Danetha Doe
As an accountant, the sooner you determine your niche the easier it will be to position yourself as a trusted advisor and begin to attract your ideal clients. Also known as a vertical, your niche is a very specific target group that you invest time, money and energy to market to. For example, when I first launched my bookkeeping business, my niche was high-end fashion boutiques and beauty brands. I attended networking events catered to that group and created content that addressed their specific needs.
Are you nervous about choosing a niche because you don’t want to leave anybody out? Here’s the thing, if you are marketing to everybody then you are marketing to nobody. Narrowing your focus will save you time, money and energy because you dedicating your resources to one area. And it will give you the opportunity to hone in on the specific needs of your clients, so you can better advise them on next steps in their business.
Here are 10 steps to help you define, and find, your niche.
- The first step is to do a thorough assessment of your skills and match them with your passions. If you love sports, what are some skills that you can provide to personal trainers or athletes? Do you love architecture and exceptionally skilled at budgeting and process improvement? Working as an outsourced CFO for architect firms may be your jam. Start by making a list of passions and your skillset and circle the ones that stand out to you.
- The next step is to choose one industry to focus on for the next 90 days. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen (and I’ve been guilty of this too!) is that accountants can tend to jump from one niche to another if they don’t immediately see traction. Or, even worse, they market to everybody. Which is draining - both emotionally and financially. Choose one industry to focus on and stick with it for one quarter. At the end of the quarter, you can assess if its worth sticking with that industry or moving on to another one.
- Now that you’ve defined your niche, it’s time to go find them! The first place to check is your local market. Use Yelp to get a sense of how many of these folks are within a 50 mile radius from you. Although you can work with anyone in the world due to technology, establishing a home base will help you create a solid foundation and springboard once you are ready to expand.
- Choose the Top 10 listed on Yelp as your research subjects. I recommend creating an Excel spreadsheet that lists the name of the company, the name of the CEO, the name of your potential main contact (if different than the CEO), the website address, and social media accounts.
- Once you have created the sheet, do a LinkedIn search of the CEO and your main contact. Join any of the groups that they are a part of and read any articles they have posted on the profile. Start engaging with them by leaving a comment on their articles or on their group posts.
- Next, you want to do some research on the company. This is to familiarize yourself with their industry and their current events. A quick google search of the company name, under the news tab, will give you any media mentions that the company has been in. What are some of the trends you are seeing across the 10 companies? How might these trends affect their accounting, financial and cash flow management?
- Create a list of the industry publications and conferences. What are the national and international media sources and events for your industry? Make a list of five and familiarize yourself with their content and the main media contact. You may want to attend a couple of these conferences so you can meet potential clients in person.
- Attend local meetups and ask questions. Schedule a one on one strategy session to get to know their challenges and introduce yourself.
- Begin drafting content that is relevant to your industry. Create content that addresses the challenges they are facing. The same ones they shared during your strategy sessions.
- Post the content on your site and share it via LinkedIn and pitch the publications. You can also share it with potential clients for feedback and input.
Now that you’ve identified your niche, the next step is to build a name for your practice as the go-to resource. Be on the lookout for our next post, “Stop Selling. Start Attracting. Ten steps to become the sought-after financial professional within your niche.”
About Danetha Doe: Danetha is the creator of Money & Mimosas and the host of the Future of Accounting podcast where she covers emerging technologies and their impact on the accounting profession. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter for more insights on the future of accounting.