By Charles Nagel – Founder | Chief Innovation Officer

For most of my career, I have been an entrepreneur who has enjoyed the challenge of starting and running a business. I’ve also held senior positions at a large defense contractor, a large software solution provider, and a mid-sized software provider. I have been a CEO, a COO, an EVP and a “take out the trash” owner. I’ve even spent some time working as a solo turn-around consultant.

It’s a path that has given me a unique point of view when it comes to working with professional service providers. It’s also left me with a list of things where I could have used some help from my accountant. This list will be the basis for the articles in this series.

Whether you’re a business owner or an executive, this series will help you avoid some of the pitfalls I’ve run into over the years. If you’re an accountant, it will give you some insight into the services your clients want you to provide.

Part 1: What Businesses Wish Their Accounting Professionals Provided

Whether I was in business for myself or working for someone else, I used the same accounting firm for over 20 years. It was an office of five or six accountants and they handled all my companies’ taxes as well as my personal returns. They specialized in SMBs and did an excellent job when it came to the tax code and our filings. They were also great at offering top notch tax advice.

But, that’s where it all ended. Not once in all that time did the firm ever contact me to offer additional services or to enquire about my business.

Now, I understand the firm was primarily focused on tax and audit but what a missed opportunity! There were any number of other things they could have helped me with that I would have been happy to pay for.

Like most people, I have always had an inherent sense of trust in my accountant and it would’ve been easy for them to makes inroads as a trusted advisor. Sadly, I am not a unique case as accountants missing opportunities like this appears to be the rule rather than the exception.

SMBs are started by people who know and love their business’ subject matter and they are generally experts in that area. But they are not accountants and they usually don’t have that level of expertise on staff. They need help whether they know it or not.

As we get further into this series, I will share more practical information about how accountants can become more proactive in their dealings with clients as they develop into trusted business advisors or “partners.”

But for now, I’m going to leave you with a food-for-thought question I’ve asked myself at different times over the course of my career: “Why hasn’t my accountant offered to help me help my business?”