Chamber Member First to Welcome Businesses
By EMILY RAMSEY
Managing Editor
BUSY CPA: Marvin Krueger sits in his office where he spends his working hours as a CPA and an independent marketer for Melaleuca products. When Krueger isn’t in his office, he can often be found at a business networking event or a ribbon-cutting ceremony put on by the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce or Bixby Metro Chamber of Commerce.
EMILY RAMSEY for GTR Newspapers
Idaho-native and Tulsa Regional Chamber member Marvin Krueger never misses his chance to welcome a new business to the area. He is a reliable constant at the chamber’s ribbon-cutting and business networking events.
Since joining Tulsa’s Chamber of Commerce 15 years ago, as a member of the hospitality club, Krueger has attended more ribbon-cutting ceremonies than he could ever count.
Besides the enjoyment that he gets from meeting chamber members and learning about new businesses, Krueger also appreciates the opportunity to expand his own businesses.
Krueger splits his time between his Melaleuca business, where he is an independent marketing executive, and his work as a certified public accountant ().
He has been using Melaleuca products for more than 20 years—”ever since I used the products the first time, learned that they were not toxic and less expensive,” Krueger says. “And I found they really worked well.”
He remembers using one of the company’s many “green” cleaning products on the kitchen stove hood of a rental home that had been seriously neglected and watching the hood change colors as the residue was removed.
That impression remained with him; he also began using Melaleuca’s nutritional products and soon started marketing them.
As a , Krueger currently works with more than 100 clients. He mostly deals with taxes but serves as a financial consultant for some.
His path to self employment, however, as most journeys, involved many twists and turns.
After receiving his accounting degree from the University of Idaho, Krueger worked for 21 years with Weyerhaeuser Company in many parts of the country as an internal auditor and eventually as region controller for the mid-south in Hot Springs, Ark. Since then, he has served as a controller for an oil-and-gas equipment manufacturer in Tulsa, a vice president of financial services with a real estate developer in Bella Vista, Ark., and a business manager with a Tulsa architectural firm.
Krueger began his tax and accounting practice in Rogers, Ark. After five years, he sold his practice and moved to Tulsa, although he maintained a small number of clients. As he worked for the architectural firm in Tulsa, he saw staff being cut daily and, therefore, decided to continue to build his tax and accounting practice, which he has continued today.
He also continues his work with Melaleuca in an effort to remain diversified and build various streams of income.
There is no doubt, though, that the need for Krueger’s accounting skills will remain. “Over 90 percent of the population hate it (accounting), some tolerate it, and there are some who enjoy it,” says Krueger, who defines himself as one who enjoys it—as long as his clients maintain accurate records. “It’s only tolerable when clients don’t keep good records.”
Tax accounting, on the other hand, he views as an art form and not a science.
“There are different ways to present the data you are given,” he says. “There are a lot of intricacies; the tax code is huge, and it gets really complicated. Most people don’t want anything to do with it.”
Both of Krueger’s businesses are what he terms “relationship businesses.”
“I am thankful for my loyal clients and customers,” he says. Besides the Tulsa Regional Chamber where he has been named volunteer of the year five times, Krueger is also a member of other local organizations, including the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa, Bixby Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma Society of s and The A Team Networking Group.
Krueger has three children: two sons in the Tulsa metro area and a daughter in the Dallas area, as well as three grandchildren. While Krueger has lived in many places, he has been in Tulsa since the early 1990s.
“Tulsa is a great place to live,” he says, “and a good central location for me. It’s not a big city but feels like a smaller town because you get to know a lot of people.”
Updated 10-04-2013
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