What is a "Small" Business?
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a small business as having fewer than 500 employees, though the exact number can vary by industry. This broad category includes startups, family-owned businesses, sole proprietorships, and small partnerships.
Whether you have 5 or 500 employees, your business is not small to you. In fact, it's everything. It's your life's work and represents most of your wealth and your family's future. How you invest in it and every strategic decision you make is momentous.
Small businesses make up 44% of all economic activity and despite limited resources, they are a critical source of employment and innovation.
Despite this, many "small" businesses, and small business owners struggle to get the kind of big firm financial and tax support they so richly deserve and they pay the price as a result.
This is a BIG problem.
Why Small Businesses Struggle to Get Big Firm Service
Large firms provide extensive tax services backed by deep expertise and abundant resources. Yet, small businesses often find these services beyond their reach for several reasons:
High Costs: The premium rates charged by big firms reflect their expertise and the complexity of their offerings - as well as their cost of doing business. For small businesses operating on tight budgets, these costs can be prohibitive.
Focus on Larger Clients: Big firms often concentrate on their larger clients, who contribute significantly to their revenue. This can result in less personalized attention and support for small businesses, the result is the dreaded "cookie cutter" offering.
Resource Allocation: The resource-intensive methods of large firms aren't easily adaptable to the needs of small businesses, which require more straightforward, agile solutions tailored to their size and specific needs.
Hidden Cost:
"The first rule of a bureaucracy is to protect the bureaucracy."
Ronald Reagan
Big firms have big costs and priorities of their own. This can mean getting steered toward a product, service, or strategy that the firm has prioritized but it's not necessarily the best fit for you.
What Small Businesses Need
Help Navigating Complex Regulations: The tax code is 75,000 pages and ever-changing. As a business owner you can't be expected to understand complex tax regulations any more than a tax pro could be expected to understand every nuance of your business. Not to mention the fact that the code is fluid, you need a partner who can help you know what's coming and get ahead of it. In tax, once you miss an opportunity, it's gone.
Attention: It sounds simple, but small businesses need someone willing to listen and understand the unique needs of the business and perhaps more importantly, the needs and goals of the business owner. The business owner wants to know that when they call, the call gets answered. They also want to know that their partner is going to pick up the phone and call them when they see something that could be beneficial.
Tailored Solutions: Small businesses come in various shapes and forms, each with unique needs and potential tax strategies. However, many larger firms offer one-size-fits-all solutions that may not optimize the specific tax position of a small enterprise.
Fixed Fees Based On Returns: ROI matters. Hiring full-time, experienced tax professionals can be cost-prohibitive for many small businesses. They often rely on general accountants who may not specialize in tax strategy. Find a partner that offers a fixed-fee model based on your returns.
Small Businesses Deserve Big Service
As rewarding as it can be, we all know running a small business is hard, very hard. At C&A, we are a small business but we pride ourselves on big service. We take a 360° approach to our client relationships.
Our methodology focused on 3 key areas to help business owners build generational wealth.
- Compensation strategy and reduction of income and payroll taxes, helping you keep more of what you earn.
- Ensuring your entity structure is best suited to your situation and developing a tax-efficient investment plan to increase your net worth.
- Finally, helping you plan for exit, protect your assets, and safeguard your estate against tax exposure.
At best, a cookie-cutter approach will get you cookie-cutter results, at worst, it could miss huge opportunities, decimate the value of your business and estate, and even lead to costly errors.
It IS possible to get the kind of client- support you need, and we'd like to help. Set up a time to talk with our team today.
