Fiducial | We help your business grow and be profitable.

by Stephen Parezo

Joe Gecinger

August 24, 2005—Like many aspiring entrepreneurs, Joe Gecinger reached a crossroads in his life when he decided to go into business for himself. Now a Fiducial franchisee in North Carolina with an office in Greensboro, Gecinger finally took the plunge in 1984 after working 15 years for Burlington Industries. This November it will be 21 years since he opened his doors as a franchisee.

“It’s been over 20 years and time has really gone by fast,” said Gecinger who grew up in the south New Jersey borough of Mount Ephraim near Cherry Hill.

Most of the small businesses located in this part of North Carolina are owned by people who have moved into the area after having been displaced by larger corporations.

“A lot of our clients set out on their own to provide some type of services,” he said. “We’ve just tried to be the analysts and helped them set their plans and achieve the goals they wanted to set. We never impose our goals on someone else’s business. We monitor their financial ups and downs.”

Fundraising for the Olympics

Gecinger markets his office’s services as being the chief financial officer for the small business that doesn’t have a full-time CFO. His clients range across the board but probably the most enjoyable relationship he’s enjoyed is with former NASCAR driver and Daytona 500 winner Geoffrey Bodine who got him involved working for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1994.

Bodine was watching the Olympics on television and learned that the U.S. bobsled team needed a driver. So he wiggled an invitation to Lake Placid, NY, and the team let him drive a sled from halfway down the course but he crashed and felt responsible for damaging the sled.

That’s when Gecinger says Bodine brought his personality, influence and racing connections to bear by pulling together a design team for the bobsledders. Bodine also helped secure sponsorships from Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IBM, raising nearly $750,000 for the program that resulted in a good showing in the 1994 Olympics and a gold medal performance in 2002.

Brian Shimer, a 2002 bronze medal winner, gave Gecinger a ride in his four-man bobsled in 1994 at the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

“I was the administrative fundraiser for the [bobsled] team,” said Gecinger. “I went to Lillehammer in October 1993 to ensure that our facilities we had contracted for were adequate. During that time I rode on a practice run that was as fast as I’ve ever gone at any speed. We did the mile run in 53.64 seconds which equates to 118 miles per hour.”

From time to time, Gecinger says Bodine has been gracious enough to allow him to use their relationship to promote his business. He still represents the ex-racer in his personal and business work.

But there’s been far more to Gecinger’s operation than just helping one of NASCAR’s top 50 all-time drivers. During his two decades-plus of service, he’s assisted many entrepreneurs as they launched their small businesses. Among his clients is a couple, The Dodds, from Burlington, NC. The husband got laid off from AT&T so he and his wife founded a business to repair telephone equipment.

Taking care of trouble

Today the company, Protech Communications, Inc., works for a number of Fortune 500 clients, employs 45 people and built a 35,000 square-foot manufacturing facility at a cost of $1.8 million. According to Gecinger, Brenda Dodd, has become very active in the business which was voted by Inc. magazine as one of the top 300 small businesses in the U.S. Protech has also been recognized by the Women Business Enterprise National Council as one of the most successful women-owned businesses in the country.

Gecinger helped the Dodds market their business during the plant’s grand opening by arranging for a local Congressman to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He also serves on the company’s board of directors, presenting marketing concepts and assisting with Small Business Administration loan financing for their continued growth.

Perhaps the true test of how effective a business advisor can be is when trouble rears its ugly head. When one of Gecinger’s clients had their loan unexpectedly called by a local bank, he was on the case and soon straightened the matter out.

“It was a classic knee-jerk reaction by an over-obsessed bank employee,” he said. “But we were able to replace the borrowing capacity of the company within two weeks.”

Gecinger does not take his role lightly as a small business advisor. He listens to his clients express their needs then tailors the service to fill those needs. His track record proves he’s been very responsive over the years.

Before he recently went on vacation, he received an urgent call from one of his clients who had an employee turnover. At the same time the company received a levy notice of $75,000 worth of payroll taxes. Gecinger asked the company’s owner ‘aren’t you using a payroll service’ and ‘aren’t they drafting your account?’ ” Then he went through the client’s bank statements which was proof that the payroll had been drafted so he determined it was more likely “an IRS mistake” which it turned out to be.

“We gave him faster response time than his payroll service,” he noted.

It’s clear that Gecinger likes a challenge and it’s a sure bet he’s never been bored serving his small business clients.

“Every day is different—there’s no routine day as a business counselor,” he said. “It taps my creativity each and every day.”

Stephen Parezo is the Media Manager for Fiducial.

Whatever your small business needs, your Fiducial tax and financial professional can analyze your situation and recommend an appropriate action plan. To locate a Fiducial office nearest you on fiducial.com, see the Zip Code Locator located in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you have a particular topic that we should be writing about that can help your business? Please send your suggestions to: stephen.parezo@fiducial.com.

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