Ozarks Profile: Don Smillie

Tell us about your company.

I founded a rm in 1975 that is now known as Burgess, Hastings and Dunlop. I left that rm in the 1990s and in 1995 started Don G. Smillie CPA, CSA. CSA is certied senior advisor, directed toward serving the senior market. We have three employees, not counting me. We offer accounting services for small businesses, income tax preparation, tax planning, nancial planning. I'm also securities licensed. I have Series 7, 63 and 66 securities licenses, and I'm an investment advisor with securities offered through InterSecurities, Inc., Member NASD, SIPC, 800 W. 47th Street, Kansas City, MO 64112, 816-561-8765.

What are some of the major issues your small-business clients face?

The major issue is obtaining adequate capital, because one of the hardships of a small business is not having enough capital. The number two issue, probably, is labor nding an adequate amount of skilled labor and then competing for the cost of it. The third issue would be employee benets.

In what ways can you help clients to deal with these issues?

With labor, it's just being a resource to how they go about nding it, or how to deal with it, in terms of just being a sounding board for them... .

If they need anything through the U.S. Small Business Administration or the other resources that are available...they can access services ... . That's about all I can do about labor. We're not into supplying labor or anything, but just helping them deal with it.

Capital, we can help them with, through the local banks and SBA, and then also, there are private sources of capital that I'm aware of, and ways to get things nanced...from private investors. Mainly, it's just kind of a matchmaking thing, knowing people that like to invest in certain types of businesses ... . Really related to the capital, our services are such that you have to have a good nancial statement to go to a bank and have them entertain any kind of nancing. With employee benets, health-care costs are going up and mainly, what we see is, most smaller employers have to basically have retirement plans in place in order to compete for the work force. Something like a 401(k) plan has really become...the industry standard now.

What has maintained your interest in the accounting/nancial industry?

Mainly just being able to work with a variety of different types of clients in different industries. It might be a doctor, a manufacturing company, a lawn-mowing service. I just really enjoy doing tax work and the small-business consulting. Small businesses don't normally have people in-house that take care of the nancial function of the company as a larger company would have.

Will the new Check 21 law affect how you work with your clients?

I don't think it'll affect us. I think that's going to be more through the credit card businesses and the banking industry. It'll change a little bit about the way businesses operate, and people are going to have to not operate on oat as much as they have in the past. Companies are just going to have to get used to (the fact that) when they send a check, it's going to get cleared pretty quickly. We don't advise anyone to oat anyway, but some company owners do that, write a check, put it in the mail, thinking that it's going to take several days to clear. I think that the Check 21 law is mainly going to stop people from writing a check at the retail level. It probably will be a big help to small businesses because they'll avoid a lot of insufcient fund checks.

Tell us about your family and spare-time interests.

My wife, Marilyn, is also an accountant and she's in the rm with me. We have seven grown children. We work together very well. We ride in the MS-150 Bike-a-Thon every year. I've been involved in Boy Scouts. I was involved with a troop for years, and I'm still involved with the local Ozarks Council.