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How to find a niche in accountancy

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While accounting is often viewed as a homogenous profession, there are actually many different types of accounting – because there are many different kinds of business to provide services to.

If you are setting up your own small accountancy business, then it’s important to find your own niche in the industry.

Advantages of having an accountancy niche

While deliberately narrowing your market might seem strange, creating a niche is sensible and advisable for a number of reasons.

  • Stand out from the competition
    There are thousands of accountancy businesses out there, so you need to set yourself apart from the other accountants by giving yourself a unique selling point. 

  • Helps you market yourself
    By having a niche, you can better market yourself by choosing how and where to advertise. With a niche customer market in mind, you will be able to brand your business in a way which will appeal to your target market.
  • Helps clients find you
    Beyond helping you to approach prospective clients, it will also help prospective clients to find you. To aid this process, consider building a strong online presence and encouraging clients to recommend you via word of mouth.

  • Utilises your expertise
    As you work within your niche, you will get the chance to utilise your particular specialist skills.

  • Gives you expert status
    Having a niche will allow you to build up a reputation and credentials as an expert within your given field of accountancy. Having the status of being an expert will help you to gain more clients and also to charge more for your services.

Know the different niches out there

While there are as many different niches you could explore as there are types of profession, it’s useful to have an idea of the main industries in need of niche accounting.

These are:

  • Medical – including hospitals, private practices, doctors, dentists and other health professionals
  • Hospitality – including restaurants, cafes and bars
  • Franchises
  • Tech companies
  • Science and research companies
  • Legal firms

How do I find my own accountancy niche?

If you’ve already been an accountant for a few years, perhaps working for someone else in a company or even in your own general accountancy business, you may already have a speciality in mind.

If you don’t yet have a niche in mind, here are some questions to ask yourself:

  • 1. Who are your regular clients?

    While you can always change your main client pool, it may well be that you have already begun establishing your own niche without realising it.

    If you already have a number of clients from the same field, then you might already have begun establishing yourself as an expert in a particular field.

  • 2. Which work do you enjoy most?

    Choosing a niche which involves work that you enjoy is going to help you to become more successful since you will be doing work which motivates you. Do not underestimate the importance of enjoying the work you do and liking the type of clients you will be dealing with.

  • 3. What are you best at?

    This is likely to go hand in hand with the previous question, as we tend to be best at doing the things we enjoy (and vice versa).

  • 4. What other training and experience have you had?

    When it comes to starting your own niche accountancy business, it’s not only your work as an accountant which is relevant. Indeed, you may have had other work or life experience which will influence the type of industries that you would be good at (and enjoy) working with. For example, if you grew up with parents who were dairy farmers, then you are likely to have expert knowledge which would help you to make an excellent accountant for agricultural businesses. If you were previously trained in the performing arts, then you might make an excellent accountant for arts businesses.

  • 5. What is most needed in your surrounding area?

    While in today’s digital age, you need not feel limited to working solely within your geographical area. However, many people prefer to deal with an accountant that they can know and build a personal connection with. Therefore, choosing to work in your local community could give you additional appeal. For example, if you live in an area where there are many science and research businesses, then it would be sensible to consider whether this could be an avenue you would like to pursue. 

Having a niche accountant will benefit clients

A final, but no less significant, advantage to consider is that having a niche will benefit your clients too. The more niche your services are, the more knowledgeable you will become about your clients’ industry. This will keep them happy and keep returning to you with their business.

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