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person to person: gary hessenaur honored by sba
by kate kellogg
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anyone who thinks accountants are all one-dimensional
number-crunchers has never met the likes of gary hessenaur.
true, he has about 25 years of accounting experience from
working with accounting firms and running his own thriving business, hessenaur &
associates of lakeland. but this "day job" is only part of his
work: he also volunteers his expertise and organizational skills in support of washtenaw
county's small business community.
hessenaur was recently named the 2002 michigan accountant advocate of the year by the u.s. small
business administration (sba). those who know him through his volunteer
activities with the new enterprise forum, the ann arbor chamber morning
edition, and the ann arbor it zone were probably not surprised to learn of
the honor. in fact, several of those colleagues were among his nominators.
their letters of recommendation praise not only his commitment to
small business development and his professional skills but also his "down
to earth sensibilities" and "enjoyable personality."
as a board member of the new enterprise forum program committee, he has provided candid
and supportive counsel to area entrepreneurs as they prepare to face
prospective investors. his work as co-chair of the it zone high
tech tuesday committee has helped keep that program vital and
relevant to the it and entrepreneurial community. on the professional side, he
is known for more than helping clients "manage the books." he
also empowers them to use financial records and forecasts to better manage their
business.
an ann arbor native, hessenaur has been interested in small
business since the age of nine when he worked for his father's
discount store, hessenaur's discount house, located in ann arbor and
ypsilanti. he worked his way through college as an assembly worker at the ford plant
in saline, graduating from eastern michigan in 1978. for the next three
years he served on the audit staff of touche ross & co. he then went
on to the firm of burnstein, morris & brown, where he became partner
and developed and ran the audit department. in 1991 he went out on
his own and continues to run his own accounting practice from his home in
lakeland, livingston county. his practice includes accounting, tax, and
financial management services as well as mergers, team building and
business turnaround. in recent years, he has specialized in helping
startup businesses both professionally and through the new enterprise
forum. hessenaur also guest lecturers a class on entrepreneurial
forecasting for the university of michigan's school of information.
'active in his home community, hessenaur is a member of the hell, michigan chamber
planning committee, the kiwanis club of hamburg, and for many years ran a
pinewood derby workshop for his sons' cub scout pack. a master
woodworker, he spends much of his "spare" time crafting furniture,
such as the elegant cherry desk in his office, as well as toys, which he donates to
toys for tots. he designed, built, and landscaped his lakeside home.
hessenaur's wife anita also is an accomplished woodworker, who specializes
in dollhouses and the world of miniatures. they have two sons, age
17 and 20.
b-to-b: much of your volunteer work focuses on helping
startups. is that also the case with your practice?
gh: my clients vary from one-person startups to a $15 million
business. i do enjoy working with the startups and there's a lot of
variety. it may be seven years before one of my startup clients, who is in the
life sciences, has a product on the market. for another, it may be 18
months. i did a total of seven startups last year and all ended up being
self-funded. the owners of one, a spinoff, put up a few hundred
thousand dollars to kick the project off. another just opened a
women's retail store in ypsilanti. she started it with her own money and an sba
loan. that relationship came about through my volunteer work with the
michigan small business development center, which had a cubicle at the it
zone. she later hired me to do forecasts and help her work on a business
plan to secure the loan.
b-to-b: since the economy has slowed down, have entrepreneurs
had more difficulty finding investors and venture capital?
gh: it has always been a challenge to find enough investors
to go around, especially angel or private investors. they and the
venture capitalists have lately been pretty quiet. we've also
found that many of the people presenting at the new enterprise forum don't
quality for venture capital, at least in terms of the criteria venture
capitalists are looking for. most of those firms want to see businesses that are
further down the pike. they like to see products that have been
developed, a well-developed marketing program, and maybe some sales. 'to
really make
it as an entrepreneur these days, you generally have come up
with some of
your own money. not too many angels out there are interested in
investing
in a good idea. they're looking for a high rate of return
and the more
proof you have that you can generate it, the better your chances
are.
that's a reality that some of the entrepreneurs
we've seen in the nef
didn't expect.
b-to-b: you have served as president of the nef, chaired the
program
committee, and are still an active member of its board. how do
you and
other members of the liaison teams help fledgling entrepreneurs
hone their
presentation skills?
gh: we spend much time critiquing their business plans and
helping them
prepare their pitches to prospective investors. one of the most
difficult
aspects is convincing them that they have to work on selling a
business as
opposed to just a product. it takes some coaching. we draw upon
our
various areas of expertise to advise them on their business
plans. our
diverse program committee includes nearly every consultant you
could
imagine: technology experts, attorneys, accountants, marketing
consultants, and experienced entrepreneurs. 'when we look at
business
plans, we help identify what's missing. we might suggest
adding a
marketing director or someone who knows manufacturing to the
management
team. once the entrepreneurs have come up with a reasonable
presentation,
they do a dry run in front of the liaison team. we even time
them to make
sure the presentation runs no longer than the required ten
minutes.
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b-to-b: do you screen for proposals that just wouldn't
work?
gh: to some extent. for instance, we wouldn't include a
real estate
deal because they don't, by their nature, generate the
kind of return
investors are looking for. we also wouldn't present a
lifestyle business,
such as local retail store. what we can do for everyone, is
offer the open
mike at meetings. we pass the microphone around and let everyone
make a
30-second pitch. sometimes things happen just through
networking.
b-to-b: you're also on the program committee for the
morning edition.
what does that offer the business community?
gh: it's put on by the chamber and each program
includes six speakers.
it's always a breakfast meeting held at weber's on
the third wednesday of
the month, excluding july, august, and december. even though we
start
early---7:15 a.m.---we usually get about 150 people at these
meetings. we
try to keep it short and sweet. each speaker talks for five
minutes on a
target topic that our committee dreams up. we try to bring in
people who
are new in prominent positions such as the mayor soon after he
was
elected. speakers represent all kinds of
organizations---educational,
nonprofit, and private business. we might bring in someone from
the
downtown development authority or the u-m or a k-12 program.
b-to-b: you co-chair the high tech tuesday program committee
for the it
zone. is that still going strong?
gh: yes it is. some people seem to think the it zone has gone
out of
business and that's definitely not the case. its programs
are still very
much alive. high tech tuesday has not skipped a beat and we have
a full
slate of programs through next november. we've broadened
our range of
topics. this month [june], we have a joint meeting with the
michigan
biosciences industry association. we will have a panel of
different types
of investors in september. we just finished a series called
of investors in september. we just finished a series called
marketing-on-a-shoestring and are putting together one on
selling skills.
a lot of people talk about marketing but no one's really
talked about
actually going out on the street to sell your product. 'our
committee's
objective is to come up with topics that will help it business
but could
really help any business. once in awhile we'll get into
specific
technologies such as one coming up on html, software language,
which will
be of particular interest to programmers. 'i'm thrilled
with the makeup
of the committee. different members use their contacts to come
up with
unique speakers.
b-to-b: in addition to traditional accounting work, your
practice
practice
includes what many would consider a broad range of services for
an
accountant. for example, you do team building and coaching. is
that type
of consulting an important part of your practice?
gh: yes, i'd say my niche is all-around business
consulting. i get to
know the business well and feel a part of the management team. i
may even
help with staffing decisions. i recently interviewed a potential
manager
for a client who wanted a second opinion. it's good to be
in such a
trusted position. that's one reason i was so happy
about the michigan
accountant advocate of the year award. the criteria has nothing
to do with
how well we crunch numbers or do tax returns, but how we support
small
business. the smaller businesses don't have the resources
to keep a lot of
talent on the payroll all the time. so they utilize what's
available. as a
cpa, i have a lot of contacts anyway and can use my network to
bring in
others to address special problems.
b-to-b: what approach do you take in team building?
gh: i'm a strong believer in capitalizing on
people's differences; i
think there are many different ways to accomplish a task. one of
my
clients has developed a tool that deals with the different ways
people
process information. it's an inoffensive 24-quesiton test
and profile that
predicts how a team will work together. it's also helpful
for dealing with
friction in small groups. i've used it on corporate
retreats to show
people how they can attack the same problem in different ways.
one person
may be very spontaneous while another is more methodical but
both may be
equally successful. 'besides getting certified to use this
product, i'm
studying more and more about team building and helping people
figure out
what they want to accomplish with a business and with their
lives. i have
clients whose goal in life might be to make a six-digit figure.
another
client's goal is to park a lear jet out at the ann arbor
airport. every
client is unique and that's what i like about being
small---i can tailor
my services to each individual's wants.
b-to-b: we've been hearing so much about bankruptcies
and chapter
elevens lately. has that part of your practice intensified?
gh: there has definitely been some increase in bankruptcies
depending
on the business area. in my opinion, these problems result from
poor
planning as much as the economy. it's often a case of
businesses
over-leveraging themselves, living on the edge. if a downturn
comes along,
the chances are good that business will end up in bankruptcy.
sometimes
younger people running their first business will get into
trouble because
they have never experienced an economic downturn and don't
know how to
prepare for one.'or the business may just be the victim of an
industry
problem that no one could have predicted. i have a client
struggling to
keep a company afloat because a big piece was tied to the
communication
industry. in that case, business didn't slow---it dried
up. the company is
now concentrating on other aspects of the business and hopes to
get an sba
loan. i expect them to survive. 'i've enjoy doing
turnarounds. the most
memorable part of my first job with touche-ross & co. (now
deloitte
& touche) was working on the chrysler audit when the company
was on
the verge of bankruptcy and the government guarantees were in
progress. it
was a challenging and interesting project, a great team effort.
in my
practice, i've had a high success rate in turnaround work.
sometimes it's
a matter of redirecting, helping a company figure where to cut
costs or
find the right way to generate sales. the biggest challenge for
a company
undergoing turnaround is to get used to change because
everything is up for reevaluation.
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