No Medals for Trying

 

                                                

A far wiser person than I, once proclaimed that “opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.”

To say that both me and my family missed on some financial opportunities over the years would be like saying that a few businesses lost money during COVID-19.

For example, in the early 1960s, my father had a chance to invest in a parking garage near Pennsylvania Station in New York. At the time, the terminal was crumbling and outdated but was rumored to be in for a complete makeover. Naturally being risk-averse he passed.

Not only did Penn Station undergo a top-to-bottom renovation, but city planners relocated a gleaming new Madison Square Garden on top of it. Prior to the pandemic, the Garden averaged over 300 events a year, so you do the math in terms of parking fees.

As a footnote he instead went partners on a venture that placed stamp machines in drug stores.

Need I say more?

In the mid-1980s my former college roommate who had gone into investment banking steered me to a growing software company outside of Seattle and maintained that I should buy as much stock as I could because they were going to revolutionize computer operating systems.

To again prove the acorn does not fall far from the tree, I declined.

So, for those keeping score at home, a modest $1,000 investment in Microsoft during their IPO would be worth about $1.6 million today.

So much for family history and on to the present.

Silver linings have been scarce lately, but a burgeoning number of enterprising CPA firms have cut through the panic and despair and seized opportunities particularly helping their small business clients navigate and understand such issues as PPP and the CARES Act.

Also, with services such as forecasting, financing option review, and helping businesses transition to online present major opportunities for accounting firms.

The pandemic has also presented the chance for both firms and clients to adapt to new technologies for remote services as well as help curtail and prevent cyber fraud – one of the unfortunate, but predictable consequences of a crisis.

It’s also given firms the occasion to re-examine their IT infrastructure and increase remote capacity and rely less on traditional bricks and mortar.

Looking back, I probably should have listened to the guy who advised me to get on the ground floor with two companies I had never heard of - Zoom and Peloton.

Who knew?