YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – On his first day as the owner of his own accounting firm, George M. Bellish found himself sitting in his office with zero accounting to do and zero clients to do it for. So, he decided to hit the pavement.
“First year I did 1,700 cold-calls. Just walking from business to business and asking if they needed an accountant,” Bellish recalls. “There was no social media 40 years ago.”
By the end of his first year, Bellish says he had about 30 clients. His firm, Capital Business Strategies, was up and running.
Bellish, who had previously honed his expertise as a controller for a Caterpillar dealer in Columbus, recognized an untapped potential in offering specialized accounting services to small and medium-sized businesses.
“There were a lot of concerns because the steel mills were shutting down,” he says.
In fact, many of his CPA friends were cautioning him against opening the firm.
“But it actually was a good time because there were people who were getting laid off and they started starting businesses and we specialize in small to medium-sized businesses.”
So at age 26, Bellish moved back to the Mahoning Valley with his wife to take advantage of an opportunity at the Capital Business Strategies office in Boardman.
Initially operating as a franchise, Capital Business Strategies broke away from its parent company and became part of the Professional Association of Small Business Accountants.
Bellish was able to hire a bookkeeper and a supervisor so he could focus on increasing the business.
“You have to decide if you want to be inside doing the taxes or outside doing the marketing. So I chose the marketing side,” he says.
The business grew and moved its offices to Warren. In 2000, Bellish designed and built the 5,000-square-foot building on East Market Street that houses the offices.
In 2018, Tom Cimoric moved back to the area from Pittsburgh and began working for Bellish at the firm.
“He asked me if I would be interested in owning a CPA firm. Sounded great,” Cimoric says.
Ten months later, Cimoric purchased a stake in Capital Business Strategies. He purchased the entirety of the business last January.
“He’s like a son to me. So I try to take care of him,” Bellish says. “If I set him up for success, I get to be successful too.”
The new partnership quickly encountered significant hurdles, with Bellish saying the pandemic was one of the most challenging times his firm ever faced.
“It wasn’t from lack of work. It was from too much work,” Bellish says.
Capital Business Strategies began to help clients with their Paycheck Protection Program submissions at no charge.
Then they started working with clients on loan forgiveness applications and the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).
“We’re still doing stuff for the ERC four years later,” Bellish says.
Today, Capital Business Strategies employs 16 people across two locations: the Warren office and the Boardman office, which the firm purchased in 2018 and where Bellish originally worked.
“It’s kind of come full circle,” Bellish says.
As far as future plans, “For me it’s spending more time in Florida,” Bellish says.
“I’ll try to go down and see him once in a while,” Cimoric adds.
When he’s back home, Cimoric will be eyeing ways to help grow the business.
“I’d like to have one or two more offices and try to expand out to Pennsylvania,” he says.
“We just want to keep helping the small businesses.”
Pictured at top: George M. Bellish sold Capital Business Strategies to Tom Cimoric in January.