Tim Grant, the CEO of Business Solution Providers, Inc. joins Gary to provide insight into both the manufacturing and inventory industry. In this episode, Tim shares why he chose to niche in manufacturing and inventory management, how a single trade show encouraged him to change his business model, and how his business has helped improve the operations of over 150 product-based businesses.
Tim Grant, the CEO of Business Solution Providers, Inc. joins Gary to provide insight into both the manufacturing and inventory industry. Tim shares why he chose to niche in manufacturing and inventory management, how a single trade show encouraged him to change his business model, and how his business has helped improve the operations of over 150 product-based businesses.
In this episode, Tim also shares why it's important to niche your business, how networking within your industry can lead to more success than you thought possible, and how one book changed the way he viewed inventory management.
Listen now to learn the common mistakes businesses make in their inventory management process, and how Business Solution Providers, Inc. can help solve those pain points within your business.
Learn more about Business Solution Providers, Inc.
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Gary DeHart
Welco me to another episode of Accounting Insiders. My name is Gary DeHart. I'm the publisher of Insightful Accountant and the host of Accounting Insiders. And today I've got Tim Grant with, Oh, I forgot your company name was the company name?
Tim Grant
Business Solution Providers.
Gary DeHart
Business Solution Providers. Give me a little bit about the history of the company, and where you came from, how long have you been around? Where to come from? What are you doing now? And where do you see, where are you headed?
Tim Grant
Sure! Well, we, we really evolved, I started the business in 2003. Sole Proprietor became an LLC in 2007, and became incorporated in 2015. We've grown we still only have six people on staff now. But we've gone through all the gyrations of initially doing accounting, generalist work, then later on, specifically exclusively with QuickBooks, and then third party inventory and manufacturing, add on products that worked with QuickBooks. And then today, we work with three primary products in the manufacturing and inventory world. That includes manual. Accu Matica ERP, which is a full body ERP system. MRP easy, which is an online manufacturing program that works with QuickBooks Online, and MISys manufacturing, which is a desktop manufacturing program that works with QuickBooks.
Gary DeHart
How did you get into that, that manufacturing and inventory? Did you kind of fall into it? Or did you take a survey of the market and say, this is a place we can do a really good job in and be an expert at?
Tim Grant
Well, it's it's really kind of funny, Gary, because about after being in business for about 10 years, I was getting a little jaded on just working in the accounting world and and kind of the same types of clients. And the funny thing was, I attended a Woodard conference, Scaling New Heights, and I attended a one of the sessions there was actually by Accu Matica, or sorry, activate. And they did a session on inventory systems, and how it integrated with QuickBooks. And two things kind of kind of surprised me right at that point, when I was attending that that session. One, how advanced the software was, in terms of the technology has really grown and the capabilities to help small mid sized businesses, in that case, manage their inventory. The other thing that kind of left an impression on me was there was only four other people out of this whole conference of 1200 people who were attending that session. And I was like, I was like, Well, you know, who's servicing, you know, that's an audience, there's got to be a niche there. And I literally thought about it on the plane ride home. And by the time I got back to my office, I said, that's where I'm going to plant my flag. And that was about 12 years ago, invested enormous amount of time working, finding those vendors, getting them to give us their software so that we could learn their software, read a ton of books, on inventory management, manufacturing, what I didn't already know from being a prior controller, and just put it all together and then told people, this is what we do and the client started coming.
Gary DeHart
Right. So were you a controller for a manufacturing business?
Tim Grant
Yes, yes. Right. And prior to 2003 and starting the business.
Gary DeHart
Okay. And then well, what what caused you to leave from that? Like, what did you did you want to go the entrepreneurial route or just looking for a change? Or how'd you ended up on the public side?
Tim Grant
Oh, absolutely. It's I had an on entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, bent. I mean, ever since I was in school, I the only when I finished my undergraduate in international business, I went right into grad school and I remember talking to a counselor and they said, Well, what what do you want your, your emphasis to be in grad school? And I said at that time, I said international business and goes, no, no, you don't want to do that because you're just gonna get a lot of the same instructors a lot of the same material. And I had to really think about it and this was at a time when the economy wasn't doing too well. And I looked around and my my it friends were the other area that I was interested in. and weren't working, they were they were mostly unemployed. But I looked at accounting and I thought, well, you know, there's, there's a field that, you know, I can, I can, you know, get into and gravitate to, and, and, but I but I never really wanted to be a CPA, I wasn't I wasn't that, you know, I didn't want to do taxes at all biggest CPA is a nice, you know, credential to have and you know, people who attain this certainly, you know worth it, but it just wasn't, it didn't find that as attractive as the as the IT side as well. So just kind of fell into it, and did controller for a while. And then, you know, I always wanted to run my own business and got the opportunity.
Gary DeHart
That's great. And then so just for a terminology clarification. So when we say inventory and manufacturing, in your world, is inventory, a supply item used in manufacturing? Or are you looking at both sides of that, where it could be inventory for business that selling x product?
Tim Grant
Yeah, it's a, it's two ways to look at it. When we started the shift in the direction of our business 12 years ago, I mainly focused on just inventory. There is a lot to learn around both the lingo and processes and capabilities in the inventory world. But it is distinctly different from manufacturing. And that is where people get it confused, because they kind of put together both the software's into the same categories. And that's really a big mistake. A lot of times manufacturing will have a warehouse management or an inventory management component to it. But depending upon the the structure of the business, you know, the client shouldn't waste their time looking at the wrong category of business, depending on what it is they're trying to do. You know, QuickBooks for a long time, QuickBooks Enterprise anyway said, you know, it was it was a inventory and manufacturing addition, well, it's okay for a very light assembler. And inventory companies with limited inventory, nuances I call them, then QuickBooks might be fine for you. But if you're looking at really doing manufacturing, you know, then you're tracking, you know, production costs and workstations and you need production schedules, and you need so much more in a manufacturing program than you'll ever get out of an inventory program.
Gary DeHart
Right. Yeah, I've marked talk me through some of some of his clients that that are in that kind of do a lot of that. I don't know if you really call it work in progress, but tracking from all the way down to the nuts and bolts right of what went to a into a finished product. And so did you the software solutions that you have now, did you get to those by by proactively seeking them out to solve this problem that you had? Or did you run across them at a trade show? Or how did you end up working with you said it was Accu Matica MRP? Easy? And MISys, right?
Tim Grant
Yeah, yeah. Well, MISys on my journey in starting my business, I guess it was around 2006 that I ran across Fishbowl and MISys. Fishbowl, everybody knows the big, the big dog for inventory, right connects to QuickBooks. And MISys was the manufacturing one. And they they promoted it pretty heavily. But there's a lot less manufacturing at that time. There's a lot less manufacturing than there than there was inventory. So that's it kind of just became a partner. But we didn't have much worker experienced with it when everything first started. But that's grown. And that's kind of part of that trend that I'm seeing that I could could talk about too is that I see and there was a Wall Street Journal article recently how manufacturing is coming back to the to North America completely. And so the systems are more in need. About four years ago, as we had transition to being an inventory Are your manufacturing implementation provider? I can't remember exactly. Oh, yeah, I remember I do remember now, I had a client come to me, who had produced screws for wood decks in Taiwan, but his business was in New Jersey. And so he had to be able to try to manage this. And he had heard about this product MRP easy. And he wanted off, we could help with it. Well, with limited experience, you know, of course, in the manufacturing world, and that product, we jumped in and in the process together, we learned that product and and what it was capable of doing. And then from that we beat that's the one that we became a partner with, and are one of only two here in the United States that serves that product. So I think it's a great little manufacturing product for small to midsize companies that want to go directly to consumers via a web platform via platform Bigcommerce, WooCommerce, Shopify one of those and sell their products and I was really attracted to that market. And the clients who are trying to do that solves for a lot of problems. And then a third product we just started with about a year ago. That is Accu Matica ERP, which is a full full body ERP system, competes with NetSuite, SAP, Sage intact, all of those, and has a manufacturing edition is a full SAS online product. And it includes its own manufacturing module. So it has it has everything operationally and financially that a growing small business needs to get into. And so that's we got recruited for that. So that's where that one came from. Okay,
Gary DeHart
so good to see. You know, Jeff Segal. Yes. I think he's working with them too, right?
Tim Grant
Yes, he is. He is. I saw him at the conference for Accu Matica. Last time we sat down had a great conversation.
Gary DeHart
Yeah, another friend of mine, you know, a guy named Randy Collins. He's here in Atlanta. He used to be a big sage resellers companies called strategies group. And they were him. They were really big and sage, more on the construction side. And think about two well, it's pre pandemic. So, so funny that two years of the pandemic kind of, like seems like seems like it was a couple of months. But when you really think about, it's like, wow, that's like, two years, right, two years of our lives, but I think probably maybe two years prior to the pandemic. So he's probably four or five years into working with, with axiomatic but more again, on the construction side. Okay. So if you ever need anybody construction, let me know, I can connect you with him too.
Tim Grant
That would be actually great, because that's of the four editions that they have distribution and manufacturing, we do. Commerce, I hope to do someday, once we get to that point. And then construction, we have kind of ignored because that's the one that I understand how involved that gets. And so I don't have the human resources to manage that. So that would actually be good.
Gary DeHart
Okay, yeah, I'll do that after this. And then. So that actually brings up a little bit of another question. So and it kind of goes back to something you said early on, about getting kind of into the niche, right. So so you embrace the niche. And, and then you had to spend a lot of time and I'm asking this more kind of for the listener of like, okay, let's decide on doing this and kind of have an interest in we'll use manufacturing, since that's the process. You're since that's the world you're in, but I have an interest in, in manufacturing, what is my mentally What do I have to be prepared to actually do to get into and learn kind of manufacturing to where I can get to where I can really go to a client and have a reasonable conversation that I actually know what I'm talking about? That's a big question. I get it maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe what I'm really trying to get to as is the myth, the thought process of embracing a niche and what do I really need to know going into a niche whether it's manufacturing or retail or or what have you?
Tim Grant
Well, I guess my first advice would be stop thinking about it and just do it. Because I think that was you know, there's a big fear When you think about going into a niche, because you think, well, it's a generalist, everybody's going to need me. But in a niche, you know, I've got to reach out and find those specific customers, you know, who, you know, need exactly what I have. And you may not know what the, what the audience is, when I went into inventory started with inventory. You know, I, I didn't have a lot of previous prospects come to me and say, Would you help me do my inventory, I had a few. But I didn't have that many I didn't do outreach for that area wasn't my area. But it was really that day in my office, when I got back from that conference that I said, and everything had led up to it, that I needed to find a niche, I needed to find a niche, because I was just a little bit burnout on being a generalist, where you have to kind of know everything anyway. Right. And, as a generalist, you're competing with everybody else, it's like being a dentist, I mean, you're competing with the dentist down the block, in the view of the consumer. So having a niche is, is so much better. And I learned that right away, because once I planted that flag, and I told people, I even put in the signature block, I'm gonna email that we did, that we supported these inventory products, people started referring people to us, even though they didn't know how good or bad an inventory specialist we were, they were at least referring us and the more of those clients that we got. And I'll admit those first couple were, you know, sweating on the brow up at night, you know, worried to death, you're gonna figure it out 15 minutes ahead of the client. It's it is some of the best learning experiences we could have had in getting there. But if I had just kept sitting back and thinking about it, I never would have taken that step.
Gary DeHart
Yeah. So it's like, kind of the core of entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship, right? It's like, you just have to do it, jump in, figure it out. And like, the way he said it, you know, stop thinking and just do it, right. Just don't let the fear overtake you. Right? Because you can you can think to death, right? Yeah, we all can do that. A lot of actually, before we hopped on, I was talking to my wife she's doing, she's a teacher teach third grade, but now she's actually doing some other work at the school. And she's getting a lot of exposure to things that what so they started a new position, and she's helping this lady kind of build this new position out. And so there's not a lot of structure in place, there's not they're just having to come and learn it and make it as they go. And, and I that's almost exactly what I said to her. It's like, you know, you have to really think like an entrepreneur, because you guys are building this program, you're building everything out for it. And, you know, there's things you don't know, but you just have to dive in and, and learn it right. And you're gonna fail at it sometimes. But that's part of the process.
Tim Grant
And I was also very lucky, sorry to leave your, your view there. But I was very lucky. And I'm a big reader. I read probably a book every 10 days. I'm just I'm always reading, but one of the books that I picked up was this one called inventory accuracy people processes and technology by David Piasecki. This is back when I was getting into the whole inventory world. And I said, you know, I need to research this. And I, this I was lucky because this particular book is is was extremely helpful. In preparing us, even something like inventory, you have to understand the language, you have to understand processes, you have to do certain prerequisites, you can't do a B until you do beat or can you beat so you do today. And it got you know, I spent just tons of time and that's what the, the the listeners here have to have to consider is that, you know, you're you're gonna have to do a lot of homework, you have to fill in the gaps of what you don't know, in order to serve that audience. But the other thing is you got to have a passion for it. You know, I chose that inventory route and then later to also include manufacturing because it interests me it's I want to know this stuff and is the more I got into it, the more I realized what little I didn't know you know, there's it just goes on and on and on and now with technology and E commerce and you know these different platforms. I mean, it is never are ending, as what what is capable and what you can learn? You don't have to learn at all. But you know, you have to have a basic understanding.
Gary DeHart
Yeah, it's Yeah, we were talking before we started to just the whole manufacturing to, to me is I love seeing how things are made. It is. It truly is fascinating, especially when it's something like I don't know, use it every day or just we have so much we take for granted, right? Because it's, you know, buy it on Amazon, and it shows up and you use it. Yeah.
Tim Grant
Like we were talking about that. That 100 year old fishing company, fishing line company, we have you never you wouldn't think fishing line was so hard to produce. Right. But there's a whole process to it. Yeah.
Gary DeHart
Do they do the braided line? Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen the braiding machines when they're running?
Tim Grant
No, no, I haven't seen that site to that.
Gary DeHart
That textile show I mentioned. Watching these breathing machines. It's really cool how they work. Like, I can't even wrap my head around how, how it functions, right. But so. So let's talk for a minute and then we'll probably wrap up. But so the so trade shows a trade show when scaling new heights is what really got you into your niche. So what other shows? One? Do you recommend shows? I think I know the answer to what other shows do you find useful in the space are where do you invest your time and money event wise?
Tim Grant
It it varies quite a bit. You know, Woodard I go go every year, I had to miss this last year. But I go to that one. I go to and different organizations that I'm a part of I kind of combine this is there's a Institute of Management Accountants, the IMA is out there. And they have a conference every year. There is the association of supply chain management that has a conference theme that the international supply chain organization, they have a conference in Chicago each year. There's a local one here called ENSET, which is basically Nevada Center for Education and Training. It's all around technology and businesses and but they're local here to northern Nevada. So I tried to get into ones where you know, I'm all in Dreamforce, I used to go to that one as well. In San Francisco, Salesforce is one because it was also very heavy, you know, salesforce dot people don't think about it's really a platform. And then you have all these third party programs that that support it as well. It's It's fascinating if you've ever never been to one, but also heavy on technology. So I'm going to conferences where it because it's the people that run things. It's not just the the software, it's not just the machines, it's the people that run it. And if you want to, really, if you want to get into any niche, you know, you got to go where the people are, you know, you've got to listen to what they're talking about, and what's important. My first ascm, the supply chain conference that I went to was, it's one thing to really have the education and the training. It's another to see the people who are actively working in the industry, and where they're headed, where their tools are going and what they're talking about. So I find that part every bit as much interesting, as you know, what's the latest gizmo that's out there?
Gary DeHart
So then where does your firm head? So you're deep into manufacturing inventory? What's what's the, is that what you're sticking with in the future? Or will you add like the construction side of Accu Matica? What do you think? What's in the cards?
Tim Grant
Well, you know, up until really, about four years ago, we had focused quite heavily on third party programs that integrate with QuickBooks on the back end. It Intuit won't admit this, but everybody's talking about how desktop is dying, is dying off or will be killed off at some point. It you know most of those programs that I worked with Have the fishbowls the activates, and even my sister degree are all desktop based primarily. So their client bases. And that's where they live. I have seen the trend, Excel only accelerating the last few years to where everything is online. And that's why I went with signed up with Accu Matica, about about a year ago, it's why I found it attractive, it's completely online SAS product. If you've got an internet, you've got connection, and that is, that is really where we're taking our business because I think, you know, the capabilities are increasing, the prices are are coming down to where, you know, like Acumatica for the small business edition, a client could get it for less than $1,000 a month, a villa ERP system, you know, so, you know, I see that's where the future is headed. I don't see I'm How do I say it? I don't agree with Murph and some other people that all you should do is get better at your technology stack. I think the average small business client My experience was they were getting to the point where they might have QuickBooks Online. But if you've got 15 programs that you need to connect to it, to make your whole environment work, small business owners are saying we're not going to invest the resources to do that. And I don't see how they can keep that up. So that's why I'm, we're putting our efforts into like Accu Matica, which is more of a full finance operations system still needs some add ons to extend some capabilities to it. But it's the core, it's where people are going to work every day. And I see that's where the trend of of small to medium sized businesses good to go.
Gary DeHart
Ok, anything else you'd like to share that, that you thought about just when we when we kind of booked us.
Tim Grant
Um, you know, just one kind of advice to people who are looking for a niche or to expand their business. I heard this just recently, and it it really solidifies a business owners thinking, and what they need to do is that you can have all the motivation in the world to do something. But if you don't have the discipline to do it, it's not going to happen. And that's a reality. So it's like going to the gym, you can be motivated, all you want to go to the gym. And everybody knows, you know, most people will lose that motivation, because they don't have the discipline to keep it up. And one personal note about me is about a year and a half ago, I got on the scale one day, and I hit 230 pounds. And I said, That's too much. I don't want that. No, but oh, I went out and got a trainer, and I and I needed a trainer to keep me responsible. hold me responsible. And I did that. And today, I'm down to 203 pounds, awesome. I can deadlift 255 pounds. And I can push a sled for 200 pounds. And I'm in great shape. And it's because I needed help to find the discipline to do it. I had all the motivation to want to get in shape. But you have to you can apply that in the business world and your company. And whatever you're doing is that if you let the discipline slide, the motivation isn't going to carry you.
Gary DeHart
The discipline and that accountability that comes from having a trainer to right. Because he's one he's there, he or she, you know, you know, they're there on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever your time slot is, and they're going to charge you whether you show up or not right. I'll pay it won't go. Right, right. It's not it's not like $2 right. So then do you do that from from the business standpoint, you have like a coach on the business side?
Tim Grant
Twice over the years, I've had business coaches, yeah, for about a year and a half, you know, but a business coach, too, is kind of like a trainer, I guess, is that you realize you get to a point where, hey, they're kind of telling me the same thing. week over week over week, maybe I need to just get out there and do it, what they're trying to tell me that I needed to. And so in both cases, I was like, okay, that that helped. Now, I need to try to do this on my own for a while. And that's kind of what I'm trying to do. Now. I'm trying to I've incorporated soft software's that I use in my business, that kind of force me and hold me accountable to get things done. You know, it's like, somebody recommended about a year ago might have been might have been Murph, I don't know. But somebody said, always clear out your inbox, at the end of the day, by the end of the day, and I do that, and that one little thing has forced me to, you know, they say that with emails, you do one of three things, you either delete it, you file it, or you act on it. And that's what I do.
Gary DeHart
That's a discipline, I'm not that discipline with my inbox, I need to be because it does stuff does back up. Right. And then you you miss things and, and...
Tim Grant
That's what drove me crazy. I remember I'd have like, 100 emails in my inbox. And I just keep bouncing back and forth. Okay, you know, whack a mole, which 1am I going to work on now. And I just realized how much time I was wasting doing that. And I said, okay, I'm gonna follow that advice and do it.
Gary DeHart
Let me ask one more, and that is gonna be talked about a little bit prior to going live. Well, we didn't talk specifically about social media, but we did talk about you know, videos and and your, your showing using video to show products I'm going a lot video social media kind of together, how does your firm How do you guys manage that?
Tim Grant
It's a, it's something you have to dedicate time and energy to. I'm, I'm not so I'm very lackadaisical on the social media presence, in terms of like Facebook, and everything I could be doing in terms of LinkedIn. You know, unfortunately, I'm like a member of a lot of groups that, you know, I haven't checked in a long time. And I should do more of that. But when it comes to the, to the videos, I really enjoy doing those. I like sharing information. So a lot of what we do are more educational how to kind of videos, although, you know, some of them are, are process oriented as well. And I think those those really helped the end users to get something out of the system. And I started that 10 years ago, simply by purchasing Camtasia, which is a video editing program, it's only a couple of $100, you do have to invest a little time in learning tips and tricks, and, you know, and how it works, but it's really not that complicated. And it's kind of fun, because you can get creative with them. You can add effects and music and, and all sorts of things. You know, you're you're telling a story, and you're trying to get an idea across, and that in itself is rather rewarding. And so we've posted quite a few MRP easy videos prior to that were posted a lot of QuickBooks videos. Were soon we've done some MRP easy videos, we're going to do some Accu Matica videos. But it's a it's something where, you know, I tried to dedicate at some time each week, even a script building, or you know, running doing a trial on a video to do that, or the post production on the video. But I find it I find it real rewarding. And in some cases it does lead to lead generation.
Gary DeHart
Right? And where is that? Like where did those said you just said I'm on YouTube under under the company name or how do people find that?
Tim Grant
I have two channels. One is MRP Easy. And the other is you're you're you're putting me on the spot Gary. I have links to QuickBooks inventory, QB or QB inventory I think is the other one. look those up for the channels and you'll find me or look up my name and Tim Grant and and you'll probably find me on there.
Gary DeHart
Yeah. And then if and if somebody wanted to reach out to you because you did tell me prior to to going live here. You kind of you are kind of two ways right? And correct me if I'm wrong, you work direct with with Aunt clients, but then you also have a network or you, you certainly take referrals from other accounting firms that run across clients who do have a special need in inventory or manufacturing that they just can't or don't want to service. They can refer over to you, am I right? On those two things?
Tim Grant
Absolutely. Yeah. We, we work with a lot, you know, the end clients, we get referrals from them. A lot of times of a lot of times, you know, as part of going to those conferences, as part of just outreach, the videos, all of it, you know, when you're, you're you're doing a niche, it's the opposite problem of being a generalist, you know, you've got to find out those specific clients, you know, that are looking for Woodscrews, from Taiwan, you know, and how do they manufacture those. So you, you have to, you have to be out there, it's hard to be an introvert and, and either run a business or, you know, try to be in the niche kind of business, you have to, to really reach out there and make connections. And that's what we do. We talk to a lot of accountants, who will refer us and we pick up the, you know, the clients from there. And hopefully, you know, the clients are talking to the accountants and we get more feedback. And it's a feedback loop. That's, that's how you build a niche businesses, you just, you do a good job for a few people than a few people talk to a few more people. And for you know, you've got a community and I, I kind of like to brag that I spend very little on advertising, because I don't have to now after having done this for 10 years.
Gary DeHart
Yeah, that's fantastic. And so people can find you on YouTube search Tim grant, or Business Solutions providers.
Tim Grant
No, we're at we're at www.businesssp.com. So that's three S's and a p, like in Papa at the end .com.
Gary DeHart
They can find you there. All right. Well, great. Well, I certainly appreciate you taking some time to join us on accounting insiders. And hopefully, you and I should probably talk offline and just see how see, because as I mentioned before, I'd really like to kind of get some niche days going right to where we're going to really stay on top of what's happening in these various niches. And you obviously are, are pretty well versed in that account of inventory manufacturing. So pick your brain. And oh, yeah, absolutely. Now connect you with with Randy Collins from strategies group as well.
Tim Grant
Yeah. All right.
Gary DeHart
Thank you so much.
Tim Grant
Thank you, Gary.
Gary DeHart
Take care.
Tim Grant
Bye bye.
Gary DeHart
Bye bye.