Fiducial | We help your business grow and be profitable.

by Stephen Parezo

November 28, 2005—When Bill Schlesinger first received the news that he was the national winner in Fiducial’s “An American in Paris” contest chosen at Fiducial’s Fifth Annual Convention, he had trouble believing it. After all, nothing like this had even happened to him before.

“I can’t believe this—I’ve never won anything in my life,” said Schlesinger from his home in Wellston, OK. “We’re still in awe,” added his wife, Paula, after they won the trip for two to Paris including airfare and hotel for four days and three nights.

The Schlesingers—clients of Fiducial franchisee Christian Brim in Oklahoma City, OK— will no doubt plan a full itinerary but were still in a state of shock and hadn’t yet thought about what sites they wanted to see.

The contest is Fiducial’s way of saying "thank you" for clients placing their trust in them. Clients entered their names in the drawing at participating offices when scheduling appointments to have their 2004 tax return prepared. This program has proven to be a win-win for franchisees, since it’s an incentive to retain current business while building new business through referrals of satisfied clients.

Among previous winners are Jennelle Graziano, a client of franchisee William Ross in Tewksbury, MA, and James Daggett of Boonville, NY, who is served by franchisee Larry Recor.

Schlesinger operates Class A Cleaning in Wellston located about 30 miles from Oklahoma City that opened in 1982. They clean up after fires, floods and tornadoes, mostly for insurance companies and have been small business clients of Brim’s for five years.

Glad they signed on

Brim indicated that he handles the company’s accounting, payroll and tax preparation services. He’s even been in discussions with Schlesinger about putting together a succession plan for his business.

“Bill’s just a real good hard worker—a good businessman who’s been around and seen a lot,” said Brim. “He’s savvy in his business and has a good concept of business but when it came to tax planning and his succession options, he needs some help.”

According to Brim, this is a vital but often overlooked area for many long-time entrepreneurs who get so caught up running their business that they haven’t taken as much time to consider the operation’s future.

“I wish more business owners put more thought into succession planning sooner because when you get older you have fewer options,” he said.

The Schlesingers are glad they signed on with Brim and actually knew his grandmother before becoming clients.

“They do have a knowledgeable sales staff here,” said Bill who remembers when Brim and his team came to the rescue when they faced an audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

“We never did talk to the IRS agent because they took care of all of it,” Bill said.

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.

DISCLAIMER
Although we do our best to provide our users with useful and accurate information on our web site, we do not update this information which is derived from sources believed to be accurate. Users must understand that information presented does not serve as an endorsement of any particular company or individual and that this information changes frequently and is subject to differing interpretations. Users are hereby advised that they are responsible for ensuring that the facts and general advice obtained from our site are applicable to their specific situations and should discuss their specific tax, business, financial, and legal matters with pertinent professionals.