New York Accounting Firm’s Philanthropic Efforts Make a Difference in Long Island Community
Posted: October 11, 2011 Filed under: Accountants and Volunteer Work, accountants making a difference, Accounting, Accounting Firms, Accounting news, Accounting Professionals | Tags: accountants, accountants and volunteer work, accounting professionals, NYBKW Charitable Foundation Leave a comment »Lots of accounting firms make charitable contributions to help local organizations in their communities, but Nussbaum, Yates, Berg, Klein & Wolpow, LLP (NYBKW) in Melville, N.Y. has taken philanthropy to a whole new level by formalizing its volunteer efforts and founding the NYBKW Charitable Foundation.
NYBKW assists more than a dozen charitable organizations, including Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, the American Cancer Society, Toys for Children, the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center and the Great Prostate Cancer Challenge Long Island.
What makes this accounting firm unique is its approach to helping these organizations. Rather than just making a monetary contribution, NYBKW and its employees give their free time and take more of a participatory role.
NYBKW employees don’t just collect coats for the local mission during the winter months; they deliver them to the people who need them. They don’t just donate money to Toys for Children; they wrap the presents and hand them out. They don’t just purchase ice cream for the children’s hospital; employees give up their time and push and ice cream cart from door to door, bringing sick children ice cream treats.
“It becomes easy to just write a check, walk away and feel good about yourself,” said Walter Timoshenko, chief operating officer at NYBKW. “But actually physically wrapping presents and scooping ice cream is a whole different type of service.”
Timoshenko says that the NYBKW Charitable Foundation is a natural extension of the accounting firm’s mission statement, which is to “improve the welfare of men, women, and children, especially on Long Island.”
“People at our firm have always been involved in volunteer efforts, and many of the organizations we choose to become involved with have special meaning to our employees,” he said. “For example, one of our employees and his wife recently lost their infant son to Meconium Aspiration Syndrome, leading us to establish the Jordan Alex Dubrow Fund in his memory, which helped raise funds for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.”
And NYBKW employees are just as involved in volunteering as they are in finding worthy causes to support. Different employees will own various events, helping to plan, manage and execute all of the volunteer efforts that are needed to organize and participate in the events.
This is a commitment that everyone supports,” said Timoshenko, “and I think that really says something about our firm and our employees.”
On Being the Youngest CPA in Virginia: A Q&A with Cody Meglio of Ernst & Young
Posted: September 21, 2011 Filed under: Accounting, Accounting Firms, Accounting Professionals, Young Accountants | Tags: accounting, accounting firms, accounting professionals, Ernst & Young, Q&A, young accountants 1 Comment »
At 16 he earned his high school diploma and at age 19 he graduated from Marietta College in Ohio with a 4.0 GPA and three bachelor’s degrees in accounting, finance and economics. At 19 he became the youngest licensed CPA in the state of Virginia.
Now 20, Cody Meglio has been working full-time at “Big 4” firm Ernst & Young, LLC in Charleston, W. Va. since last January.
I recently caught up with Meglio to talk to him about what it’s like to be one of the youngest financial professionals in the country, what life is like for him at EY and what his plans for the future are.
What’s a typical day like for you at EY?
This may sound cliche, but there is no “typical” day for me; it depends on the time of the year and what client I’m working on. In auditing, I’ve found that what you’re doing and where you are depends greatly on the time of year relative to your clients’ year-ends. For me, however, since I have clients with 12/31, 3/31, 6/30, and 9/30 year-ends, I am busy doing something year round. As a staff from a smaller office, I get quite a bit more variety in my client base and workload than some of my friends who are staff from larger offices and other Big 4 firms.
I’ve worked on clients in the coal, natural gas, banking, manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, and government sectors. For these clients, I’ve audited pretty much every balance sheet and income statement account. I’ve also done planning, execution, and reporting for these clients. Now that’s not to say I’m a one man auditing machine, but as a staff in a small office serving smaller clients, the opportunities to get a comprehensive view of a wide range of clients are plentiful. For instance, last week, I was working on location at a small government agency auditing its net assets, receivables, accruals, payables, and inter-agency accounts. This week, I am in a banking training and am also preparing the planning workpapers for a small oil & gas company audit.
What’s it like being the youngest person at EY? Do you feel like it gives you an advantage?
While I can’t confirm that I’m the youngest staff at EY altogether (although I would assume that I am), I know I am the youngest in my office – even younger than the interns this past season. I don’t really notice much of a difference in the way I’m treated, as I’m not treated any differently than any other staff. While I think there may have been some apprehensions by some coworkers at first, these quickly faded away after I proved myself as an intern. I don’t feel there’s really an advantage or a disadvantage to being younger than my peers.
Are there a lot of other young accountants working with you? Or are the majority of employers more seasoned?
Since I work in public accounting, I work with a variety of people from EY and from our clients. I work with a lot of other staff at EY and staff accountants at clients who are in their early 20s, so the age difference is not vast. However, it was much more noticeable when I interned with a smaller local firm, where I never left the office and the next youngest person in the office was my mom’s age. The only time it becomes a big factor is when it comes to “happy hours” because I’m under 21, but those don’t happen very often and my coworkers are more than understanding.
You’re the youngest licensed CPA in the state of Virginia – do you encounter any prejudices from clients because of your age?
No, not really. Most clients assume that I am 22 or 23 and just look young. When they find out I’m younger, they’re surprised, but nothing more. I usually don’t use age as an icebreaker and only tell clients if it comes up (e.g. see the happy hour situation above) or after I’ve already built a rapport. I’ve always found that clients care a lot more about professionalism and knowledge than age.
Why did you decide to go into accounting? Did you consider any other careers?
I’ve always been good with numbers, but never enjoyed science. Accounting, finance, and economics (my three college majors) always seemed like a perfect fit for me. While finance and economics are my passions, the job market is very soft in those areas. I really like accounting and think a fundamental understanding of accounting, financial reporting, and financial analysis are essential for a potential future career in finance. Therefore, I decided to become an auditor for the best of the Big 4 firms (in my opinion, of course) to expand my knowledge, build my network, and gain experience.
Despite the long hours and frequent travel, I enjoy my job and don’t see leaving any time soon. When I was really young (elementary school), I thought about the military since both my brother and brother-in-law were Marines and my dad was a high school history teacher who got me fascinated in WWII and the military. However, after hearing about the experiences of my relatives in Iraq and considering my other interests, I decided to take a different path.
Do you plan on getting a graduate degree? If so, what would you get it in?
I am considering going to business school for an MBA down the road, but if I choose that path, I would certainly wait a few years so that I can get into a top program. I only see value (for me) in getting a top MBA since I now understand the power of the brand name and the connections that a top school will offer. While I will pit my alma mater against any major school when it comes to academics, it has no name recognition.
I went to a small liberal arts college in my home town on a full scholarship, but had to fight tooth and nail to land an interview at major firms because of the small alumni network and the lack of on campus recruiting. While I had a great experience there, I might think twice before doing the same thing again. I am interested in law, but to me, the economics of going to law school just don’t make sense. Hundreds of thousands in tuition and three years off work for a job with a longer hours and only slightly more pay doesn’t seem like a good bargain.
Are you planning on any other certifications or accreditations for your CPA career?
I am currently studying for the CFA (Chartered Financial Analysts) exam, which I will take this December. I am really interested in finance and want to take this exam to prove my mettle in finance and allow me to get my foot in the door should I choose to take that path down the road.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I have a number of different hobbies, including traveling, reading, watching movies, cooking, and taking pictures. Unfortunately, between working and studying for the CFA exam, I don’t get much of an opportunity to do them.
Search Engine Optimization for Accounting Firm Websites
Posted: September 7, 2011 Filed under: Accounting, Accounting Firm Marketing Strategies, Accounting Firms, Marketing for Accountants | Tags: search engine optimization, search engine optimization for accounting firms, SEO, SEO for accounting firms 4 Comments »Having a website for your accounting firm that’s not optimized for search is like throwing a party but not telling anyone about it. How are people supposed to come if they don’t even know it’s happening?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website’s visibility in organic search engine rankings, so it can be more easily found by the people who need your product or services. (Organic listings fall directly below paid listings in search engine results, and the closer you are to the top, the more traffic you will get to your website.)
Any search engine’s goal, whether it’s Google, Bing or Yahoo, is to deliver the most relevant, quality websites in the search results to provide users with the information they need. In order to rank high organically, you have to first understand what the search engines consider to be important in order to optimize your website accordingly.
What makes a website relevant? Although search engines don’t reveal the algorithms they use to rank websites, they factor in things like how your site is laid out, where your important information is located, key terms found in web text and meta tags, and the number of quality inbound links there are to your website.
So, where do you start? The best place to begin is to figure out where your current site is lacking – what parts of it are not set up to be search engine-friendly.
That’s where Katie Tolin, marketing director at accounting firm Rea & Associates, Inc. in New Philadelphia, Ohio, began her SEO research for her accounting firm’s website.
“Not only was our site built in frames, it had a splash page, drop down menus, no site map and no custom web links,” Tolin said. “If there was a way to prevent web crawlers from finding our site, we were using it.”
Prior to Tolin’s SEO endeavors, which started in 2005, virtually all of her firm’s web traffic came from direct links, or people searching for the firm by name. After her firm merged with another (whose website outranked them in the search engine results) partners began asking why the other site appeared higher in the search engine results and how they could fix this.
When Tolin began researching SEO, it quickly became clear that changes needed to be made to her firm’s website, but also that there were too many issues with the current website to optimize it. The only way to start optimizing for SEO was a total redesign.
Tolin said the new website was designed to have the right site architecture from the start.
“I used a content management system that allowed me to customize page titles, page addresses, meta tags, descriptions, etc. This gave me the ability to optimize every page of my website,” Tolin said. “I also made sure we had a site map – one little thing that can make a big difference – and strived to keep important content no more than three pages deep so it can be more easily found by search engines.”
These changes to the firm website led to a 50 percent increase in traffic and unique visitors, but even more importantly, it increased the firm’s conversion rate. On average, Rea & Associates adds more than 150 people per year to its distribution list simply because the visitors asked them to.
What is Tolin’s recommendation to firms considering SEO to improve their website ranking?
“Potential clients are forming opinions about your firm that may not be true. Don’t let them think you are old-fashioned, out-dated and not up-to-speed with the latest technologies if you aren’t.”
Not everyone has the time and resources to do the optimization in-house. If you fall into that category, look into outsourcing it. Although it costs more do outsource the effort, Tolin says the amount of new business generated from the website is substantially higher than what is spent on optimization.
“These are real companies paying us real dollars on an annual basis for our services,” said Tolin. “Leads generated through our website are from quality companies that simply choose to find vendors online.”
Tolin recognizes that consumer behavior is changing and that the majority of people now research their purchases online before making them and you need to be easily found.
“We live in a society where people are judged by their presence,” she says. “We form opinions based on what we see, but also what we don’t see. If you can’t be found online, that says something about you.”
