The Virtual CFO

CPA for Small Business eBay Store: Business Plan Analysis and Review Services

One of the things I am often asked to do is in my practice is to analyze and review business plans for potential start-ups as well as established businesses.

I am a big proponent of business plans for small businesses. In 2006, I wrote a series on Business Plan Preparation that discussed the various elements that make up a business plan.

The CPA for Small Business eBay Store's Business Plan Review and Analysis Consultation service provides you with a general review and critique of your business plan. You will also be given an estimate of the time it will take to perform a more detailed review and analysis of your business plan.

I don’t write business plans for clients. I believe that an entrepreneur needs to go through the business plan preparation process themselves. This is the only way they can learn and prepare for all of the areas that will affect their company. However, to help clients get started I have an excellent SBA business plan template that I recommend.

When I review a business plan, I critique it as though I was on your company’s board of directors. I ask the tough questions that need to be asked about your business plan.

CPA for Small Business eBay Store: Virtual CFO Services

This is the cornerstone service I offer at CPA for Small Business (hence the name of the blog).

With Virtual CFO Services, you will receive high-level financial management, analysis, and advice from an experienced small business CFO, on an on demand basis. The guidance you receive from the Virtual CFO Services is normally only gained by employing an experienced CFO on a full-time basis.

Many CPAs offer "CFO Services" and "Virtual CFO Services", but few have the actual hands-on, day-to-day experience of being a small business financial manager. This makes it hard for them to understand the issues you are facing on a day-to-day basis. They also have difficulty preparing financial information in a manner that you understand and can use to better manage your business.

I have been the CFO of two construction companies (first grossed approximately $7 million/year, the second $10 million/year), a construction equipment rental company (grossed approximately $2 million/year), and a printing company that was owned by an individual and a venture capital firm who ultimately sold the business to a publicly traded company (grossed approximately $5 million/year).

In my career, I have worked with many small business managers who do not have a financial or accounting background. This experience allows me to translate accounting and financial information in a way that non-accountants understand and can use.

The Virtual CFO Services Consultation I am offering through the CPA for Small Business eBay Store gives you the opportunity to talk to me to learn the benefits you and your company can receive from CPA for Small Business’s Virtual CFO Services.

CPA for Small Business eBay Store: Entrepreneur Coaching Services

Last year, I noticed that I spent as much time discussing non-financial issues, such as marketing, operations, and human resources, with my entrepreneurial clients as I did financial issues. This is why I decided to offer Entrepreneur Coaching Services in my practice.

I am an experienced entrepreneur who understands first-hand what small business owners face. Entrepreneur Coaching gives you the opportunity to confidentially discuss and receive my input concerning your ideas and concerns about your business.

I’m not your typical CPA, who has spent an entire career in public accounting. In my professional career, I have been a business-to-business salesman, sales manager, general manager, and owned an entrepreneurial logistics company for four years. I have also held the top financial manager position at small start-ups as well as larger businesses that were purchased and owned by venture capital firms.

My experience gives me an understanding of the big picture of business that very few CPAs have.

The Entrepreneur Coaching Consultation Service I am offering on the CPA for Small Business eBay Store gives you the opportunity to talk to me to discuss the benefits you will receive from Entrepreneur Coaching.

Caveat Concerning the Services Being Offered on the CPA for Small Business eBay Store

Before describing the services that I am offering on the CPA for Small Business eBay Store, I wanted to give the caveat that I am not offering public accounting attest services through the eBay store.

I am a licensed certified public accountant who owns a licensed public accounting firm. I have the utmost respect for state accountancy laws. This is why I will not offer public accounting services that require a state license in states where I am not licensed to practice.

If someone does inquire about attest services outside of Tennessee, I will let them know if it is possible for CPA for Small Business, LLC to work with them.

If not, I’ll point them towards resources where they can find a qualified CPA in their state. I’ve done this before and I generally point them towards their state society of CPAs if there is not a CPA I know in their area that I can recommend.

I wanted to clarify this because my CPA firm is offering Entrepreneur Coaching, Virtual CFO, Business Plan Analysis and Review, and Accounting System Setup services nationwide, but I will not be offering public accounting attest services through the eBay store.

CPA for Small Business eBay Store Link

The CPA for Small Business eBay Store is open for business!

This post is for the feed readers of this blog. I accidentally placed a "." at the end of the link url in my previous post. I didn’t catch it until after I published the post.

The link above is good.

The CPA for Small Business eBay Store is Now Open

The CPA for Small Business eBay Store is now open!

Like most entrepreneurs, I have a rather long to-do list. One of the things that I have had on my to-do list for a while has been to establish an e-commerce site for CPA for Small Business.

The Virtual CFO Blog draws inquiries from entrepreneurs from around the United States. In the last few months, I have had either email or phone correspondence with readers of this blog from Houston, TX, Chicago, IL, Las Vegas, NV, Atlanta, GA, Bowling Green, KY, and Orange, TX. All of the blog readers who contacted me needed help in areas that CPA for Small Business specializes in.

This is a market that CPA for Small Business wants to serve and I feel that establishing an e-commerce site will facilitate the assistance CPA for Small Business can give entrepreneurs and small businesses that are not located in Middle Tennessee.

In the CPA for Small Business eBay Store, we will be offering the following services:

1. Entrepreneur Coaching Services
2. Virtual CFO Services
3. Business Plan Analysis and Review Services
4. Accounting System Setup Services

Over the next few days, I’ll blog about each of these services and discuss how they can help your entrepreneurial or small business.

The Virtual CFO Blog is a Related Blog to a The Wall Street Journal Online Article

This morning, I discovered that I had several visitors to The Virtual CFO Blog who were referred from The Wall Street Journal Online.

I went to the referring link and discovered that The Virtual CFO Blog was a "Related Articles and Blogs" to a WSJ article entitled "For H&R Block, a Happy Return?". Here is a PDF screenshot of the WSJ article (Download 021208_wsj_blog_links.pdf).

I would like to say hello and welcome to the readers WSJ who are reading my blog. I hope you enjoy The Virtual CFO Blog.

I Have People (Who Are Paid $7.00 an Hour), The Truth is the CPAs Charge About the Same as the Large Franchised Tax Preparation Services

Flash forward to now, where I charge an hourly rate for preparing tax returns.

There was a time when I offered flat rates for tax return preparation. I based the flat rates on the average time it took to prepare each type of return.

After a few weeks of offering flat rates, I returned to charging per hour for tax preparation. There were two reasons for this. First, I couldn’t, with good conscious, charge clients whose tax returns took considerably less time than expected the flat rate. So I charged them the hourly rate for the time I spent on their returns, which was less than the flat rate.

Secondly, when I was charging flat rates, I didn’t believe it was right to charge above the flat rate for client’s returns that took considerably longer to prepare than expected. There were several clients whose returns that took three times longer than the average to prepare. I charged all of these clients the flat rate because I’m a man of my word and I was the one responsible for quoting them a flat rate.

By charging per hour, clients pay for the time it takes to prepare their returns.

And for prospective clients reading this blog, I give clients an estimated range of the time it will take to prepare their taxes. Ninety-nine percent of the time the time it takes to prepare a client’s tax return falls within this range.

What is interesting about my hourly rates is that the average my clients pay to have their taxes prepared is approximately the same as they would pay at one of the large franchised tax preparation services.

So if you are going to pay $XXX.XX to have your taxes prepared, would you rather have a certified public accountant prepare your taxes or someone making $7.00 to $8.00 an hour?

I Have People (Who Are Paid $7.00 an Hour), Part 3

I knew something was up by the faces on the people who met with the manager before me. Put simply, they were not happy puppies.

There was a very presentable young man who was majoring in business at a local university. I talked to him while we were waiting and he told me that he was excited about having a job that would pay better than most college survival jobs that would give him real-world business experience. His attitude changed drastically after meeting with the manager.

While walking out, he told the group that was waiting that this was BS and that bagging groceries paid more than he could make as a tax preparer. He also said that a grocery store wouldn’t make him pay fifty dollars for grocery bagging training before making a job offer.

I was the next person to meet with the manager. Oh boy.

I would like to add one side note at this point. During the hands-on training, I was allowed to see the rate structure for this tax preparation service. They charged a flat rate for each basic return and flat rates for each additional schedule added to the basic return. For example, the rate for a standard 1040 was one-hundred and fifty and two-hundred dollars and they charged one-hundred or so dollars for each additional schedule needed for the return, like Schedule A – Itemized Deductions. Seeing the rate schedule raised my expectations about the pay I would receive as a tax preparer.

The manager opened our meeting by saying that her hands were tied about what she could pay tax preparers. She told me that the franchise, processing, and access fees for the tax preparation software charged by the franchisor took up a majority of the gross income the franchisee earned. She said that she would like to offer me more based on my experience, but she couldn’t.

She then made me an offer. It was $7.00 and hour plus a commission/bonus based on the number of returns I prepared. If I prepared one return every hour I worked, I could earn an approximately $1.00 more an hour. I knew it was improbable that I would be able to prepare one return ever hour, so I asked the manager to tell me what I should realistically expect to earn. She told me that $7.25 an hour was about average for the tax return preparers who worked for her franchise.

I passed on the job.

I Have People (Who Are Paid $7.00 an Hour), Part 2

Two of the requirements to work for the tax preparation service were that you had to attend a series of training sessions and you had to pass a hands-on test that shows your proficiency in tax preparation.

During the time the training occurred, I was taking a full-load of accounting classes including night classes two nights a week. The night classes were on the same nights as the training sessions. I discussed this with the manager of the tax preparation franchise and the manager agreed to let me opt out of the training sessions. I would still be required to pass the hands-on test.

I kept in contact with the franchise manager and in January I was told that the hands-on tests would be given during a week and on Friday of that week there would be a tax preparer orientation session.

Several prospective tax preparers were taking the hands-on test at the same time I was. All of the test takers had attended the training sessions and knew each other. I was peripherally listening to their conversation and heard them discuss that the instructor would not answer any questions in class concerning the pay they might receive as a tax preparer. They said that the instructor would divert by saying that what tax preparer’s pay was based on their experience and that information concerning pay was confidential.

I passed my hands-on test.

The orientation sessions were typical for a large company, covering operational policies and procedures as well as the employee handbook. The session ended with the manager saying that she would talk to each person individually and make them a job offer.

In my next post I’ll tell you about my meeting with the manager.