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by Stephen Parezo

Doug Mieden

March 30, 2005—Doug Mieden was in the middle of his college tenure at Michigan State University in 1967 when he was drafted and went into the U.S. Army where he spent the next two and a half years as a finance officer stationed in Fort Lewis, WA. As it turned out, his stint in the military really helped shape his future.

"It was a very useful time for my career," said Mieden, now a Fiducial franchisee in Southport, NC. "Basically I learned the whole issue of management, structure and handling responsibility. I was a first lieutenant and the number two guy in the office."

Following his service hitch, Mieden returned to MSU where he graduated in 1971 with a BS in business management. His first jobs were with large companies where he held positions as plant accounting manager and plant controller. Eventually he found his true calling, business consulting, and realized there was a huge underserved market among the smaller to mid-sized businesses for his services since these companies couldn't afford hours and hours of $200 consultant fees. Plus there was a need to participate in the process implementing what needed to be done.

Getting on board to ride the wave

Mieden was awarded a Fiducial franchise in July 2004 and has positioned his business to serve the needs of the small businesses of Southport where growth has been described as "nothing short of explosive."

While local small businesses were loaded with work in their respective fields, they needed help from an outside source to improve the efficiency of their operations. Most of his clients are divided into two majors groups: the building trade and the services industry. Clients range from carpet installers, brick suppliers, a window treatment company, flooring company and custom cabinet makers to restaurants, coffee houses and some retail stores.

This area is truly a hotbed for small businesses with 97% of the businesses having 50 or fewer employees and 70% having nine or less. An economics and statistics expert from nearby University of North Carolina at Wilmington indicated that there would be double-digit growth in the Brunswick County area for the next 10 years.

"My whole clientele in the service, retail, building and real estate industries are all positioned to get on board and ride the wave," Mieden said.

The core issue with all small businesses lies in the management of the operation to achieve profitability. The vast majority of these businesses are started by and run by people who have a technical skill but not those of a general manager.

"That's what's lacking is the business skills," he said. "And that's why my office is positioned to serve not only for accounting, payroll or tax needs but to go way beyond that into actual operations to determine what's working for you. When we set up their accounting we do it so it will supply the information we need to make intelligent decisions."

A retail store, for example, might sell furniture, accessories and pictures. Instead of just having sales, Mieden maintains that they should have sales for each category of merchandise and track the costs to get a handle on what the inventory is for each category and what products are moving and not moving. This helps the owner make better decisions.

"Lacking that they're flying by the seat of their pants," he said.

Growing pains can hurt a business

Analyzing key small business data, Mieden says if you have the proper information you can make a much better decision in the future because you have a sense of what works and what doesn't.

"On the financial side it's not just counting the beans," he said. "There really is a key element in the management process of the business that attracted me. I always tended towards those that might be in management accounting. It's always looked at as a management tool."

Growth is the name of the game for small businesses but if a company starts growing too fast that can undermine their efforts because so many owners are involved in making every decision for their companies.

When companies grow larger they often reach a breaking point. Due to their size, some delegations of authority need to be made to keep things operating smoothly. Since the owner has maintained full control of the business, there are no qualified personnel to delegate authority to because they have been doing it all themselves. This becomes apparent, Mieden says, when companies open a second location like a restaurant.

"The restaurant does great at one location but when they add another spot that's when all the problems begin," he said. "It's a question of management. That's a big part of the role we play as a mentor and a business coach. It's not just dealing with accounting, financial and specific day-to-day details but charting a course for the ship. What are your long-term goals to be there along the way? We also help with hiring and recruiting and work with marketing plans."

Speaking of hiring, Mieden admitted that he shouldn't have any problems finding capable staff for his office once he decides to expand. At the moment, it's just he and four part-timers holding down the fort.

"The beauty of it is that when I add staff I will have highly confident people," he said. "That's due to the fact that a number of early retired individuals are looking to keep their skills alive and want a challenge."

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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