One of the smartest things I have done in my life — after marrying my wife — was to take a couple of accounting courses about 10 years ago.
It opened a new window on the world.
Accounting is the language of businesses. Understanding costs, inventory, assets and the importance of getting paid sooner rather than later not only changes how one looks at business; it also changes how one looks at life.
When I meet a businessperson now, the first words out of my mouth are “What’s your revenue? What’s your profit margin? How much debt on the books?”
I met accountant Alex Castelli, 46, over macaroni and cheese at Equinox restaurant in downtown Washington last week. Castelli, a graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., heads the 50-person growth markets practice for Reznick Group’s Tysons Corner office.
Bethesda-based Reznick is one of the largest accounting firms in the Washington area, with 10 offices across the country employing 1,000. Castelli’s job is to find entrepreneurs and fast-growing companies and work with them to make them successful and long-term Reznick clients.
Such as? The Dallas Cowboys, he said.
If you can choke on macaroni, I choked.
The Evil Empire from the Lone Star State is one of Reznick’s clients?
I asked for the scoop on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“An incredible businessperson and salesperson. He understands how to get people to attend games and spend money.”
We will leave that one alone.
Castelli is a former entrepreneur himself. With his brother and dad, he owned a chainlet of retail sports stores in the late 1980s called National Locker Room, which sold licensed sports apparel such as team-branded hats, jackets, shirts and the like.
It seemed like a good business until the big box stores such as Wal-Mart, Costco and Target wiped them out, and they closed down by the end of 1993.
“I got a big dose of entrepreneurship over four years,” Castelli said. “When I see a guy trying to raise capital and get a bank to finance his business, I know what he is going through.”
Those years have made him attuned to the needs and occasional wackiness of entrepreneurs and their ideas, whether it’s a flying car or grass that grows on concrete (true stories).
“It’s not a 9-to-5 job,” he said of entrepreneurs. “And not everybody hits a home run.”
It’s also 24-7 for the accountants who hold their hands. Castelli takes calls from clients such as Bob Giaimo, owner of Silver Diner, at all hours of the day and night. He once spent a day at a Maryland beach standing at a pay phone, coaching a client on his finances, while his family took in the sun and sand. At the request of one client, he spent a recent Saturday afternoon at a Rockville restaurant interviewing a person that the client was thinking of hiring.
Put away the Kleenex; partners at big accounting firms make healthy six-figure incomes and more. But he offered some free advice for budding entrepreneurs, based on his experiences with his clients.
Be proactive on financial matters.
During the downturn in the economy in 2008 and 2009, Silver Diner’s Giaimo saw tough times coming, so he contacted his lenders and landlords to restructure his loan payments and rent. It freed up cash so he could buy more advertising and improve his menu to attract more customers.
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