Business Profile: RF Joyce, CPA, Yorktown
Photo credit: Neal Rentz
Yorktown resident Robert Joyce received some practical advice from his late father, John, who was an accountant, when he was growing up.
“He said the world will always need accountants. You’ll always have a job,” Joyce recalled last week.
Joyce said he took accounting courses at Croton-Harmon High School and did well. He then majored in public accounting at the Pleasantville and White Plains campuses of Pace University.
Joyce has been an accountant for more than 25 years and today works out of an office on Commerce Street in Yorktown, which he opened in 2009. He moved to Yorktown from Cortlandt about seven years ago. “We just liked the whole Yorktown environment, the community here, the schools,” he said.
Joyce said he had previously worked in Manhattan, but he wanted to spend more time with his family and decided “go out on my own” after speaking with his wife, Nora. The couple has three children, Maggie, Molly and Kate.
Following graduation from college, Joyce began working for Ernst and Young and later worked for other large companies before moving into his own firm.
Joyce said he had to make adjustments to operate on his own. “When you’re work for somebody, the work is always given to you,” he said. “Now, you’re not only doing the work, but you have to solicit the work.”
“I started with no clients and then slowly kept building the business,” Joyce said, adding he got many clients though contacts he developed working in the corporate field. He also did advertising.
Joyce offers tax planning and preparation for individuals and small and medium sized businesses, as well as estate and trusts work and bookkeeping. The individuals he works for range in annual income from $20,000 to $3.5 million, he noted.
Most of his individual clients live in northern Westchester and a majority of his business clients are located in White Plains, he said, adding he also works one day a week in Manhattan for other clients. He also has overseas clients in such locales as London and the Philippians and a number of states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and California through referrals. “It’s quite a range of clients,” Joyce said. “One thing I did learn about going to do this for myself, people never get rid of their accountants, no matter where they move to … as long as they’re happy with them.”
Joyce said his work has evolved during his quarter century career. “It’s changed quite a bit,” he said. “There’s a lot more regulations. Being a tax preparer, especially being a CPA, the ethical standards are a lot more stringent.”
Joyce said individuals who seek accounting services look for more than just assistance with filing their taxes. “They’re looking for accountants to play a bigger role in their whole financial picture. That’s why I do financial planning,” he said.
Joyce does tax planning and helps people prepare financially for their retirement or how to pay for their children’s college costs.
Aside from his work, Joyce helps the community in other ways. He is a youth soccer coach in Yorktown and offers to prepare income taxes for those who cannot afford to pay.
What are the keys to Joyce’s success? “You offer clients a good product at a reasonable price and they come back,” he said.
The office of Robert Joyce is located at 1911 Commerce St. in Yorktown. For more information, call 914-960-9285, visit rfjoycecpa.com or send an e-mail to Robert.joyce@rfjoycecp.com.
