Fiducial | We help your business grow and be profitable.

by Stephen Parezo

Tom Schnaidt

October 16, 2006—For the first time ever, Fiducial held a series of interview groups last week to find out what keeps some Maryland small business owners up at night.

The two-and-a-half hour sessions, held at the Howard County Center for Business and Technology Development Business Resource Center in Columbia, MD, featured three groups: Start-ups and entrepreneurs, growing businesses and mature businesses, all with different needs.

Tom Schnaidt, a franchise business advisor for Fiducial, served as moderator for the event. He felt that each of the participants genuinely got something out of the presentation.

“Fiducial charted out a course that hadn’t been done before but by the time we got to the third presentation, it was moving in the direction it needed to go,” said Schnaidt. “The participants were getting more than what they had bargained for. They came in expecting to be involved in a market research project but they had an opportunity to delve into their own business and some areas that were sacred.”

After working for years in the scientific research field, Andrew Uribe traded in his microscope for a measuring cup and is now selling his brand of salsa aji, Emy’s Salsa Aji. As head of the start-up Orbital Group, LLC in Ellicott City, Uribe understands that as he expands his operation he will have to outsource some of his back office functions which includes payroll.

“I realize I might not be able to have time to do payroll so I think Fiducial may have a role,” said Uribe who brought samples of his mild and spicy salsa aji (pronounced ah-hee) for attendees which was made according to his father’s original recipe.

Getting a lot out of it

This was the first time many of the business owners had encountered a professional services provider with a full lineup of services.

“I now know there’s a service out there that covers accounting, human resources, payroll and bookkeeping under one umbrella,” he said.

Would Uribe recommend these events to other entrepreneurs?

“Definitely—a business owner can get a lot out of one session,” he said.

Lisa Vogt, president and owner of PlayWiseKids.com in Columbia, an indoor, 24,000-sqaure-foot hands-on learning and activity center for children, was among the growing business participants which have moved beyond the start-up phase.

Vogt says the session presented an interesting mix of business owners that included Johnnie Nussbaum, who owns Identity Promotions, LLC, a promotional products company in Glenelg, and Al Leandre, president of Vyalex Management Solutions, Inc., a management, organizational and business improvement services firm, in Columbia .

Approaching things differently

“They’re both in very different position as business owners,” said Vogt. “Johnnie is a one-person show doing everything herself. It’s interesting to see how she handles her paperwork, her accounting and her relationship with customers. I’m always looking for new approaches for my business: doing sales, customer interaction and accounting so it’s good to have another perspective that’s also from a business owner.

“Al has grown his company tremendously and is dealing with a lot of federal regulations so anytime I can listen to the concerns of other business owners to resolve their issues I found it helpful.”

Like many of the attendees, Vogt might someday consider outsourcing some of her back room functions to a one-stop shop.

“It definitely made me think more about my payroll functions,” she said. “I can outsource payroll and accounting since there are many different professional service providers that we can go to. It was validating to hear other business owners are doing the same thing.”

Evidently the idea of a one-stop shop seems to have rubbed off on some of the owners of more mature businesses as well. Fiducial’s Schnaidt noted that Will Speace, owner of Columbia Junction Car Wash in Jessup, was pretty much set on doing everything himself until he sat in on the session.

“We opened the door for him,” Schnaidt said. “With his business expanding to a second location and a third later on, he’s going to have to approach things differently.”

Stephen Parezo is the Media Manager for Fiducial.

Whatever your small business needs, your Fiducial tax and financial professional can analyze your situation and recommend an appropriate action plan. To locate a Fiducial office nearest you on fiducial.com, see the Zip Code Locator located in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you have a particular topic that we should be writing about that can help your business? Please send your suggestions to: stephen.parezo@fiducial.com.

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