Bob Simpson, Managing Partner of Brinker, Simpson & Company, a Springfield-based full-service certified public accounting and business advisory firm he started with Tom Brinker in 1989, speaks with DELCO Today about growing up in Springfield, earning pocket change delivering the Evening Bulletin and caddying at Rolling Green, attending LaSalle University and changing his major from Biology to Accounting in his Sophomore year after discovering he lacked a passion for Chemistry or Calculus, bumping into Tom Brinker in a video store one Friday night and starting their accounting firm with two other partners a couple of months later, what he looks for in a merger partner and how advice Harry Gross gave him in his twenty’s taught him to be selective about the people and companies in his professional life.

Where did you grow up Bob?

I was born in August of 1958 in Springfield, a mile from my current office, and spent my first 22 years in Springfield. I was the oldest of four children; a sister and two brothers. My dad worked at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom.

What memories do you have of growing up in Springfield?

Springfield was full of neighborhoods back then. I lived on Wayne Avenue, an area of Springfield full of twins and single homes with a lot of kids my age. Watching Big 5 basketball games on TV and sledding down hills when we could use police barriers to cut off the cross streets were the most fun. Eventually, the house got a little too tight for us, and we moved on up to a house on South Rolling Road.

Did you play any sports in high school?

I played football before sustaining an injury after my second year.  I also played golf for O’Hara.  I just wish I could play as well now as I did back in high school.

What was your first job?

I delivered papers; first the Bulletin and then the News of Delaware County, I cut lawns, I caddied at Rolling Green Golf Club, and I had a home and pool cleaning business. My best customer in the house cleaning business was a Springfield woman who picked me up and took her to her house to do whatever she needed to be done.

You were quite the entrepreneur

I was an entrepreneur from the beginning. As a paperboy, I inserted postcards advertising my house cleaning and lawn cutting services into the newspapers before I delivered them. The scheme resulted in so many calls and jobs that I failed.  I got too much work and didn’t have enough help.

Why the entrepreneurial streak?

I was a hustler who always liked to have money in my pocket. I could have made good money caddying at Rolling Green, but I didn’t like the hours I sometimes had to wait to go out. Cutting grass and getting paid right away was a nice job.  Same with the woman who I did odd jobs around her house; she would pay me every week.

Where would you say that hustle came from Bob?

My father! My father spent his entire 38-year career at the Navy Yard. He was a engineer who had a tremendous work ethic. My sister and two brothers are all very successful in their careers because of that same work ethic. Even today, I may not be the smartest guy in the room, but chances are I’ll out work anyone in the room.

Where did you decide to go to LaSalle?

My choices were limited; My father was a Villanova guy, and he would have disowned me if I had gone to St. Joes. That left either LaSalle or Villanova. I chose LaSalle because I thought I wanted to be a doctor and LaSalle had a great biology program. They were also the first school to accept me. Being an impetuous teenager at the time, I decided on LaSalle since they wanted me more than the other schools.

Did LaSalle end up being a good choice for you?

I don’t have any regrets.  I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I started college.  I knew what my father wanted me to do; become a doctor, but I didn’t know what I wanted. I had breezed through high school academically.

When I got to college, I had that, oh boy ! moment, when I realized I had to work and study to earn the same grades I had in high school. I had no problems with work, but not the Chemistry and Calculus kind of work. I just didn’t get it. I couldn’t figure out how it worked, why it worked or what we were doing.

What did you do?

At the end of the first semester, my advisor found me and threatened to kick me out.  I reminded them, LaSalle was a Catholic institution, and if they threw me out, my father would kill me! They relented and gave a semester to get my grades up. After another bad semester, my advisor suggested I pick another major. I talked to a couple of people and since alphabetically, Accounting was one of the first majors in the course catalog, that’s what I chose.

From Biology to Accounting? Really?

Aside from playing football and golf in high school, I played geek as well. In high school, I read and recorded baseball stats on greenbar paper every day.  Each day during the baseball season, I would enter my favorite player’s stats and compute their averages and then at the end of the year see how my numbers compared to those on the back of the player’s baseball card.

I also played the stock market when I was a kid.  Even though I didn’t have any money, I had a fake portfolio made up of companies who I liked. I kept the baseball stats and stock portfolio, which I hid in my room, updated every day. Kind of dull and boring but it was what I was passionate about. Once I moved into Accounting, I excelled from that time forward.

So what now?

Because of my “Biology experiment,” I was behind my accounting peers.  My father had a good friend at an accounting firm in Media, who hired me as an intern. Even though LaSalle didn’t have a co-op program., using the same ‘my father will kill me’ excuse I used earlier, I talked LaSalle into accepting my experience at the accounting firm as a co-op. I ended up graduating with a degree in Accounting in four years and going to work full-time for the same Media firm.

Did you meet your wife about this time?

I met her while in college when I went to my company’s Christmas party. My co-worker had his arm around this girl but he wasn’t paying any attention to her.  I noticed she had a Prendie ring on and struck up a conversation with her. We started talking, and I asked her out. Our first date was New Year’s Eve in 1979, which as the day before her birthday. The rest is history.

When did you decide to open an accounting firm?

The Funny thing is, I never did open my own firm. I stayed with the Media firm for six years after college. I had a knack for developing business. I was great at schmoozing and playing golf, the two things you needed to develop relationships. In 1986, I declined the partnership offer at my firm,  and opened up my own office at Broad and Porter Streets in South Philadelphia.

Why South Broad Street? Why not closer to home in Springfield?

The rent! It was $125 a month. Plus the office was available, and I had dreams of establishing a Philadelphia accounting firm.

Was that a good move?

It lasted a year, and then I was out of there. I didn’t have any clients, so I spent my day writing letters to people I knew on an IBM Selectric typewriter which had autocorrect and some word processing capability. I made a little money on the side but not enough to pay the bills.

I hooked up with a CPA in Bala Cynwyd who was looking to supplement his staff. He let me use his office as long as I didn’t steal his clients or overbill my time. That work got me through what was a scary time.

Over the next couple of years, I built my business. In the Spring of 1989, I met Tom Brinker, who I knew from taking the CPA Prep Classes together.  We bumped into each other one night at a video store in Springfield.  He and two other guys he worked with at Coopers Lybrand, a big 4 Philadelphia-based accounting firm, were thinking of leaving and starting a firm.  We talked for three hours that night!  My wife was so worried about me she came to the video store looking for me to make sure I hadn’t gotten in an accident.

The four of us; me, Tom and his two friends from Coopers, rented space in Pilgrim Gardens, four blocks from where I was living at the time. The partnership lasted all of four days before it broke into two separate firms, with Tom and I founding Brinker Simpson on our own. Tom and I built this business knocking on doors and helping small business owners run their businesses better.

We moved the firm to Springfield in 1994 before Tom was offered the position to be head of Arcadia University’s Accounting Department.  He loved teaching more than he liked practicing and gradually backed out of the business.

What Challenges and Opportunities do you see looking forward, Bob?

The firm’s strategic plan stresses growth. It’s a great time for a firm of our size to be merging in smaller firms.  In fact, my last two dinners were with partners of competitive firms who have expressed an interest in joining Brinker Simpson. We’ve done four mergers thus far and have developed a model that allows a small practice to join us and leave all the worries of running a firm to us. The partners can concentrate on growing their business without having to deal with personnel, computers or office issues.

What type of accounting firm do you look to merge with?

We’re very particular.  It’s all about culture. One of our differentiators is the tenure and quality of the people at Brinker Simpson. We’ve built a family business even though none of my family is in the business. The firm’s we’re merging in have to understand they’re merging into Brinker Simpson, and they need to accept our culture and processes. If they do, the merger is successful. If they don’t the merger doesn’t work. Good business follows good people.  We’ll be a  growing, profitable firm if we have good, happy, passionate people.

Passion? That’s a term you don’t often associate with an accounting firm.

Passion for the accounting profession, my firm, the people who work with me, for what I do and for my clients is what keeps me going.

What about you personally?

I’m 58 and would like to work full time until I’m 64 or so.  Even though I don’t know when I’ll pull the trigger, I’m talking to advisors about succession. I love being the managing partner of Brinker Simpson. My job is to  groom the people to take over for me when I step down. I have a tremendous team of CPA’s who can fill that role.

Outside of work, what takes your time?

In the summer, I spend as much time as I can at a house we’ve had for 18 years in Wildwood Crest. I eat too much and spend too much time in the sun, but I like to do both too much to stop either one. I like to fish, and read,  but don’t have nearly the time to read I would like. All three of my kids are still in the area, and I’m involved in their lives as well as the life of our 100 lbs yellow lab

Finally, Bob, what is the best piece of advice you ever received?

The best piece of advice came from a guy named Harry Gross.  Many people knew him as the host of a financial advice radio show on the old WCAU. When I was 28 or so, Harry told me, “never to let the bastards wear me down”.

At first, I didn’t know what he meant. Now I do. He was warning me there are good guys and bad guys in business and to stick with the good guys.  The bad guys can make life miserable.  Be selective on who you bring on as a client and, if you find yourself in a bad situation get out of it quickly. Lessons I wish I listened to more often.