SOMETHING happens “when preparation meets opportunity.” Is it luck? Is it true success? We call it God’s gracious fulfillment of a desire.

The history of Tuning Accounting is really the career history of its President, Kermit Tuning. Kermit’s dream is—present tense—to own and operate an accounting business. Arriving at the dream has taken patience, preparation, networking, and at least a little—but very little—risk-taking. Very honestly, Kermit sees himself as an anti-risk-taker! As a matter of fact, one of the reasons he enjoys accounting is that he can fix his mistakes with a journal entry, usually. To Kermit, risk-taking is for day-traders, astronauts and surgeons.

PREPARATION & THE BIRTH OF THE DREAM
After graduating from high school in 1971, Kermit took a year to work, save, and think about his future. Then he continued to work, try to save more, and think about his future some more as he attended Link’s School of Business, in Boise, Idaho, where he completed a course of study in accounting at the end of 1973. He graduated with more than a diploma, but with the dream of owning and running an accounting business.

GETTING A FOOT IN THE DOOR
Kermit’s roots run deep within the farming community of the Boise Valley, so the most natural place to begin his business career was with what he knew, which was farming. Today’s term is agri-business. Appropriately, in 1974 and still in Idaho, he began working in the office of a farm implement dealership. He continued working in agri-business after moving to Iowa for some Bible training, where he also met his future wife, Renee, a Pennsylvania farm girl.

MORE PREPARATION
June, 1978, found Kermit and Renee moving to western Pennsylvania, where Kermit began performing day-to-day accounting for a multi-company enterprise in the coal mining industry. In ten years, Kermit was promoted to company controller, and he would remain there until 1996. The controller position stretched Kermit’s abilities, demanding that he manage matters of budgets, payrolls, insurances, employees and benefits, and whatever else landed on his desk.

MORE AND MORE PREPARATION
Aside from the controller position, Kermit’s professional abilities were being challenged and developed within other spheres of business, too. He and Renee could never have known that his future career would be drastically affected by her attendance at DuBois Business College for a few months in 1980. When the accounting instructor announced that he would be teaching the annual H&R Block tax preparation course, Kermit enrolled, hoping to gain more knowledge in his field. The next four tax seasons, evenings and Saturdays were spent acquiring tax experience as he worked for H&R Block. There, Kermit prepared taxes side-by-side with fellow worker Larry. Soon, Larry would build his own tax practice, and the two would work together again, with Kermit compiling information for tax returns for Larry for another couple of years, “on the side.” And their career paths would cross yet again.

EVEN MORE PREPARATION
Meanwhile, Kermit was learning that, to thrive in the accounting world, he would need more than mere knowledge of computers. Only genuine computer savvy would enable him to stay on the cutting edge of his profession. So, in 1987, he took an introductory course to computers—and the rest is history, Kermit’s affair with computers. Like a duck to water, Kermit operates with computers like they are second nature to him.

CHANGE OF VENUE
By the mid-90s western Pennsylvania’s coal mining industry had taken a nosedive. At the beginning of 1996, Kermit was the sole remaining office employee of the coal company, and in the spring he laid himself off. At that point he had to plow forward to unearth another chance to ply his trade. This time he landed in the hardwood lumber industry. Again he was eventually entrusted with the controller position in a multi-company environment, where he worked for five years.

THE DOOR OPENS
Then one day, the opportunity of a lifetime knocked on the door—or rather, rang on the phone. Larry was looking for a buyer for the accounting end of his business, which had grown and now included other financial services. Would Kermit be interested? Oh, was Kermit interested! With an agreement made, Tuning Accounting Services was born. That was September, 2001.

Since then, Tuning Accounting has undergone major changes—advances, really. We have incorporated. Renee, with a B. S. in Business Education, is on staff as Office Manager. Tuning Accounting has expanded its services to include payroll preparation, supervised by Renee. We have added a team member cross-trained in accounting, data entry, and payroll. Another part-time employee or two simply file, scan and shred, so that information is efficiently stored in network and flows easily through our office.

Perhaps the greatest change for Tuning Accounting dawned via Kermit’s 2005 decision to convert all current client accounting data to QuickBooks. He more than “took the plunge.” He dove in, deeply. Today, as for the past several years, he is certified as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and he continues to gain new certifications as updated software versions become available from software vendors.

LIVING THE DREAM
The dream has come true! Kermit Tuning owns an accounting business. Kermit is his own boss, yet he works for every single client who enters our door. But he has created the ultimate opportunity, being in control of his own destiny. This dream consists of hard work and long hours, every one of them for himself and at his choosing. “Do what you love, and love what you do.” That is the dream!
PS THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH The Rest of the Story ABOUT KERMIT BECOMING AN ENROLLED AGENT.