Q. How long has Steele Consulting been in business?
A. Steele Consulting was founded February, 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia. The company has expanded over the years and now has offices in Atlanta, San Jose, Detroit and New York City.
Q. What are typical Steele Consulting engagements?
A. Companies contact Steele Consulting when they need highly qualified and affordable resources/loan staff to assist during critical times of need (e.g., mergers and acquisitions, amended returns, special projects, loss of personnel due to retirements or resignations, tax law changes requiring additional work, etc.). Because our consultants are held in the highest esteem by our clients, over the years, many of our assignments have turned into co-sourcing arrangements.
Q. What is the level of experience of a typical Steele consultant?
A. Our employees have over 7 years of experience and most have over 15 years of combined former Big 4 and Fortune 1000 company experience. By contrast, large public accounting firms typically send a consultant with approximately two years of experience to work in a client’s tax department on a “loan staff” basis.
Q. How are affiliate consultants associated with the firm and how are they vetted?
A. Our affiliates are consultants who have worked with the firm on multiple projects and many have actually worked as an employee of the firm at some point in their careers. Affiliates are thoroughly researched and meet all of the high standards that all Steele consultants have to meet.
Q. It seems most of your employees have prior leadership experience. Are they willing to do all levels of work?
A. Yes, although our employees are highly experienced, they are willing to perform all levels of work. You are provided a highly skilled tax consultant at extremely competitive rates. Our clients are consistently surprised by the value they receive from Steele Consulting.
Q. What other responsibilities do your consultants have outside of serving clients?
A. Our consultants serve one client at a time and do not have administrative or marketing responsibilities. This enables our consultants to focus on the engagement and deliver consistent results. By contrast, consultants at large public accounting firms are often assigned to multiple clients and must perform administrative and marketing services.
Q. I recognize some of the consultants on your website and I am impressed by the talent you have recruited to your firm. How are you able to recruit and retain such talented resources?
A. Steele’s consultants are salaried employees with excellent benefits. In addition, while some of our consultants work full-time, we welcome candidates who require more flexible work schedules due to family or other commitments. We discuss our consultants’ schedules with the client before the engagement begins and our clients have overwhelmingly respected our consultants’ schedules. As a result, our consultants are loyal to the firm and turnover is low.
Q. Do you recruit Steele Consultants from your clients?
A. No, although we are often asked by our clients’ employees whether there are open positions at Steele Consulting, we do not recruit consultants from our clients. We believe recruiting consultants from our clients is a violation of the trust you place in the Firm.
Q. What if another client requests a consultant assigned to my company?
A. We never remove a consultant from one assignment to work on another assignment. In addition, towards the end of each assignment we verify whether the client needs to extend the engagement before we begin the process of placing the consultant on his/her next engagement.
Q. Will your consultants work remotely?
A. Yes. Although most assignments are performed at the client’s office, we have successfully performed remote assignments. In fact, we have some consultants who only work remotely and have been successful maintaining the high level of service our clients demand and deserve.
