Bert Doerhoff and “Six Steps to Small Business Success”
Jan 12, 2012
by Lindsey Miller
With nearly 40 years of accounting experience, Bert Doerhoff, owner of Aura Wealth Advisors in Jefferson City, Mo., has helped an array of small businesses open their front doors. With his four-step model, including accumulation, transition, independence and legacy, Doerhoff, ensures success. Although hetoo has followed his four steps to success, he denies that he has achieved the S-word.
“When you think you’ve succeeded at something you are in trouble,” Doerhoff said. “Everything in life is a work in progress.”
After graduating from college in 1976, Doerhoff set his sights on a large Certified Public Accounting firm outside his hometown of St. Elizabeth, Mo. Doerhoff spent the next two and a half years in Albuquerque, N.M.until he decided to head back to mid-Missouri and open his own CPA firm in Jefferson City.
With the expectation that clients would be beating his door down to be served, Doerhoff quickly realized that simply was not the case.
Building trust in Jefferson City would take time and effort. “You have to do what you can to exceed the expectations of your clients,” Doerhoff said. “If you do an average job people won’t tell anyone.”
Looking for new avenues to service small businesses, Doerhoff, founded Accupay Automated Payroll Service which small businesses in 40 states now have access to. In addition to opening the door to his payroll firm, Doerhoff, transitioned into the wealth management business when he opened Aura Wealth Advisors.
With the belief that those who get involved in business are good at something, Doerhoff, hopes to enhance the success of small businesses throughout Jefferson City. While all businesses are different, he said, owners must take similar steps to thrive, and that Doerhoff said is what he is good at.
Doerhoff along with four other CPA’s, took this notion of helping all small businesses succeed and wrote the book “Six Steps to Small Business Success.” A self-help manual that all business owners can learn from, Doerhoff said.
After opening three businesses during his lifetime and co-writing a book, Doerhoff, has not accepted that he has succeeded because his life is still a work in progress.
Watch his story now:
