The longtime head of Minnesota’s largest accounting firm (it has offices in 13 states) says that “we are clearly focused on helping our clients through these tough economic times. Our clients are under stress, trying to deal with the significant changes that are taking place in the financial markets and the banking industry, the regulatory environment, the ever-changing tax policy proposals, and, of course, the economy in general.”
Many of LarsonAllen’s clients, Viere notes, have “no experience of [a recession this strong] in their business careers, and for others it’s been a long, long time.” He expects a challenging year ahead.
Viere says that the national government isn’t providing much real help. “It’s almost as if the [political] leadership has set a sense of confusion, a sense of crisis, a sense of ‘This is really a bad situation,’” he says. “And therefore it’s very difficult for our clients to get back to the psyche of ‘Let’s invest in the future, let’s grow our business,’ because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
