Research Proposal

• · Analyze the beliefs of small business owners about the services provided by their CPAs.
• · Gauge small business owner's attitudes towards CPAs.
• · Determine the kind of tax advice offered by CPAs to small business owners.
• · Identify other services provided by a CPA. ·
• Measure the overall satisfaction of small business owners with CPAs.

The survey research will be conducted by mailing a questionnaire to a total of 900 small business owners operating in Houston, Dallas and Austin. Topics addressed by the questionnaire include

•  Identifying types of services typically provided by a CPA.
• · Obtaining information about the level of sophistication used by CPAs in tax avoidance for small business owners.
• · Probe small business owners on their plans to hire a financial planner.
• · Estimate the awareness of small business owners about new tax bills.

Systematic sampling procedure will be adopted for this project. Every 15th address will be selected from the directory list of small businesses for each city. This ensures a uniform and random selection of the sample from the population. A sample size of 300 is used for each city.

Data Collection

Mail surveys will be used for data collection

Statistical Analysis

Based on the type of scaled response, appropriate statistical methods will be used and inferences made. However, given the type of scales which will be used, a substantial part of the analysis will focus on frequencies, relative frequencies and cross-tabulations. We propose to SAS as the tool for statistical analysis because of the range of inbuilt functions available and ease of use.

Project Report

A detailed written project report will be submitted and an oral presentation of the findings can be made by us. The written project will include of the following

• Executive Summary
• Research Purpose
• Research Design
• Results
• Implications
• Illustrative Graphs
• Appendices

The project will be completed within a period of 8 weeks from the time the information requirements are provided by the sponsor. The cost of the project is expected to be $5,000.