Sona Akmakjian believes that more small businesses than ever will need hands-on business advisory from their accountants—everything from input on staffing to advice on taking lines of credit and dealing with inflation costs.
The head of Global Strategic Accounting Partnerships at Avalara, commenting on the company’s recent “2023 Avalara Accountants Confidence Report,” says as these clients navigate their way through turbulent times, they’ll depend increasingly on their trusted advisor.
This means the pressure is on for accountants to strengthen their client relationships, level up their valued advisory capacity and leverage all available tools and resources to stand by small businesses on the front lines.
According to the survey, done in partnership with CPA Trendlines, 39% say this year has been “much” or “somewhat better” for their small business clients compared to 2022, while 45% said “about the same.” The survey queried 536 accountants representing 100,000-plus small businesses.
Highlights include:
- 72% of accountants said clients’ ability to access fresh capital would be “much” or “somewhat worse” over the next 12 to 18 months
- 49% said their clients’ ability to raise revenues would be “much” or “somewhat worse”
- 63% said their clients’ ability to manage payroll costs would be “much” or “somewhat worse”
- 70% were optimistic about the ability of their small business clients to adopt to new technologies and automation
- 61% of Main Street firms surmise that small business clients’ ability to increase profits will be “much” or “somewhat worse”
- 60% of firms said small business clients’ ability to hire new employees will be “much” or “somewhat worse”
To read more about the report, CLICK HERE.
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