December 2016 | Business View Magazine

24 25 S ean Manning, CEO and Founder of Payroll Vault, began his accounting career in 1990, when he joined his father’s accounting firm, Robert C. Manning, P.C., which, at the time, was focused on serving small businesses with accounting, tax preparation, and a little bit of payroll support. In 1998, he purchased the company from his father and re-brand- ed it as Manning & Company, P.C. “In 2008, I saw a need for a separate brand in order to help small businesses with their payroll function,” Manning recalls.“We’d already been asked to do payroll for about 70 clients through the accounting firm, and we saw that as an expansion opportunity. So, we created a payroll company that could really serve the small business owner in a boutique style service versus the larger companies that were out there. That brand matured very rapidly in our local market, and, as a result, and because of my affiliation with the accounting industry, we were asked, not only to speak about our success, but to position ourselves to help other accounting firms, or people that wanted to own a business, into the payroll service opportunity.” “We had a pretty incredible team and we were ready to PAYROLL VAULT help support that idea,” Manning continues.“And after researching for the best possible solu- tion, in early 2012, we decided the best way to help other people was to give them everything we had already developed, including the name, and the brand, and all the resources behind it. So, we decided to franchise, knowing that there was already a market of people who were interested in becoming a part of the franchise concept as franchisees.We had three or four franchises that very first year, and we expanded from that point. Now, after four years, we have 28 locations in 14 states, and are positioned to grow at a pretty rapid rate.” Initially, Manning says that most of his franchisees had accounting backgrounds, but currently, almost half are people in the services industry with skills in human resources and marketing, and maybe just a little bit of experience with accounting, payroll, and/or bookkeep- ing.“Our current prospect has a fairly diverse skill set,” he says.“They can be operationally very proficient; they can be proficient with sales and marketing; or they might even be proficient in leadership and management. So, our focus is not necessarily a background in accounting - it’s really somebody that has the experience and commitment to running a service business.” Manning says that leads come via the company’s website as well as from its association with Franchise Business Review, the national franchise market research firm that publishes positive feedback from Payroll Vault’s current franchisees.“The ratings we have there, and the support through that organization, has led quite a few people to reach out to us,” he remarks. “Also, we just did our first expo, and we have four or five people coming to Discovery Day, just as a result of that.Our concept is so unique, that when people identify with it, they want to know more.We have over 3,000 leads in our system that have either been directly contacted by us, or contacted us.Having awarded less than 30 franchises,we have been fairly selective in developing AT A GLANCE PAYROLL VAULT WHAT: A national leader in payroll and workforce services WHERE: Greenwood Village, Colorado WEBSITE: www. payrollvault.com