Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Some People Can’t be Helped

I set a personal record over the July 4th holiday – three barbecues in three days.

To be honest, I don’t want to see another hamburger, hot dog or slab of ribs until Labor Day. And forget about stepping on the scale over the next two weeks.

I’m also wondering how someone ate 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes during the annual July 4th contest held at Nathan’s Famous in Brooklyn.

Upon hearing that news I felt slightly ill. I wonder if the terrifying Indominus Rex of Jurassic World could even approach that number.

But I digress.

At the last outing of the weekend’s carnivorous triumvirate, I was introduced to Bert, one of the guests, who just happened to be an accountant. The party host, upon learning what I did for a living, told me in confidence the practitioner wanted to retire shortly.

Bert’s story was typical of a small sole prac – he worked out of his house, generated between $350-$400K in billings, had a high net and his wife was in charge of all the admin duties.

Perfect, I thought, a small “tuck in” practice that is in great demand of late.

Except the host got the facts just slightly wrong.

This CPA did not want to retire in the near future; in fact he wanted to work at least 10 more years.

And he loved his autonomy, a fact he repeated to me not once, not twice but THREE times for emphasis.

“I like to take hikes on Wednesday afternoons. If I merge into a larger firm I don’t want someone looking over my shoulder. Besides all you brokers want to do is merge firms together.”

So let’s see I thought – a high net (approaching 80 percent), a 10-year timeline and a distinct aversion for reporting up. That was not a combination for success in our line of work. And I thought it best to set the record straight for the 4,000th time that we were not a broker but a full-service consulting firm.

In any event I gave him my card and told him that should he ever change his mind, I’m in the neighborhood – sort of.

But in truth I’m not hopeful he will ever call.

There are just some people we can’t help.

No comments:

Post a Comment