Ask Tom Antoske about the CPA’s role in business and you’re likely to get a bit of home-spun advice mixed with a maverick’s attitude for expansion.

This Rhode Island CPA worked in internal auditing, along with other operational areas for 18 years in several Fortune 100 and 500 companies, such as Textron, Inc. and Hammermill Paper Company. His background and experience in manufacturing led him to start his own practice eight years ago by taking a solid look at how his own skills mingled with small business to enable growth and prosperity—not only in the United States, but worldwide in countries like Japan, Canada and Portugal.

Core Values are Key
Tom strongly believes that CPA core values and the necessity to look into the future are what is going to keep the profession ahead of its competitors.

“With competition from software companies and major corporations providing services similar to ours, the core values that will keep us ahead are integrity, objectivity and a commitment to the future,” he says. “People trust us, and that matters in the long run. However, we must continue to search for new visions for our profession.”

In addition to a traditional tax and accounting practice, this self-proclaimed “global matchmaker” spends most of his time locating contacts in foreign countries to assist his state’s manufacturing-based companies export their products. He has developed a database of global partners and finds a good fit based on need and location.

While providing advice and coordinating relationships to enable exporting may seem unusual to many CPAs in public practice, Tom sees it as a value-added component for his profession.

“With a company’s income statement, my concentration is not always just on reducing expenses, but on increasing revenue,” he says. “If I can show a company, for example, how to increase their revenues through arenas like exporting, then I’m providing a much-needed service for them.”

Tom also uses his skills to help seniors through the maze of elder care. He knows that as the population ages, baby boomers, too, are getting older.

“Elder people do not know where to turn in this area. Because of our core values on integrity, trust and respect, these people naturally will come to us for help,” says Tom. “And, helping them just feels good.”

Small Business Rainmaker
Tom was named the 1995 Rhode Island Accountant Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration for the state of Rhode Island for his work in developing a Workforce 2000 grant, and since then, has gone on to find grants for five companies at $25,000 each to train employees in the latest technology. He is active in his community of Smithfield, RI, and regularly volunteers for the Rhode Island Society of CPAs, along with local chambers of commerce. One accomplishment he is particularly proud of is establishing a scholarship program to help area business students attend college.

“I’m finding that now, I have to find other avenues of business because of technology and visions of the future” says Tom. “I don’t think we’re going to see the accounting profession the way it is now, five years into the future. Because of technology and the changing market, consumers are going to demand more from a CPA than just numbers; they’ll want us to manage their business at a different level.”

Others interested in his approach to small business and global venues can contact Tom through e-mail.