I graduated with a degree in commerce from the University of British Columbia. What did I learn?I realized there was unlimited knowledge at the university to anyone willing to look for it. I wanted to know how good the experts were at understanding the future so went to the university library archives and read old newspapers and magazines. I read many articles dated late 1913 and early 1914, just before the Great War that killed 15 million people. Not a single article saw the war coming, but several claimed a large war was now impossible because of the interconnection of trade between nations, the prohibitive cost of a modern war, and the fact that the leaders all knew that in a modern war, there would be no real winners. We know how that turned out.I read the articles published in August of 1945 when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The event was covered as just another war story, nothing more. No at the time one saw this as the dawn of a new era, the nuclear age.I learned that no one could see the future, even when it was unfolding right in front of them.
I worked my way through university – not because I was ambitious (I wasn’t) – worked because I was broke. I worked as a waiter on the train, a cab driver, a postman, a sawmill employee, and many other jobs.I learned quite a lot during this time. The sawmill job was hard physical work in hot, dusty conditions. Yet there were "lifers" working there that were quite content. There was no stress in that job. After the shift was over, they didn’t think about work until the next day, and this was a union job with good pay. They could buy a car and a house and raise a family on their wages from the mill.I realized that there were a lot of people that didn’t mind mind-numbing jobs with no future, as long as it gave them a good income. As one fellow said to me “I don’t want to figure anything out. Tell me where to did the hole and I will dig it.”
I knew nothing about real life when I was younger. I don’t no why, but as a cab driver, I started to learn. In one such case the dispatcher instructed me to go to a room at a specific hotel, pick up a suitcase for “Amanda”, and take it to … silence. There was a pause. A few seconds later he said “just call me when you have the suitcase”. I was a bit annoyed. If he had told me where to take the suitcase, I would have remembered, my mind wasn’t that bad.When I knocked on the door a man answered, and as they say in Ireland, he was a hard man. His friend was behind him, both of them were well built and muscular. I told him I was here to pickup Amanda’s suitcase. “Where is she!?” came the answer. I realized instantly why the dispatcher hadn’t told me where to take it. These guys might try to beat it out of me. Fortunately, they gave me the suitcase without any further hassle. Maybe it was because they saw a young hapless college kid before them, obviously not someone that ran in their circles.I took the suitcase to Amanda at another hotel thinking that this girl had mistakenly fallen in with the wrong crowd and was lucky to have escaped with her life. She must have just ran out of there not having time to grab her things.I knocked on the door and Amanda answered, dressed in a very sexy negligee. “Who is it?”, a male voice said from the background. “Just the cabbie with my suitcase”. “Take the money out of my wallet and give him a tip” came the reply.The story wasn't quite what it seemed to be at first. She had gone off with one of the first two guys (or both), found someone she liked better, and dumped them. I learned not all women are ladies in distress, sometimes, like all of us, they are black widows
I articled with KPMG (a large international accounting organization), and obtain my C.A. Afterwards, I became a C.P.A.What did I learn? Well, a fair bit. One thing is that money has a way of blunting your ideals. One of my jobs was to audit a union. In the first year, I was impressed; The union executives paid themselves the average wage of their members and no more. In the second year, they had given themselves a raise; They were now paid at the highest rate their members we’re making. By my final year, they had given themselves yet another raise; They were now paid at the same level as the executives of the companies the union was working with. The people on the executive were the same each year, and while I didn’t begrudge them their pay, I was surprised that the moral stand they had taken in the first year had so quickly changed into a more self interested position.
My next job was with the federal income tax department. I went there thinking I would learn more about income tax; I didn’t, I learned about bureaucracy. When auditing a taxpayer, I thought I would be graded on how thorough a job I did. Not the case, I was graded on how completely I had filled out the forms.Our day ended at 4:30. I had previously used quitting time as a general guideline – if you were close to finishing a job, you spent another 15 or 20 minutes to complete it. On my first day, I was told in no uncertain terms that is not the way the government works. You leave at 4:30 on the dot. Consequently, we began putting our work away at 4:15, then sat at our desks, hands folded, starring at the clock like school children. At 4:30, we all rose in unison and rushed for the door.
I left the tax department after one year and re-entered public practice. joining a sole practitioner who had a staff of four accountants. The owner was more of a hand off type of guy so I started to run the practice for him. After two years it became apparent that he was not interested in having a partner, which I could understand, but my career was blocked so I started out on my own.What I learned: The success for running an accountant practice is the ability to relate to all sorts of people.When I was leaving the tax department I was in the midst of auditing a taxpayer. I informed him I would be leaving and someone else would finish up. To my surprise he was overjoyed, “Now I can hire you to represent me!” He became my first client because I had dealt with him as a person, not a taxpayer, even through we were on opposite sides of the fence so to speak. He went on to recommend me to his friends which was the start of my own clientele.If you treat people with respect and as equals, there is no end as to where that leads. At one time, all the bars in town were hiring exotic dancers. One of my clients started a booking agency for the dancers and began referring them to me to do their taxes (yes, they do file taxes). I knew they would be very uncomfortable coming to an accountants office and they would be lost if I asked them for revenue and expenses so I met them in the bars and would ask them which agency’s they had worked for. I knew the agents kept records of all the girls earnings because they made their money off commissions from these earnings. That gave me the income for the girls. I would then ask them specific questions like how much do you think you spent on costumes last year? If they didn’t know. I would ask roughly how many costumes do you have? How much do you spend on average on a costume? By doing this I could cobble together a profit and loss for them. I was soon deluged with young dancers. In fact, I am sure some people thought I was some sort of pimp as I would sit at the back of the bar while all the dancers would excitedly gather around me and hand me cash. I was actually giving them their tax returns and collecting my fee which they always plaid in cash. They lived in a cash society, no credit cards or bank accounts.I was successful with these clients because I dealt with them as equals and in terms they understood. Yes, I knew more about accounting and taxes, but they were much better entertainers then I could ever be (trust me, you wouldn’t want to see me dance). So at the end of the day, who contributes more to society, me or the dancers? It’s not so clear cut, and I respected them for what they were. As one of them said to me, if I wasn’t a dancer what would I be doing? A bloody bank teller?There is a place for everyone. We are all important, - including the bank tellers.
Several years later a client of mine asked how I ended up started and I explained the story. She asked me what on earth I was thinking – I had a baby and wife at home and was starting a business with basically no clients! For the first time in my life, I was a bit shocked at what I had done. Why? I guess, like all entrepreneurs, I was naively optimistic. But, as it tends to do for optimists, things all worked out.
You don’t want an accountant that always deals with your information at the last minuet.I picket up a large client because his previous accountant phoned him on the afternoon of April 30 (the deadline for filing personal tax returns) and proudly announced that his return was ready, and could he come down to the office right away and bring a check for $200,000 for his income taxes owing. Obviously, he was not impressed.I have picked up several other clients with horror stories from their previous accountants. One said his old accountant had personal problems, which my client was sympathetic to, but he rarely returned phone calls, and for months he just disappeared. After a year and a half of this, with no financial statements being prepared and no filings with the tax department, he final came to me. This story is a bit extreme, but unfortunately, similar themed stories are more commonplace than one would think.Accountants are not on call 27/7, they do take holidays and are sick on occasion, but there should be someone else in their office that can handle your calls in an emergency. If you bring your information in late then, yes, it will likely be filed at the last minute, but if you bring it in well within the time limits then you should expect to have your documents done well ahead of time so that you have a chance to review it.Are your emails answered with 24 hours, are your phone calls returned? Does your accountant give you decent service? This is all normal considerate business practice and your accountant should be able to meet these minimum standards.
For those who don’t have time to read all the posts above, here is a summery. First, you need to know what an accountant can do, and then figure out what you need and what type of accountant you want. There is no magic bullet to finding a good accountant. Use the old fashion way; Ask your friends and business associates, check out the web and the web sites and finally, when you think you have found a candidate, book a consultation, either in person or via zoom. Did you hit the mark? If not go back to step one.
I left the tax department after one year and re-entered public practice. joining a sole practitioner who had a staff of four accountants. The owner was more of a hand off type of guy so I started to run the practice for him. After two years it became apparent that he was not interested in having a partner, which I could understand, but my career was blocked so I started out on my own.What I learned: The success for running an accountant practice is the ability to relate to all sorts of people.When I was leaving the tax department I was in the midst of auditing a taxpayer. I informed him I would be leaving and someone else would finish up. To my surprise he was overjoyed. “Now I can hire you to represent me!” He became my first client because I had dealt with him as a person, not a taxpayer, even through we were on opposite sides of the fence so to speak. He went on to recommend me to his friends which was the start of my own clientele.If you treat people with respect and as equals there is no end as to where that leads. At one time, all the bars in town were hiring exotic dancers. One of my clients started a booking agency for the dancers and began referring them to me to do their taxes (yes, they do file taxes). I knew they would be very uncomfortable coming to an accountants office and they would be lost if I asked them for revenue and expenses so I met them in the bars and would ask them which agency’s they had worked for. I knew the agents kept records of all the girls earnings because they made their money off commissions from these earnings. That gave me the income for the girls. I would then ask them specific questions like how much do you think you spent on costumes last year? If they didn’t know. I would ask roughly how many costumes do you have? How much do you spend on average on a costume? By doing this I could cobble together a profit and loss for them. I was soon deluged with young dancers. In fact, I am sure some people thought I was some sort of pimp as I would sit at the back of the bar while all the dancers would excitedly gather around me and hand me cash. I was actually giving them their tax returns and collecting my fee which they always plaid in cash. They lived in a cash society, no credit cards or bank accounts.I was successful with these clients because I dealt with them as equals and on a level they understood. Yes, I knew more about accounting and taxes, but they were much better entertainers then I could ever be (trust me, you wouldn’t want to see me dance). So at the end of the day, who contributes more to society, me or the dancers? It’s not clear cut, I respected them for what they were.As one of them said to me, if I wasn’t a dancer what would I be doing? A bloody bank teller? There is a place for everyone, we are all important, - including the bank tellers.
