{"id":16304,"date":"2007-06-09T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2007-06-09T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/?p=16304"},"modified":"2015-03-10T18:05:32","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T23:05:32","slug":"capitalizing-on-finding-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/capitalizing-on-finding-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalizing on Finding Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"Forensic accounting firm sees growth as a result of business scandals<\/em><\/p>\n

The Business Journal of Milwaukee
\n<\/em><\/strong>By Jennifer Batog<\/p>\n

Tracy Coenen always pictured herself working in the criminal justice field, perhaps as a prison warden. Then, in her sophomore year studying criminology at Marquette University, she took a course on financial crime investigations and was hooked.<\/p>\n

\"\"She\u2019d always been strong in math, and as a child loved to ask questions. Seven years ago she combined those two loves and formed Sequence Inc., Milwaukee, which provides forensic accounting services to attorneys and their clients.<\/p>\n

Now Coenen is building a strong national reputation in the industry and is expanding her client base to include investors and analysts, as well as clients on the East and West coasts. She uses the Internet, speaking engagements, publishing and advertising to gain name recognition. She also is writing a book on fraud that is expected to come out March 2008.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is if people hear fraud, they\u2019d think of Tracy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Coenen worked as a probation officer, for the Internal Revenue Service, for accounting firm Arthur Andersen as an auditor and for forensic accounting firm Peters & Associates, Milwaukee, before starting Sequence.<\/p>\n

Although she learned a great deal from her early jobs, Coenen said after several years in the corporate world, she realized it would be better to work for herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t meant to be anyone\u2019s employee,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When Coenen started Sequence in 2000, she had no money and no clients. Her start-up costs were minimal \u2014 she bought a laptop computer and a copy machine. She worked out of her home, using a post office box as the company\u2019s address.<\/p>\n

She worked at a temporary agency, did people\u2019s taxes and taught accounting courses at Bryant & Stratton College, Milwaukee, and Concordia University, Mequon, to make ends meet while she got the business going. She was able to give up temping after about five months.<\/p>\n

Coenen opened a Chicago office in 2005, and she\u2019s worked on six to eight cases for clients there.<\/p>\n

In Sequence\u2019s early days, Coenen spent most of her time networking. She attended local chambers of commerce meetings, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce meetings and bar association meetings to build clientele.<\/p>\n

Now, most of her business comes from referrals. She also speaks at conferences around the country, has a blog and contributes to numerous industry publications to drum up business. She spends about $20,000 a year advertising in trade publications in Milwaukee and Chicago.<\/p>\n

Creating perception<\/strong>
\nOne early issue Coenen faced was the perception of being a one-person small business. Because many of the cases Coenen takes can go on for a year or more, clients needed confidence that Sequence would still exist.<\/p>\n

\"\"Having a post office box rather than a physical office hindered the business\u2019 growth somewhat, Coenen said. She moved to an office in Milwaukee\u2019s 3rd Ward in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat made a huge difference,\u201d she said. \u201cI was now a real business. I became smarter in everyone else\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sequence had about five or six cases during its first year. That\u2019s grown to between 15 and 20 cases, Coenen said. The firm\u2019s revenue also has had continued double-digit growth. Coenen expects to see 10 percent to 20 percent growth in revenue this year.<\/p>\n

Luke Chiarelli, an attorney at Mawicke & Goisman S.C., Milwaukee, has worked with Coenen several times over the last six years. He found her through word of mouth, talking with former Arthur Andersen colleagues.<\/p>\n

Chiarelli said he chose Coenen because he was impressed with her strategy for handling the case, which involved re-creating a client\u2019s tax records from scratch because the originals had been destroyed over the years. He also was impressed with her ability to explain her findings in a way that could be understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have someone who has some common sense who can explain why the answer is given a certain way, that\u2019s a true value,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s not hamstrung by past practices, she\u2019s very creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business scandals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Setting up shop just a year before the collapse of Enron and scandals at other large firms such as Tyco and WorldCom helped Coenen\u2019s business, Chiarelli said. Those scandals also made the business community more aware of the chance for fraud, which means more businesses will be looking for the<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will never go out of style,\u201d Chiarelli said. \u201cIdentical stuff happens at the two-person business. When they fail, someone wants to know why, and Tracy has a job forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Coenen is working to expand her clientele and gain more of a national reputation, she still wants to remain small. She has no employees, and plans to keep it that way. She had hired several administrative personnel early on, but realized she didn\u2019t want the responsibility of having employees.<\/p>\n

Now that she\u2019s established, Coenen can be selective about the cases she takes, which makes it easier to balance a diverse client list spread across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy what I do,\u201d she said. \u201cIt can be a grind, but what I really like is finding that smoking gun, that piece that ties it all together. My work is so fun, it\u2019s not really work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forensic accounting firm sees growth as a result of business scandals The Business Journal of Milwaukee By Jennifer Batog Tracy Coenen always pictured herself working in the criminal justice field, perhaps as a prison warden. Then, in her sophomore year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2777,2778],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forensic-accountant","category-media-profiles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Z0e-4eY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}