Essex and Associates moves, expands

Dayton Business Journal - by Mary Beth Lehman DBJ Staff Reporter

Accounting firm Essex and Associates Inc. has relocated its headquarters to Washington Township as it continues to add staff.

For its new offices, the 23-person company is leasing 7,000 square feet in the former Republic Bank building on Paragon Road.

The firm, which moved from Beavercreek in the last few weeks, has attributed the growth to its new human resources division, Essex HR, which was created in July. The company has added six employees since then and is looking to add another 36 in the next three years.

The new location, which is six times larger than Essex’s previous space, is visible from Interstate 675, which was part of the draw for the company. Although the space had been previously occupied by Republic Bank, it had been sitting vacant.

To capitalize on the building’s visibility, Essex purchased naming rights, and the building will be renamed the Essex HR building in the next few weeks.

“My goal is for this to be no longer known as the Republic Bank building,” said Don Martin, sales director for Essex HR.

Martin joined President Don Hutchinson and Owner Wayne Essex in the business this summer. Hutchinson has hired six human resources employees since the firm opened in July, is actively hiring three more and is on a mission to add an employee per month for the next three years.

When Hutchinson started the division, he set goals of growing Essex HR employees to 40, having revenue of $100 million and signing 300 clients, all by 2010.

Hutchinson said the company is on track to meet its business plan goals on schedule.

He expects Essex HR to have $50 million in revenue by the end of next year.

Off-site human resource firms reach out to small and medium-sized businesses. Companies outsource to these firms — also called professional employer organizations, or PEOs — everything from administering payroll and paying employment-related taxes, to risk management, recruiting, providing health benefits and securing workers’ compensation coverage. This way, businesses are able to focus on their tasks while firms such as Essex HR can take care of the daily employer operations.

Because this can free up time for companies to focus on revenue-building operations, PEOs tend to find success in a down economy, according to the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, based in Alexandria, Va.

“If you’re spending 20 percent to 30 percent of your time on those (back-of-the-house) functions, you are not working on generating revenue 110 percent of your day,” said Milan Yager, NAPEO’s executive vice president.

Yager said it’s difficult to open any new business in a recession, but as a PEO, Essex has an advantage because it is working in an industry that is largely untapped.

The biggest thing a new company has to compete against, he said, is fear of the unknown and convincing small businesses that have always handled business operations one way to see the advantages of outsourcing.

Combined with the accounting functions already in place at Essex, Wayne Essex said he is counting on Essex HR to have a competitive advantage. The accounting firm has more than 1,000 clients, and there already has been significant crossover of accounting clients and human resources clients starting business with the other side of the house.

“Our biggest challenge is controlled growth,” Essex said. “We just don’t want to grow too quick.”

Wishing you many happy returns,

Dr. Wayne T. Essex