Fiducial | We help your business grow and be profitable.

by Stephen Parezo

Dale Ellery

November 21, 2005—After 40 years of experience in the financial services field, Dale Ellery knows a good opportunity when he sees one. When Fiducial recently acquired his CPA practice in Burton, MI, the veteran professional couldn’t help but look ahead on how this will impact small businesses there.

With the unemployment rate still high at 6.9% in the greater Flint, MI, area, Ellery knows that larger accounting firms don’t always appreciate the opportunity they have to help small businesses succeed but that’s the foundation upon which the Fiducial network was built.

“It’s important for small businesses to have the best in accounting and financial services available to them so they can continue to grow while handing off the back-office and compliance functions to a company with a vast array of services,” said Ellery.

Ellery is excited about joining Fiducial since it will allow him to provide even an even greater array of services to his clients.

“We really share the same philosophy of being a resource for the small business owner,” he said. “Best of all, I will be connected to a national reservoir of experts while still maintaining my local presence.”

Fiducial began its expansion in Michigan last year by acquiring a bookkeeping and tax preparation practice in Troy. The acquisition of Ellery’s office is the next step in the process as the company expands to the entire North Central Region. This strategic move will add an additional 1,542 clients to the company’s growing ranks of small business customers.

“The range of services—bookkeeping, tax and payroll services—that this office provides are the basic building blocks that Fiducial starts with as we add a full range of counseling and help for the small business owner,” said William Morice, Fiducial’s director of field operations.

For Ellery’s clients, now Fiducial clients, there will no change in the expert service they have been receiving. By aligning his business with Fiducial, Ellery has, in essence, taken his practice to the next level and that bodes well for his clients.

“Joining Fiducial will allow me to help my clients develop and expand their business without worrying about the cost of having many financial advisors,” he said. “Fiducial offers the accounting, payroll, consulting and financial services all at one source.”

Adding the special touch

The motto Ellery has built business on is “when our client is successful, we are successful” and over the years he has helped many a small companies grow from humble start-ups to profitable enterprises.

For example, there was a small contractor who owed back taxes but felt that if he could secure an 8(a) designation from the federal government since his mother was Korean that this would be the break his business needed. The Small Business Administration’s 8(a) is a business development program created to help small disadvantaged businesses compete in the U.S. economy. Ultimately he received that designation and Ellery says the client went onto to become a multi-millionaire.

“I helped him polish and perfect his 8(a) application and added the special touches to it,” Ellery said. “He became my best client.”

Of course there are times when professional advisors need to let their client know when they’ve made a mistake and should take steps to minimize the damage. Such was the case for one client whose main business was selling wire and rope products that bought a steel processing business without telling Ellery then asked him to take a look at that operation.

“I looked at the operation, the books, the history of the company and its projected future and told him my advice was to close it down,” he said. Thanks to Ellery’s sound counsel, the client has not gone off of his main revenue track since and put his energy back into his existing business.

Ellery admitted that his clients find his straight forward manner refreshing as opposed to how their accounts were handled at other firms.

“That’s because I’m not stuffy or pretentious,” he said. “I do not talk down to people but I talk to them at the same level. I treat people the way I want to be treated.”

Many clients have received help from him in the payroll area because if deposits are late or are in the wrong amount “a lot of rockets go off.” That means their unemployment rate can change immediately and their federal unemployment rate is higher, according to Ellery.

Clients should never do their own payroll because the requirements are so precise,” he said. “I can help a client stay away from penalties. While the accounting area isn’t as demanding, payroll is an every week, highly concentrated, explosive area.”

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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