Staying flexible is key to surviving pandemic, says OSCPA board member

By Jessica Salerno, OSCPA senior content manager 

When it comes to the business community working together during the pandemic, Lori Kaiser, CPA, founder of Kaiser Consulting, brought up a familiar game that children play. 

“When we were in grade school, you called ‘red rover, red rover’ and called somebody over and they tried to break the chain of everyone holding hands,” she said. “To keep the chain strong, you all have to support each other. Staying strong and working together will help us keep the pandemic and the virus under control.” 

Reflecting on the impact 2020 had on her business, Kaiser, an OSPCA Executive Committee Board member, said Kaiser Consulting ebbed and flowed with their clients as they adjusted to a “new normal,” and had a period of about three to four months when not all employees were fully utilized. 

“We tried to pivot to create internal projects to ensure meaningful work was still being done,” she said. “It was a year of pivoting and trying to stay flexible and accommodate both our clients’ needs and our employee team member needs.” 

The unique circumstances of the pandemic reinforced how people matter most, Kaiser said, and keeping the business strong meant supporting people. 

“We're a service business. So, we've always thought that our people matter,” she said. “But this year, even more, we really tried to focus on every single one of our team members. They had all these things going on in their home lives that impacted their work lives. And so, we just took a one-on-one approach with every single one of our team members to say where are you at right now? Can you take on more work or do you need to give up work? And we really worked as a team to still meet all our client needs.” 

Kaiser Consulting along with The Ohio Society of CPAs is part of the Coalition to Stop the Spread, a group of more than 150 Ohio businesses and organizations making efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Wearing masks, social distancing and doing as much as you can virtually are all key parts of those efforts. 

Kaiser said her business keeps up to date on information released from the CDC to ensure office procedures and employees are properly informed. Keeping the team on the same page with information can help the decision-making process as things evolve. 

“We really believe that the sooner we can get the pandemic under control, the sooner we can get our economy back to a thriving and growing place,” she said. “Which is really the best for everybody."