Comstock's magazine 1018 - October 2018 | Page 40

n FINANCE From left to right: Nate Boyce, Myles Brown, David Boyce, Ben Brown, Craig Boyce PHOTO: DEBBIE CUNNINGHAM 40 comstocksmag.com | October 2018 All along, the founders were think- ing about what would come after they left. For many CPA firms, the succes- sion plan is fairly straightforward: Find someone to take over the prac- tice. They were starting to get inqui- ries from big national and interna- tional firms about being bought out but always said no. It wasn’t just their long-term strategy that kept them from selling: Many of their young- er partner-track hires had left bigger firms precisely because they wanted to work in a midsized local company. Even though the founders might do better financially, they didn’t feel it was right to turn around and sell to a bigger fish. “A lot of the culture here that we’ve created … you just wouldn’t have that in an environment where you were controlled by what the New York of- fice says,” says Ben Brown. “Creat- ing a place where you like to be and that you enjoy, there’s a ton of value in that.”