“Sometimes I would rather have to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.” [PODCAST] with Richard Levychin, Managing Partner of KBL LLP

Richard Levychin

Tell us a little bit about your background.

> Managing Partner of KBL, LLP CPAs and Advisors

> Graduated from Baruch College and started his  career with a Big Four CPA firm

> Started his own firm at the age of 28

Tell us about one experience in your current position that just blew you away and that you were really excited about.

During Richard’s first job in a small CPA firm, he had the ability to be involved in various parts of the firm rather than just the accounting department. He learned how to acquire clients, manage people, market the firm, and conduct client relations.

What was your biggest, or one of your biggest, failure(s) in getting to where you are today?

Richard’s philosophy about failure is to “Fail Fast Forward.” Fail and do it quickly then move forward as quickly as possible. At one point he had a practice office in Florida and one in New Jersey. The partners who worked there were great technicians, but they were not business people. They ended up terminating the relationship and moving forward.

“While growth is sexy, if you don’t find the right people to run the firm, sometimes it won’t work out.”

Tell us a challenge you met and how you overcame it.

Learning marketing. The great thing is that his wife has a marketing degree and worked for a large Ad agency. Nonetheless, learning how to package and brand himself and the firm was one of his biggest challenges. Richard’s philosophy about marketing: Number one, you must have quality work and provide great service to clients. Then you must identify who you are and who you want to be. He thinks about Wayne Gretzky, who never skated to where the puck was, but skated to where the puck would be.

His new marketing program is called “#Diversity = Revenue.” The demographics of the country are becoming more multicultural.  His company services many companies who have multicultural owners and female CEOs. He determined the firm’s biggest strength is going after emerging companies that are going through growth periods such as IPOs, private offerings, etc.

What is a great resource you used along the way that helped you to get where you are today?

Richard belongs to the Entrepreneurs Organization which has over 10,000 members in more than 40 countries. The goal of Entrepreneurs Organization is to give new CEOs and business owners intellectual capital that focuses on the following four areas:

1. Strategy

2. HR and People

3. Sales/Marketing

4. Finance

What is you advice for someone starting out in his or her career?

First, get an internship. Second, find a mentor.