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Buckno Lisicky & Co. PC., CPA, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year in an industry that differs greatly from the one most accountants worked in when the firm was first born.
Industry trends have forced the company to change the nature of what it does as well as how it does it, and over the past decade, Buckno Lisicky has grown in both size and offerings to match the needs of its clients.
Founded in August of 1969, Buckno Lisicky started as a twopartner firm employing one person, according to Gene Buckno, president. By 1990, the firm had expanded to include eight shareholders working at its Allentown office. Today, the firm includes 17 shareholders and more than 40 employees at three locations.
While the firm's shareholders will not reveal specific revenue figures, Tony Buczek, a shareholder and director of accounting and auditing, says the company has seen its volume of business triple over the past decade, with a similar jump in client number. The firm services primarily familyowned, nonpublicly trading businesses, with revenues up to around $100 million.
Recent areas of client growth include government auditing contracts and a number of fast-food franchises. Nonprofit auditing, as required by the state, also makes up a portion of the mix.
"We have grown somewhat rapidly and steadily on an internal level," fueled partly by a series of acquisitions starting about 12 years ago, Buckno says. Some of the acquisitions include what are now the firm's Bethlehem (1991) and Lehighton (1998) offices.
Those acquisitions are a testament to an industry that is experiencing increased consolidation, says Buckno Lisicky shareholder Joe Trinkle. "I think ... the consolidation of the accounting profession will continue," with demand for increased services forcing many smaller firms' hand, he says.
just as insurers and bankers are providing each other with increased competition, businesses not run by CPAs are crossing the border into the accounting profession. Companies like American Express are taking advantage of their economies of scale to address a increasingly large market for onestop financial services shops. Similarly, CPA firms are evolving to offer more services to a client base which is requesting more than just tax returns.
As a result, Buckno Lisicky has gone beyond offering tax planning to include...