Paul Raffanello
Three years ago, Paul Raffanello went home and told his wife he wanted to go out on his own. He had been with the accounting firm Kahn, Hoffman and Hochman in New City for 15 years, but felt ready to do his own thing. “I think the best way to describe our reaction was terrified,” said the certified public accountant.Â
But a confident Raffanello took the leap of faith and started his home-based accounting business.Â
Fast forward to June 2007:Â Raffanello says his client base has grown to a “comfortable level and my earnings now exceed the income I earned during my last year with my former employer.”
Raffanello grew up in Chappaqua, a stone”™s throw from where the Clintons now reside when they are in town. “It”™s a totally different place now,” he says, recalling his growing years. “We went to the candy store, and there was the neighborhood cop who walked around ”¦ typical small-town America.” He moved to Warwick in 1995 and says of a recent visit to his boyhood home, “Thomas Wolfe was right: You can”™t go home again. Chappaqua is not the same place I remember. Warwick”™s my home now.”
Raffanello says he enjoys driving down his country road and watching the cows pastured in the fields, an uncommon sight in his former Westchester neighborhood. “Warwick”™s got a unique quality and character. I really love it here.”
Raffanello joined Business Networking International when he was still working in New City, but decided to start his own networking group, Orange Networking Alliance, once he set up shop in Warwick. “I started doing monthly lunches at the Copper Bottom in Florida, just a group of business owners getting together to introduce themselves and talk about their business. It”™s a chance to meet and talk, no membership required. I think it”™s good to get out and mingle without feeling a commitment.” Raffanello kept his membership with the Rockland Business Association and then joined the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.
Raffanello recently became a volunteer for Literacy Volunteers of Western Orange County. He loves to read, and discovered one out of five people in Orange County cannot. “That resonated with me and is what drew me to get involved.” Most of the people who are tutored are English-as-second-language students who are eager to learn the lingo.
“I”™m just getting my feet wet in the organization,” said Raffanello, who joined in January 2007. “We”™re getting ready to host a Scrabble tournament at Southwinds up in Middletown on October 18, and I”™m busy looking for sponsors and hoping players will come and join the fun. Scrabble is always a good way to improve your English skills.”
Raffanello credits his Leadership Orange training with his increased desire to volunteer in the community. “It”™s funny how people can touch you. In 2005, I was at a speed-networking event and met a woman who was a Leadership Orange graduate. She introduced me to the executive director and I was interviewed and accepted into the program. It really opened my eyes about giving back to my community. There are so many nonprofits that need help.” His love of reading led him to volunteer with Literacy Volunteers.Â
When he”™s not doing personal tax returns or tutoring people on QuickBooks, Raffanello cracks the books with Literacy Volunteers. “One thing that is great about owning your own business is the ability to be able to schedule your time so you can include volunteerism in your life,” says the CPA. “With more people working out of the county, there are a dwindling number of people who are able to help out, so I”™m glad I can make the time to do it.”
Raffanello says his favorite book is Dale Carnegie”™s How to Win Friends and Influence People: “It was written in 1936, and the message is as relevant today as it was then. It”™s the second best-selling book after the Bible.
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