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South Shore INSIDER
Steve Needel
This CPA knows the right balance
By LUCY SUTHERLAND
The Patriot Ledger
With $900 in the bank and a second child on the way, CPA Steve Needel took a gamble 40 years ago and launched the Rockland accounting firm Needel, Welch & Stone.
Today, the 20-employee firm is a fixture on the South Shore business landscape with a wide-ranging
client roster of businesses, nonprofits and wealthy people.
A 65-year-old Chatham resident, Needel no longer has an ownership role at the firm but remains actively involved with many clients, some of whom have been customers for over 25 years.
Needel got a bachelor's degree in accounting at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1960 and went to work for a firm that would eventually became KPMG, Needel decided four years later to take a gamble and start his own practice.
To supplement his income, Needel, then a Quincy resident, began teaching accounting at Quincy College in 1964, a job he would keep for four years.
For Needel, the key to long-standing success in the industry - which has been transformed in recent decades by improved technology and a stricter tax code - is to keep a good balance between work and family life.
How has the accounting business changed in the last four decades?
When I started the business, ... I made an investment of $85 for an adding machine and $8 for business cards, and I had a picnic table. So it was not capital-intensive, it was labor-intensive. Today, you're probably looking at $10,000 to $20,000 per (employee) just for capital investment ... and probably another $4,000 to $5,000 a year in annual (technology) upgrades.
What is the key to your long-standing success?
Family came first.... I don't think we ever put so much pressure on ourselves that we couldn't enjoy what we were doing. If one of the partners' kids had a basketball game, it was important to be there. The work would always get done. So we were never a sweatshop. Some accounting firms are putting in 80 or 90 hours a week during their busy season. We never did that. You never see people here on a Sunday. It was unusual. You'd never see the office lights on at 10 (p.m.). ... You don't get burned out as much.
What is crucial to building trust with clients?
It's very confidential information. People will talk about their health before they talk about their finances. ... Call it paranoia, (but) you have to keep that information close to the vest. A CPA with a loose tongue is an ex-CPA, and should be.
How has the business landscape on the South Shore changed in the last four
decades?
The retail and service portion of the practice is much more than manufacturing. The other thing that you've seen is the tremendous consolidation of banking. It's had a big effect on business. ... It means less competition, harder competition among the banks. ... Most likely, it means that the banking profession has lost a few good people to other professions over the last five or six years.
Has the talent pool for CPAs changed since you joined the field?
Kids today need five years of education to become a CPA - that's depressed the talent pool. So as firms are expanding there's more need for talent and less of a pool out there.
What has been the toughest part of running this company?
The most challenging thing about running the company is finding the balance between dealing with the clients and dealing with the practice. ... As the practice grew, you've got to turn over more of the client responsibilities to other people and spend more time managing the practice. That's what I enjoy now - in retirement - is still working a little bit for the firm. But it's all working with clients, which is what we went to accounting for in the first place. So right now, it's 100 percent fun.
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