We spoke with Jason Blumer from Blumer CPAs and the Thriveal Network to find out how finding a niche will help grow your practice and stand out from your competitors. Not only did he explain why; he also shared how you can actually go about doing it.

Why find a niche

The goal for a lot of accounting firms is to increase their value, so a lot of firms mistakenly try to achieve this by doubling their price or increasing their number of clients.

Jason explains that adopting a niche strategy is a much smarter strategy. Specializing in a niche will dramatically increase your value to that segment, and when you increase your value, you automatically can increase your price.

How to find the right niche

Jason points out that sometimes the best way to find a niche is to let the niche find you. He suggests looking at your current clients to see if any already trend towards a niche—for example, you might provide a service to a whole lot of tradesmen, doctors or local small businesses. You may find the answer has been staring at you all along.

One common mistake practices make when selecting a niche, says Jason, comes down to speed.

Accountants are often told that they should consider focusing on a niche, but Jason sees lots of them try to refine their focus so quickly that it disrupts their cash flow and hurts their business model.

So his advice is not to rush the development and refinement of your niche strategy. Depending on your size and the client base, it can take up to a couple of years for firms to focus entirely on a niche.

By that time though, you’ll have differentiated yourself from your competitors, and be delivering significant value to your clients that they cannot get anywhere else.