Fiducial | We help your business grow and be profitable.

by Stephen Parezo

Darryl Harrison

June 7, 2006—Darryl Harrison grew up on a farm in north central Kansas where he learned the value of hard work. That lesson has remained with him for over 43 years of accounting industry experience.

Harrison came to Colorado Springs, CO, in 1960 and has been there so long he says he feels “almost like a native.” The Fiducial franchisee started preparing tax returns in 1962 and opened his own business in the summer of 1972. Like many small business owners, he struggled at the outset but kept working at it until things finally fell in place.

In the mid-1970s he started doing a lot of work for National Cash Register and helped develop some of their banking software for their mini-computer which he later installed in a number of banks.

“I bought one of their computers and couldn’t get decent programming so I developed jointly with them an inventory control system for small retailers,” said Harrison. “NCR loved it.”

Though he’s done some marketing over the years, most of his new clients arrive via word of mouth.

“They’re pre-sold,” he said. “All we need when they come in then is a signature.”

Tax expertise a specialty

His early days on the farm have instilled in him the lesson of “giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay” which his clients could surely attest.

As an Enrolled Agent, one of Harrison’s specialties is his tax expertise. He has personally completed 600 tax returns a year for the last five years. When it comes to tax planning for clients, he stressed that he “can do a lot more good for them before January 1 than after January 1” but they have to come in and see him in order to benefit.

With a retention rate of over 90%, Harrison says that many of his clients have been with him for decades and the only reason he loses one is that they move away or retire. One of the clients that has been with him for 30 years is involved in real estate and values his advice so highly that he “doesn’t make a buy or sell without us talking about it.”

Sound business counseling is the result of presenting consistent advice such as the kind Harrison gives to his clients. He’s been working with an inventor/small manufacturer for two and a half years that has finally got a good investor to back his product.

“It’s probably going to go great guns from here,” Harrison said. “He can now go out and market his product and we believe there’s a great market for it. He knows he’ll have the product to ship as soon as they want it.”

There are several key areas that Harrison says aspiring small business owners should make sure that they have a good handle on before taking the plunge. This includes having a good business plan, adequate financing and the ability to keep accurate records.

Poised for continued success

He’s currently helping a client write a business plan that contains a legitimate projection of what they’re going to do, where they’re going to get the money and the people who are going to run it.

“The banks want to know whether the people really know what they’re doing,” he said.

In the fast-growing Colorado Springs area, Harrison indicated that there’s no shortage of small businesses from which to draw clients. With a strong military and high-tech industry presence plus more national headquarters of religious groups there than any where else in the country, his office is poised for continued success.

A number of his clients are interested in refinancing to expand their business like the owner of a motel who wanted to take his business to the next level. The client had been in the industry for nearly a decade and succeeded in converting his operation into a Best Western but not before his old building had been torn down and rebuilt. The results, however, have been worth the expense.

“He’s now grossing more in one month during the summer than he did the entire year,” Harrison said. “I helped him a lot with financing, preparing financial statements and making connections.”

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.

DISCLAIMER
Although we do our best to provide our users with useful and accurate information on our web site, we do not update this information which is derived from sources believed to be accurate. Users must understand that information presented does not serve as an endorsement of any particular company or individual and that this information changes frequently and is subject to differing interpretations. Users are hereby advised that they are responsible for ensuring that the facts and general advice obtained from our site are applicable to their specific situations and should discuss their specific tax, business, financial, and legal matters with pertinent professionals.