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2014 Top STL Business Accountants

Our Salute to the Numbers People
2014 Top Small Business Accountants

For entrepreneurs, their accountant plays an active part in the financial success of their businesses. The following accountants have proven their dedication to helping  small businesses in St. Louis grow and have been named the Top Accountants for small businesses in 2014. In the following profiles, this year’s top accountants share their wisdom for your business.


Bob Bauer, UHY LLP
Position: Tax Partner
Number of years serving business owners: 33 years
Motivation to help business owners: Desire to help business owners operate viable/profitable businesses and succeed in their business.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Understanding the tax and financial impact of their business decisions and how those decisions will impact the financial strength of their business in the future.  
Best advice for small-business owners: Establish a savings account for themselves with the business profits separate from assets of the business. Your business needs to be profitable to allow for reinvestment, growth and a return to the owner for both dollars and time invested.
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: It’s human nature – people are focused on the issue and task at hand and forget the importance of planning for the future.



Holly Breuer, Purk & Associates PC
Position: Director
Number of years serving business owners: 11 years
Motivation to help business owners: I am in constant awe of how resourceful and dynamic business owners can be. They see every new day as a fresh start and will wear whatever hats help them get through that day. Their belief in their product or service is boundless, and their optimism is infectious. How could that not be motivating?  
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Entrepreneurs have unending responsibilities and the schedules to match; therefore, it’s important to offer them as many business resources under one roof as I can. Along with accounting, tax and assurance services, I also offer help with the big and little business decisions they face daily as well as long-term strategic and succession planning.
Best advice for small-business owners: Do not be afraid to use your advisers! My goal is always to provide services that bring my clients a quantifiable value that saves them far more than any fee I would charge for my service. They just need to pick up the phone and give me a call.



Kenneth (Ken) Diel, Diel & Forguson LLC

Position: Managing Member
Number of years serving business owners: 35 years
Motivation to help business owners: I truly enjoy helping clients find solutions to their financial problems, whether it’s minimizing taxes, understanding financial information, obtaining financing or planning for the future. We offer independent, objective solutions on a timely basis to their financial problems.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: All business owners really understand what they do, but what most do not understand is the financial aspects of their business and the importance of that side of the business.  
Best advice for small-business owners: Plan ahead.
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Failure to make a primary plan and a backup plan (plan B) if the primary plan does not go as predicted.



Michael Evans, Anders CPAs + Advisors
Position: Partner and Director of Tax Services  
Number of years serving business owners: 30 years
Motivation to help business owners: For most successful business owners, their business is a significant part of their life. It is rewarding to be a valued member of their team.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Anders is a full-service accounting and advisory firm, and as a valued member of our client’s team, we help them in all areas of their business – tax, audit, financial, operational, technology, etc.  Oftentimes, as a result of the trust we have earned over the years, we act as a “sounding board” for nonfinancial issues.

Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Many business owners are laser-focused on developing and growing their business, which is part of what has made them successful.  However, at times they don’t spend enough time working “on” their business as opposed to working “in” their business.

 


 
Steven Harris, RubinBrown LLP

Position: Partner in charge, Entrepreneurial Services Group
Number of years serving business owners: 15 years
Motivation to help business owners: Building a relationship with a client that allows you to work alongside them through the opportunities and challenges of owning a business and helping them build and protect the value of their business.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Developing strategies for business growth, succession and tax planning
Best advice for small-business owners: Maximize the relationship with your accountant (spend more time with us and keep us informed).  
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Only consider tax consequences when making business decisions




Stuart HoffmanAbeles and Hoffman PC
Position: Principal/Shareholder    
Number of years serving business owners: 35 years
Motivation to help business owners: I never tire of watching clients succeed.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Tax planning, business transitions, business valuation.
Best advice for small-business owners: Exceed your customer’s expectations at every opportunity. If you promised it by Friday, deliver by Wednesday.  By being consistently reliable, you will build customer/client loyalty.
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Assuming that good times (high growth, healthy profit margins) will continue forever; they rarely do. The business and economic climate will change, and they need to plan for stormy weather.    



Doug Kolker, Mueller Prost
Position: Manager of Consulting Services
Number of years serving business owners: 13 years
Motivation to help business owners: Based on my experience as a small-business owner, I know the challenges of running all the facets of a business and how overwhelming it can be without the proper outside assistance of accounting firms, law firms, etc. It gives me great satisfaction helping other small-business owners achieve their financial goals.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Help entrepreneurs learn how to document and track their development of new products and processes so they can take advantage of various tax credit opportunities.
Best advice for small-business owners: Surround yourself with talented people – not only employees but business advisers as well
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Not having the right people in the right positions to maximize companies’ potential.





Jeff Mortland, Mortland & Co. LLP

Position: Director
Position: Managing Partner
Number of years serving business owners: 20 years individually, 36 years as a company
Motivation to help business owners: My motivation is to educate business owners around their numbers and help them achieve their financial goals.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: At Mortland & Co., we help entrepreneurs understand the accounting side of their business. Many entrepreneurs have good financial knowledge but not necessarily good accounting knowledge of their business. We help them with planning and how to identify potential pitfalls.
Best advice for small-business owners: The best advice I have for small business is to focus on cash flow. Small-business owners need to worry about the bottom line, but cash flow is how you keep the business alive.




Mark Neal, Milhouse & Neal LLP
Position: Managing Partner
Number of years serving business owners: 29 years
Motivation to help business owners: As a former small-business owner myself, I realize that small-business owners need a trusted business adviser that they can relate to and rely upon. It is totally gratifying to support business owners with achieving their dreams.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Risk awareness is one of the obstacles that we help entrepreneurs with. In addition to financial risks, we also discuss risks associated with operations, client markets, vendors, human resources, information technology, fraud and others. You don’t know what you don’t know, and awareness is the first step towards risk management.
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Failure to hire A-players. “Hiring A-players is critical to building the company that you want while having a life with which you are happy.”  -Eric Herrenkohl, “How to Hire A-Players”  It is very difficult to build a valuable company that is dependent upon you.  You can train A-players to be leaders, but it’s very difficult to make a C-player into an A-player.




John Niemann, Niemann & Co.
Position: Managing Member    
Number of years serving business owners: 34 years
Motivation to help business owners: I love an underdog! Eighty percent of all business startups fail within five years, primarily because they’re chronically undermanaged. I believe I can help them beat the odds.

Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Business owners tend to be consumed with getting new business and directing operations, leaving little time for managing and guiding the business. I help identify opportunities for growth and implement strategic initiatives.

Best advice for small-business owners: Understand that not all revenue is equal.  Measure and manage your true profit drivers: conversion ratio, defection rate, transaction frequency and average transaction value.



Howard Rosen, Conner Ash PC

Position: President    
Number of years serving business owners: firm: 88 years; personally: 41 years
Motivation to help business owners: I like to solve problems others cannot. My goal is to help clients achieve the success they deserve by answering questions they did not even know they had.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: Business structure, succession planning, complex tax issues, estate planning, financing, negotiations and general business issues.
Best advice for small-business owners: Some mistakes or failures are inevitable. Don’t get discouraged or give up. You can succeed if you build the right team around you.
Biggest mistake you see business owners make: Besides being undercapitalized, a very common issue, the biggest mistake I see is failure to have a good business plan and sticking to that plan. Too many entrepreneurs chase the dream but don’t have a well-thought-out plan to get there. Action without a plan is a nightmare; a plan without action is a daydream.



Karen Stern, Brown Smith Wallace
Position: Partner in charge-small business services    
Number of years serving business owners: 31 years
Motivation to help business owners: My father owned his own business. My mother was very involved in it as well. What I learned from my parents allows me to help today’s small-business owners. It gives me a great sense of pride to know that I’m helping families successfully build wealth for generations to come.
Obstacles you help entrepreneurs with: I help entrepreneurs delegate the business responsibilities that keep them from focusing on their strengths.  This allows them to grow their organizations and not sweat the details.
Best advice for small-business owners: Build powerful support teams, which should include an experienced attorney and a trusted CPA. Business networking is important as well, as these networks can generate referrals for your business.


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