Twelve (or so) steps to starting a vertical accounting firm
We recently got an email from a customer of ours in response to Ian’s newsletter regarding specialization for an accounting firm.
The email read:
If someone gave you ~100k and said, “start a non-income-tax-related accounting firm or accounting related business that provides the a ton of value to customers but is also scalable”, based on the current market, what would you do?
Since this concept is something that you guys seem to know, I figured I’d ask since you’re in a unique position to perhaps know of what the market is in need.
Our CEO wrote the steps he’d follow if he were an accountant looking at targeting a niche.
Firstly, you don’t need ~100k, you would take $25k and put the rest away for a rainy day.
Pick a vertical you love, are passionate about, or have knowledge in. Something that you can completely get your teeth into. Did you have a passion before accounting, or what are you hobbies now? It might be animals—choose vets. It might be beer — choose craft brewers. It might be wine — choose vintners. What about the sharing economy? There’s an accounting firm that devotes itself to that (expanding) vertical. Estimated cost: $0.
Involve yourself completely in that vertical. Understand the language/ jargon your target clients use. Just by way of example, I always remember as a young salesperson at Oracle selling into the local Police force — their users were “members”; not “customers”, or “resources” or “personnel”, but “members”. Yours might be “drivers”, or “doctors”, or something other than the generic “clients”. Estimated cost: $0.
Write more content than you can poke a stick at about accounting in that vertical. What are the accounting and business implications for doctors dealing with Medicaid? Uber drivers have depreciation benefits they can claim. Craft brewers must have all kinds of local community organic benefits or similar — I’ve no idea, but you can find that stuff if you’re passionate about it. Even better, utilize Scripted or a similar service to help generate your content — as long as you provide a strong and comprehensive brief. On my commute in the car I used to blog every day by talking into the phone and getting that transcribed. Estimated cost: $0-$5,000.
G2.com
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