Sam Arraj, Seeds Co, country music, and Sharbot Lake

Jeff Green | Sep 13, 2017

Sam Arraj was working as a senior manager at the accounting firm of G&G in Toronto, where he had built up a clientele over the years. Since he is a country music fan, he had been drafted onto the board of the Ontario County Music Association since “not-for-profit boards are always looking for people with financial experience” and in that role he continued to pick up more and more clients in the entertainment industry.

In 2016 he saw a for sale listing for an accounting business based in Sharbot Lake, Seeds and Company, and he thought about leaving Toronto behind and maybe starting a family with his wife in a less hectic location.
“I had seen the way many firms in Toronto were outsourcing their work to places like India and the Philippines and thought that it could be possible to outsource work to Sharbot Lake instead.”
When he looked into Seeds and Company, he found it was a very solid second generation business, started by David Seeds and carried on by his son Ryan, with a good local and regional clientele.

Since taking over the business in November of 2016, Arraj has been pleased not only with the reception in Sharbot Lake, but also with the opportunities to carry on with his existing clients and expand the reach of Seeds and Company in Kingston and Toronto.
“We have been investing in staffing and technology to make Sharbot Lake a strong head office where the work gets done, with satellite offices elsewhere.”

A new computer server is coming online to increase the capacity of the four member staff in the Sharbot Lake office, and Arraj is seeking to hire a fifth full time and two seasonal people in the near future, as well as a staff accountant at some point.
Some of his plans mirror the trajectory of the Robinson Group, a Sharbot Lake based mortgage and financial business with clientele from around the world, whose dedicated long-term staff work out of the Simonett building on Road 38.
“There are benefits to working with staff in Sharbot Lake because they are more likely to stay on once they are trained up. We want to have a well paid staff, with benefits and all that, and we are only starting on a growth path.”

Since taking over the business, Arraj has been dedicated to maintaining the existing Seeds clientele, and upgrading the capacity of the office. He said that he has found the local clientele to be generally friendlier and more easy going than his Toronto clients, and conservative in terms of the way they manage their businesses, which he says makes sense given the local economy as compared to that of larger centres.
In the coming months Seeds will begin to do more marketing to seek out new clients, both locally and on a regional and provincial level.
The company offers a full range of accounting and auditing services, as well as book-keeping.

This month, as part of a coming out of sorts for the new Seeds and Company, Sam Arraj has arranged for a free community concert on Saturday, September 23rd from 2pm to 4:30pm featuring the Good Brothers, Amanda Sadler, and Whiskey Saint.
The Good Brothers are a country music institution in Ontario. They have been touring and recording since they released their first record, the Good Brothers in 1971. They received the Country Group of the year Juno award for 8 consecutive years at one point in their career. Among their best known songs is Fox on the Run. They just completed a European Tour late last month and will be performing at the Glenn Gould Studio at CBC headquarters in Toronto next month. The show, set for Sharbot Lake Beach, rain or shine, will be a fitting finale for a summer of events at the beach.
The Sharbot Lake and District Lions will be running a BBQ during the afternoon as well. The company has donated the food and all profits will go to support local Lion’s programming.