Big Yellow Taxi

The other day I ran across an article in my local paper about how different venues such as restaurants and retail stores will look and operate post-COVID-19.

Somehow, I cannot imagine sitting in a dining room, separated from the next table by a glass partition and being read the daily specials by a masked server. In any other era, the chances are if you witnessed someone entering a store or a bank wearing a face covering, it would be what the police call a “211” – a robbery in progress.

But what about a post-pandemic accounting firm?

Well for sure, there will inevitably be some client attrition. How much will be determined on a case by case basis.

In addition, firms that were reluctant to allow staff work remotely now realize that you can operate virtually and yet efficiently. That epiphany in turn may usher in a reduction in needed office space and thus, reduced overhead.

But what about the book of business? For those of you who have ever played football and received a hit that nearly landed you in Jupiter, you know that it takes a moment to realize if you are really hurt or just temporarily seeing the Milky Way. That’s sort of similar to a firm attempting to gauge the coronavirus impact to their bottom line.

Case in point, the other day I was speaking to one of the partners of a three-owner firm who, typically in that sized practice, had no succession plan in place. Several years ago, they had made the proverbial rounds with interested buyers and marriages to Elizabeth Taylor, or more contemporarily Jennifer Lopez, none of them worked out. But compounding their succession woes is the fact that one of their main client industries entails servicing fleets of taxi cabs.

Now in the era of Uber and Lyft, I can’t imagine taxis are currently a booming business, but coupled with the  population’s aversion to mass transit and using car services, I would put its consumer demand  somewhere between a printing ink factory and a typewriter sales and repair shop.

So, when I asked the owner to update his practice summary sheet he flatly refused. His reason? He had no idea of what his revenue is or will be when the pandemic wanes. “I don’t know what I have,” was the way he put it. And repeated it twice more for good measure.

And so that was that.

I’ve been in this business long enough to realize that his will hardly be an isolated incident. Many won’t know what they’ve got until it’s gone. And in this case, it really is a big yellow taxi.