THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701180830
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 52 lines
If anything about John T. Hewitt has changed since his departure from Jackson Hewitt Inc., it's not his demeanor.
The tax-preparation company's 47-year-old founder and former chief executive officer still fires off percentages, dates and business anecdotes in the same machine-gun manner.
Asked to assess his tenure as CEO of the Virginia Beach-based company, he still displays the same brashness: ``I'd say it was extraordinary.''
``In a decade, we went from 22 stores to almost 1,400 stores in 40 states,'' Hewitt said. ``We got agreements to put Jackson Hewitt stores in Wal-Marts and Montgomery Wards. We negotiated deals with Chemical Bank, Republic Bank and Banc One. I made a lot of people a lot of money.''
That was before Hewitt was forced out because of differences with some directors on the Jackson Hewitt board. Last July, he stepped down as CEO, and he left the company late last year.
But Hewitt, who lives in Virginia Beach, hasn't left the tax-preparation business. With help from a handful of former Jackson Hewitt employees, he has been organizing a company to provide tax-preparation services outside the United States.
The first stop will be Canada. Then England and Australia. Hewitt said he recently spoke with a tax-preparation company in Calgary about forming a joint venture to sell franchises in Canada.
Hewitt, who has agreed not to compete with Jackson Hewitt for two years, said he has no plans to do business in the United States.
His experience at Jackson Hewitt left him with two lessons, Hewitt said. One was to maintain voting control of a company. The other was to be wary of venture capital.
``With venture capitalists, if you don't make your numbers, you change the management,'' he said.
``The venture capitalist's attitude is: `How are you going to pay me back in five years? I don't care about 10 years from now or 20 years from now.' ''
Hewitt said he expects to invest $500,000 of his own money in the new company, dubbed JTH Tax Inc., and to raise as much as $1.5 million from a few private investors.
But the most important ingredient, he said, will be a fanatical devotion to customer service.
Hewitt said he has been reading the book ``Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.'' This combination of corporate history and inspirational instructions has chapters on ``Celebrating People with Big Hearts'' and ``The Art of Celebrating Milestones: Revel in your Accomplishments.''
``It's the way I ran Jackson Hewitt,'' Hewitt declared. ``You have to have a culture. Unfortunately, I lost control of the votes and the culture changed.''