Hudson Cisne Thessing and Co.*

CPA Firm Tallies Niche with Private Business

The numbers have always added up for the Little Rock accounting firm of Hudson Cisne Thessing and Co. Since opening its doors in 1987, the company has maintained an average annual revenue growth of 25 percent.

The firm’s payroll has grown from four staffers in 1987 to 36 today. After 12 years of business, annual revenue hit $2.3 million in 1999.

Johnny Hudson, administrative partner, attributes the success to hiring good people combined with referrals from happy clients.

The success was a dream come true for three Arthur Young & Co. CPAs who banded together to launch their own venture: Hudson, Richard Cisne and Roxie Keeling-Culp (who left the company for health reasons in 1994). The trio decided to strike out on their own with the encouragement of clients, who provided a healthy book of business to establish the new company.

Hudson describes the firm’s niche as providing personal service to medium and small private companies that often were getting lost in the shuffle at larger accounting firms focusing on bigger clients.

The current line-up of partners resulted from the 1998 merger with the Little Rock CPA firm of Baer & Thessing.

John Thessing joined the ownership picture at this time.

Hudson says the biggest challenge to keeping the success ball rolling is hiring more staff to plug into the firm’s friendly atmosphere, which has helped attract and retain its roster of talent.

He recalls an observation Cisne made in the second year of operations: “Things are going so well that I have to pinch myself to make sure this is real.”

“That sums up where we were headed, and we’re still excited about it,” Hudson says.