| By Scott H. Cytron, ABC
That’s exactly what Anton Donde did when he first realized the future was better served by following his entrepreneurial desires rather than continue working for other companies.
Today, as CEO of SpeedTax, Donde heads up a company that has kept up with leading technologies by using a Software as a Service model to provide sales tax compliance in jurisdictions across the United States.
“When I was at school, I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur and control my own destiny and build companies,” he says. “I went to a university to become a CPA, and while I was getting my accounting degree, I learned about computers. I thought the combination of computers and accounting was a good skill set to have.” |
Anton Donde, CEO of SpeedTax |
While working in South Africa in consulting positions, his short-term goal was to build his bank account; the long-term goal was a bit more exciting: to discover how he could help businesses grow through strategic influence and hard work.
“With my skill set in computers and accounting, I sat down with a white board to define the attributes of a company, and came up with a payroll processing bureau.”
Building a Business
Originally called “Daton” (he and his wife’s name combined), his payroll company began similarly to how many entrepreneur’s start. Donde worked out of his one-bedroom apartment, writing the code at night, and handling sales, customer service and payroll delivery during the day.
That was in 1985. Fast forward nine years. In 1994, the company went public and the name was changed to PayUSA. Along the way, the cornerstone of his business remained customer retention, an attribute that would become even more important years later with SpeedTax.
“This was a time when we were small and personally in touch with all of our clients,” says Donde. “When you’re the owner, you are the passion that goes hand-in-hand with success. Many companies, however, face their biggest challenge when they grow and neglect the ‘passion’ by becoming more and more removed from client activities.
“How do you institutionalize the customer service attitude the owner has to your employees?,” he continues. “In essence, it boils down to an extreme focus on the kind of people you hire. After a rigorous hiring process, a key attribute is to train and evaluate your people. For example, every week for a month new employees received a three to four page report from their manager.”
Donde strongly believes in taking care of his employees. He regularly rewarded them with bonuses, but more than compensation, he offered two-way communication and continuous training. He says this comprehensive range of activities made everyone realize how important they were and how the company valued them.
Risk and Reward
One of today’s most admirable traits of a service provider in the business marketplace is to tackle “risk” head on and minimize its likelihood. SpeedTax was built around this thinking.
Donde began thinking about starting SpeedTax in August 2006. He incorporated the business in May 2007, and with its corporate office in Laguna Hills, Calif., the company now has 15 employees.
“Around the clock, our clients must deal with compliance issues, and since virtually all companies outsource their payroll, there is enormous risk in ensuring the payroll, paying taxes and filing concerns are properly handled,” he says. “The cost of complying with sales tax is exorbitant, and the states pursuing sales tax legislation know they can only collect a fraction of what’s out there. As a result, the industry – from a compliance point of view – is in its infancy.”
Enter the concept of Software as a Service.
“The Software as a Service environment allows us to create a brand new product. Our clients don’t have to install or maintain any systems because they are managed remotely, with all data and software managed for them. Simpler and less expensive, you’re going to see even more SaaS initiatives coming about, especially in accounting because CPAs are very comfortable with this technology.”
Software updates, especially something as detailed as sales tax compliance, typically bog down a system, but with SpeedTax’s SaaS model, Donde says clients like the fact that his company handles all changes. SpeedTax maintains one set of rules and regulations, so the SaaS model is a much simpler business model.
In addition, SpeedTax’s partnerships with Sage, Microsoft and Intuit’s QuickBooks are beneficial for end users who don’t need to find the sales tax solution elsewhere. And, because these vendors are working on their own versions of SaaS, Donde believes SpeedTax is perfectly positioned for the future.
“Our clients are using our calculation engine, a real-time SaaS engine to calculate sales tax in real time,” he says. “The only way to do that effectively in volume is to integrate with various software packages. For example, if you’re working with a Sage product, the system automatically calls out to SpeedTax to perform the calculations.”
SpeedTax’s primary goal is to be a substantial player in the sales tax space over the next five years, a goal Donde believes is made possible through his experience in the payroll industry and customer service.
“The two key attributes we want to explain to the market are, first, customer service is not great in our industry, and second, we have one of the state-of-the-art technologies in place. Entrepreneurs sense opportunity and build their solutions – that’s what SpeedTax is all about.”