For instance, there's a controller for a Midwest manufacturing firm who saved her company hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liabilities by digging into research and development costs. One independent CPA is developing a system to help small business assess strategic business risks. Another is building a unit within his firm to handle the management and succession issues surrounding large local family businesses.

At the same time, small businesses are adopting new technologies and new ways of doing business faster then ever before. The surge has been noticed by the biggest companies, such as IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, and American Express. They are all looking at the same research that small business accountants should be looking at.

One Fortune 500 analyst is keying on four main drivers for growth in the small business sector. They are:

• Small businesses are getting smarter about using technology.

• Small businesses are feeling the pressures of e-business all around them and wondering what to do; and

• Small businesses don't fear the Internet anymore,

• Partly because they are finding more and more uses for the Web as the offerings available online expand exponentially.

In addition, data from Cahners In-Stat shows that, when asked about their weightiest challenges, small business owners worry most about generating revenues, coping with change and finding and keeping employees. But they are also crimped for resources of all sorts: time, money, technological and technical expertise, and staff.

Increasingly, they are turning to technology and the Internet for solutions. When asked what the Web might be best be used for, 52 percent said sales and marketing activities, 40 percent said for finding new customers, 32 percent said coping with change, and 20 percent said finding new staff.

The small business universe is growing, too. This year, some 7.4 million small businesses with at least one employee will be in operation, a net 2 percent gain from last year.

And they are getting wired. The year 2000 opened with 6.4 million of the 7.4 million small businesses using personal computers, up 9 percent from the year before. Of those, 2.5 million were on local area networks, a 15 percent increase; 4.6 million were using the Internet, up 27 percent; 1.7 million had their own Web sites, up 20 percent, and 600,000 were trading in e-commerce, a 24 percent gain.

Their technology spending alone is huge. By one calculation, the small businesses with one to four employees represent 12.1 million workers in 3.8 million enterprises, each of which is spending $12,900 a year on hardware, software and soft costs. One level up, at the companies with five to nine employees, there are 1.2 million enterprises with 10.3 million employees spending $21,500 each. At the 10-to-49-employee level, 1.1 million enterprises employing 25.3 million workers are spending $47,000 per company.

In fact, Internet access for small business is fast reaching the saturation point. Today only 10 percent of the remaining small businesses are developing new plans to get on-line, down from 17 percent a year ago. And 19 percent have no plans at all to get on-line, roughly the same as last year's 22 percent. Dun & Bradstreet has reported that 53 percent of small business said the Web has had "no impact" on their operations, with 30 percent saying it has helped improve their business. The rest don't know or don't care.

To the Fortune 500, those statistics suggest small business is ready to take the next step in electronic business, which could involve conducting strategic research, switching to Net-based fax and phone services; handling customer support via the Web, or coordinating projects and collaborating on line.

To the small business accountant, it all suggests a host of opportunities.

Write Rick Telberg at information@smartpros.com