Small Business Defined
The term “small business” is defined in numerous ways by numerous organizations. For example, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council all use varying parameters to clarify what constitutes a small business.
Sometimes a small business is determined using total assets, sometimes total revenue, and sometimes the number of employees is counted.
One fact is certain: there is no agreed upon, universally accepted definition for what qualifies as a small business. Using all the different considerations of definition, approximately 99% of businesses in the United States can be labeled “small businesses”.
This creates an enormous community of companies with extreme diversity in structure, goals, and creativity. As your business is uniquely different, so are your needs for internal control.
Issues Unique to the Small Business Community
The problems associated with "how" to design an
effective small business internal control structure/anti-fraud
program are unique. Even a business with one employee
can do certain things to accomplish a more effective
program.
Large public companies have the benefit of
internal control information and control-related
directives associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,
and the resulting Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (PCAOB). Our experience strongly demonstrates the need for additional internal control guidance for small private companies that are not legally required to comply with these guides.
How Can We Help?
Our forensic services include the performance of services for financial institutions, governmental entities, non-profit organizations, and a multitude of other "mom and pop" type businesses. Within businesses with one employee to thousands of employees, we have witnessed the repetitive breakdowns and/or weaknesses in small business internal controls that have led to numerous occurrences of internal fraud.
Thus it is with our experiences that we desire to educate small businesses - each with unique challenges - in the proper design, implementation, and operation of internal control / anti-fraud programs.