I met with Tim Ritschard of Ritz Business Services Inc. To get to know a little bit more about him and how he got his start in this industry, and what kind of struggles he’s come across from the perspective of a business owner. Here’s what was discussed:
When did you 1st establish this business? “I purchased this business from my father in law in January of 2009, but he started in October of 1978. He started as a franchise which was known as “Comprehensive Business Services” at that time. It was a very good franchise, we did learn a lot from them. I worked for him for 27 of those 30 years that he was in the franchise. Then I bought it in January of 2009.”
What made you want to get started in this type of business? “My dad was the one who got me into it, I was in retail management prior. Retail management is not very kind to a family. I loved the mornings of the business because that was all the paperwork, and I love dealing with customers. As far as stocking shelves, and other things like that I didn’t care for. This happened to be a natural fit for me.”
What’s some of your first struggles when opening your business? “Anytime you take over an existing business, there are some clients that love the one that’s leaving and they couldn’t take it so they left. So there is always a drop of clients when you take over. It took me 4 years to pay him off, and in that 4 years (the last 2 especially), became very hard to make the payments and stay afloat. That’s all over now.”
Now that you’ve been in business if you had to start over, would you have done anything different? “I think we’d always do things differently. However, in the long run, I don’t think so. I made the decisions based upon what I knew at the time. I think the biggest thing I would have done is make the payments a little smaller for to pay off.”
What would you say is your biggest struggle as a business owner now in 2016. “I’m very good at numbers, I’m very good at paperwork, but I’m not very good at marketing, so marketing is my downside. That’s my biggest struggle.”
What is currently the way you’re bringing in new customers? “The biggest method is by word of mouth, referrals from our clients. The second biggest thing is since we’re on a commonly traveled street, our sign brings in a lot of business with people just seeing us here.”
Do you think the internet has played a big role for your business as it becomes more prevalent? “Alot of aspect to that, everybody thought that the internet was going to be the big meow, and I don’t think it’s been that huge. I think mainly because most of our clients have been with us 30 plus years. They were in business before computers so they’re not very adequate with computers as it is. Perhaps that’s where I need to put more of my marketing, rather than by word of mouth.”
Tell us about what you guys do for the community: “We are a public accounting office, we provide financial statements for small and medium sized businesses. We also process payroll for the employers and do lots of income tax; From business to personal and all across the board for income taxes.”
You can contact Timothy with Ritz Business Services today by giving their office a call at 719-590-7373
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