Q&A with Hal Gross, TaxAssist Accountants President and Area Representative for New Jersey

Q   Hal, tell us about your background and your role at TaxAssist Accountants.

I get to wear several hats at TaxAssist. I am the President of our US business, Area Representative for the state of New Jersey and an investor in the US business.

Before joining TaxAssist, I started my career in public accounting staying long enough to get my CPA and then on to audit, risk and regulatory roles in large global financial institutions.

Q   Can you explain your “journey” to TaxAssist?

In the past several years of my career “journey”, like others in similar situations, I found myself thinking about doing something different and more gratifying.  This led me to explore alternatives outside of the traditional corporate roles that I had performed throughout my career.  My curiosity allowed me to entertain “entrepreneurial” pursuits and perhaps bring to life those countless “business ideas” that I thought about on those daily commutes to/from New York City for over 20 years.

At the same time, “franchising” snuck into my vocabulary with my knowledge limited to not much more than knowing that McDonalds and Subway were big players in franchising . . . beyond that I knew very little.  At around that same time over a lunch with Mike Melling, a friend and former colleague visiting from the UK, I learned about his franchising journey five years earlier with TaxAssist and his enthusiastic endorsement of the franchise model.

My interest was heightened and Mike offered an introduction to TaxAssist’s Global Franchise Senior Manager, David Paulson, to educate me on franchising. 

David became my personal “tutor” and over the course of a series of conversations helped me to understand franchising. As we got to know each other, we also started to discuss TaxAssist’s plans to expand to the US and developed a joint interest in working together on TaxAssist’s US expansion.

Q   What was your decision process for joining TaxAssist?

As I began to learn about TaxAssist’s expansion plans for the US and the roles that I can play, my interest grew . . .  and grew . . . .and I wanted to learn more . . . and more. My wife and I were invited to the UK and visited the Support Center and several shops including one of Mike Melling’s. 

Armed with the analytical skills that I honed in my risk and audit roles I embarked on an extensive due diligence process to assess how well TaxAssist and I aligned with each other.  I arrived at my decision considering quantitative and qualitative factors and intangibles including the all-powerful “gut feel”! 

The decision was not a simple one as I was embarking on a path that was quite different than anything that I had done before and would take me outside the comfort zone of my corporate roles where I focused on ensuring that these global financial firms managed their risks, were well controlled and adhered to regulatory requirements.  Instead, I would be moving from Wall Street to Main Street to help small businesses with their accounting, taxes and profitability. Certainly an intriguing trade-off!

Q   Why do you believe that TaxAssist will be successful in the US?

As I reflect on my decision, it was driven by several key factors which support my belief that TaxAssist will succeed in the US. For me, I see our success simply as a function of three things: 1) having a valuable offering that enables us to 2) recruit franchisees, and 3) attract clients . . . simple as that!

Q   Tell us a little more about what those three components of TaxAssist’s success in the US, elaborate on why you think TaxAssist has a valuable offering?

TaxAssist differentiates itself most prominently in its small business focus as “Small Business Champions” and with the retail storefront model. We also have a business/operating model or “system” as they say in franchise-speak that is proven and tested and well thought out in terms of its adaptability to the US. From our expansions in Ireland and Australia, we have gained experience and applied lessons learned which have been very valuable in planning the US and now Canada expansion.

Finally, the people that I met in my due diligence process . . . and I met almost every member of the Norwich Support team, are the backbone of the company and reflective of the culture and philosophy of TaxAssist. What stood out for me across the entire team was the depth of knowledge and experience . . . but also how they conduct themselves most notably their transparency, professionalism and supportive mindset.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have the very substantive backing of this talented team as we embark on the US journey

Q   What about the other two components to success that you mentioned; recruiting franchisees and attracting clients?

As for the ability to recruit franchisees, clearly the current environment in which many people are unemployed or looking for new adventure and soul searching on corporate careers, considering starting their own business, provides us with a great opportunity to help people in these situations. 

In thinking about our ability to attract clients, we need to look no further than the small business environment in the US. We clearly believe that we will be filling a need in the marketplace recognizing that small businesses need help and there is nothing out there like we are offering. It is an underserved market with a staggering number of small businesses in the US, that plays a key role in the US economy.

Q   Is there anything else that you would like to say about your journey?

Yes, and I would say that this is as much a box that gets checked for me on a personal basis, as a professional one, and that is the gratification that comes with being part of TaxAssist with its focus on helping small businesses including franchisees, who are the lifeblood of our economy, I believe that I can make a difference in a substantive and more direct way . . . this is important to me.