good cash flow times, business owners need to be prepared for any form of economic slowdown and try to build a bit of savings or ‘reserve’ funds, and even secure business lines of credit / credit cards, etc. to have as an emergency source of funding. and of course, be proactive with business and tax planning during the year – and not only at tax time!”

jon neal whispers in from milwaukee: “hunker down.”

be quick and creative

several accountants advise keeping a weather eye on the winds of change. the businesses that survive will be the ones that adapt quickly.

bob krech advises, “contingency planning and react quickly as opportunities or challenges occur.”

borbala banto, founder and ceo of concierge cpas, agrees, telling us, “be innovative. what took you here won’t necessarily work in the future.”

mateo k. charles, in jamaica, n.y., says small business has to look way ahead for big changes we can’t see yet.

“be vigilant,” he says. “focus on what’s happening in respective industries as advances in technology are revolutionizing every aspect of business today.”

we’re also getting a lot of advice on treating clients well, preserving employees and implementing the best of technology.

and then richard pagac jr. comes along from bloomfield hills, mich., and says, “never give up, keep moving forward, and remember why you started and the end game for you.”