Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
To help you evaluate your continuing interest in being a COMPLUS Professional Controller please let me summarize answers to some of the most frequently asked questions asked of me since 1990:
- The members of our group are "Professional CFO/Controllers." We serve clients (owners of "for-profit" businesses in the Chicagoland area – McHenry to Merrillville) which are too big for him/her to run with only a checkbook in the back pocket and too small to hire one of us full-time (generally 20-100 workers or $2-10 million sales). This is an idea whose time has come. We are not experimenting any more.
- I am always recruiting for more seasoned pros to join my group of associates. We believe in the concept of "part-time controller" (see the brochure) leadership, and we are very proficient at doing "CFO/Controller" work and working with computer systems. My marketing program alone has generated 50-100 new "warm" leads per year since 1990. I believe that about half of my leads, on average, should be closeable. I admit that not all the associates have done this well, but a few have done better. ("Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.")
- Each of us must interview with our own "new" clients. (The client expects it.) It’s like interviewing for a job, several times. A "full-time" practice may involve working with 3-10 different companies. I work with 8 now. If you now work with a company which has fewer than 100 workers, might this be your first client?
- We are allies for our clients. We work for the benefit of our clients. We will not work for companies that compete with each other. We do not sell audit or tax preparation services to compete against the accountant which the client has previously engaged. We are not "independent" as defined by the CPA’s Code of Conduct (nor is any other CFO/ Controller). I am classified as "Industry," not "Public," by the Illinois CPA Society.
- There are 15 in the group so far, and we are growing. By the end of 1998, since 1990, I will have interviewed more than 500 accountants. I want really good people for my group.
- All of us own our own business units. New associates are expected to do the same. We are not employees of each other, nor of our clients. What matters is delighting clients. Scheduling may be very flexible. We may work as much, or as little, as we like. We account to our clients, and ourselves, not to COMPLUS.
- There are no "up-front" costs. This is not a "franchise." We revenue share, and each of us spends our own earnings. What the client pays to COMPLUS may be split up to 3 ways: in year-one: Production – 2/3, Administration – 10%, Marketing – the balance. Whoever did the work gets the share. In year-two production gets 75%, and in year-three (and after) production gets 85%. Client development (production) over time earns some of the "marketing" share.
- Why don’t you just do this by yourself instead? Alone -- can you: Sell when you’re busy? Get sick or go on vacation? Take on more work when you’re plate is already full? Together -- somebody is always selling; we can cover clients for each other; and we can refer clients to each other and get paid for doing it.
Still interested? Please call me.
Ted Hollander ----- 773-233-0306