By Casey Neill
In a rare occurrence, Roy Sanderson was lost for words at the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.
His accounting firm RJ Sanderson received the Large Business Award at a cocktail event at Greyhounds Entertainment in Springvale on Wednesday 30 November.
“Honestly, I thought ‘that can’t be us’ because we only just started a mere … 25 years ago,” he said.
“I’m a bit speechless.”
In 1993, Mr Sanderson was working in construction and doing tax returns from home.
His wife was pregnant with their third child and told him to sell his 300 or so clients or open a practice.
They mortgaged their house to the limit and he opened the first public accountants in Australia to offer on-the-spot refunds.
Within three months Mr Sanderson had doubled his ‘what if’ business plan target and about 10 years in decided to open five more offices in three months.
There are now nine RJ Sanderson offices around Victoria – in Albury, Berwick, Cranbourne, Dandenong, Epping, Frankston, Pakenham, Wangaratta and Werribee.
Mr Sanderson said staff selection and innovation were the keys to his success.
He believes that if he looks after his staff with money, relationships and training they will look after the clients.
More than a quarter of RJ Sanderson staff have worked with the company for more than 10 years.
Mr Sanderson said accountants were generally poor at marketing and prides himself on bucking that trend.
The business gives clients stress balls stamped with “take the stress out of tax” and business card-shaped USB drives containing a rental property analysis program.
RJ Sanderson has expanded its services to not only taxation and accounting but RJS Loan Solutions and RJS Wealth Management.
Another innovation is paperless tax returns, where clients can sign their forms on a tablet.
Mr Sanderson said more offices were likely in the future, and Australian Stock Exchange listing is his lofty goal.
