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by Stephen Parezo

Sean Duffy

December 15, 2004—Sean Duffy left England in 1983 when he was disillusioned with life there, especially the high tax rate. Now across the pond, the Scotland native helps small businesses save money on their taxes as a Fiducial franchisee in Flagstaff, AZ.

Duffy and his wife of 31 years, Sheila, went into business for themselves back in 1997. He had an accounting background while she was a marketing whiz. And it's been a very successful combination.

Explaining how he approaches his practice, Duffy says he takes care of three main things: First, comes accounting with the routine monthly write-up work. Next, is the emphasis on tax planning where his philosophy is you do tax planning right through the year so there are no surprises when it's time to file. Lastly, he's a Certified Financial Planner with a Series 7 license that enables him to sell stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

True grit and determination

A veteran of 40 years at his craft, Duffy knows things are "getting tougher all the time" for entrepreneurs.

"Margins are being squeezed and it's extremely difficult to start from nothing to build up a successful business," he said. "It takes a lot of grit and determination."

Duffy has a good handle on why most small businesses fail within their first five years.

"The reason they fail is not so much that they're doing badly, but because they're doing badly and don't know it, because they don't have the systems in place to tell them," he said.

Having the right kind of systems in place is crucial for both the business advisor and the business owner.

"Part of Fiducial's philosophy is each month when we produce a financial statement, that these are not just numbers on a piece of paper," Duffy said. The financial data is analyzed and the client apprised of things that need to be tweaked with their business.

"That's the value-added concept I strongly believe in for any service particularly for a service-oriented industry," he said. "It's not like going into a store and buying a pair of shoes—the perception has to be there that the client is receiving something of value in return."

Duffy also attaches a lot of value for Fiducial pros being able to monitor what's going on with their clients. This year, his business has been fairly heavy into tax planning apprising clients about tax law changes.

"I've been telling people if you're going to buy some assets for use in your business that now is the time" he said.

One of his clients is a young dentist who bought an existing practice that needs new equipment. The dentist chairs alone will cost $6,000 or more. But Duffy cautions not to spend money just to save on taxes unless it's something you're already considering buying. Taking advantage of the special bonus depreciation available through the Sec. 179 expense deduction is only an advantage if it makes business sense as well.

In the business of helping people

On the investment side of things, he helps clients with their financial planning needs such as setting up a retirement plan for their business. Duffy notices that businesses often have misconceptions that retirement plans are too expensive but he soon dispels that myth by pointing out there are plans available today that are extremely economically affordable to set up.

It's always been a hobby of his to try to present financial information in such a way that clients will understand because it's vital to their business. He makes sure clients get good and timely information so if there's a problem it can be identified and fixed before a little glitch becomes a major headache.

For instance, a retail client landed through a cold-calling campaign found that her business was losing money, paying a fortune in advertising costs to newspapers, local magazines, radio and even television spots. After Duffy presented the store owner with a financial statement he says she "about fell off her chair" and at his suggestion, soon pulled the plug on most of the advertising.

As a result, the bottom line of the business improved tremendously as did the cash flow. In fact, things went so well that she ended up selling the store. Without Duffy's expert advice, however, she "would have gone out of business."

Like other Fiducial experts, Duffy considers himself a financial doctor that's in the business of helping people.

"You have to diagnose the problem, have a good bedside manner and prescribe a cure for it," he said.

As to what's on the horizon for small businesses, Duffy feels it's going to be a crucial next few years.

"This is a good time for small business," he said. "For one thing, tax rates have come down and there's tremendous opportunity for a business to do well if it's run properly. You just have to do it right and that means coming to someone like myself. If you try to go it alone you're probably not going to do it right."

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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