How To Grow A Successful Accounting Firm In A Narrow Niche

Key takeaways

• Focus on a single niche to build real expertise, sharpen your marketing, and attract better-fit clients.
• Disqualify the wrong clients as deliberately as you qualify the right ones, since bad-fit clients drain time and energy.
• Stay current with cloud technology so your firm stays relevant and can serve clients from anywhere.
• Rethink low-return tactics like event sponsorships in favor of teaching and partnerships that show real value.

Who is your target audience?

Our target audience is small, tech-forward law firms. Working exclusively in that niche has let us position ourselves as experts while building relationships with industry partners. We are actively engaged with the cloud-based legal community (law firms that utilize cloud technology for services such as payments and client intake) and we do a lot of education for lawyers.

Can you describe trends you have seen concerning sales in your business?

As we have a narrow niche, disqualifying the wrong customers has become just as important as qualifying the right ones. At this point, we have an excellent idea of who the right customers are for us (both demographic and psychographic), and we have been able to lean into growing our value, standing, and reputation with that group. Interestingly, COVID was pretty positive for our business—not only have we been totally in the cloud since well before COVID started, but the pandemic forced the legal industry to reckon with technology, accelerating tech comfort and adoption across the entire legal space.

What advice would you give to other small business owners looking to grow their businesses?

Niche down: our first tip is to start niching into a space rather than trying to be all things to all people. In addition to helping focus your marketing efforts, niching allows you to become an expert in a particular arena. Tip 1.5 is to remember that niching doesn’t need to be all or nothing at first—rather, if you have clients you like, try and grow your business in that industry until it makes sense to go all-in.
Stay current with technology: our second tip is to stay current with technological advances. While change can be difficult, for your business to stay relevant, you have to keep up with the times so that you don’t get left behind!

Have you ever tried out a strategy that proved unsuccessful for your business?

One of the strategies we haven’t had much success with is in-person event sponsorship. As accountants, we encourage our customers to consider the ROI they’ll get on the money they spend, and for us, the cost of sponsoring events (such as through local Bar associations) rarely pays off.

When we reflect back on why they weren’t a good fit, a couple of things come to mind. First, even if events were for lawyers, we felt that participants were at a particular event for a specific reason, and that was rarely to talk to vendors. Second, merely having a table with swag and collateral didn’t allow us the opportunity to demonstrate our knowledge and value. Instead of straight sponsorships, we’ve sought out opportunities to partner with organizations more substantively, often teaching workshops or engaging in attorney communities, rather than just advertising our firm. These sorts of things bring value to the organizations we work with and to the attendees.

What advice would you give to your past self before opening your own business?

It’s better to have no business than a bad business!
Throughout KORE’s history, there have been several customers that took a disproportionate amount of our team’s time and energy and gave us an inordinate amount of grief. As a “recovering perfectionist” and someone who always wants to do a great job for everyone, I struggled with these customers for far longer than I should have. I have since realized that some people aren’t the right two-way fit, and that’s okay!
While it can be hard to turn down revenue in the short term, it’s important to remember that taking on the wrong customers comes with its costs.

Inna Korenzvit is the founder and Principal Accountant at KORE Accounting Solutions since 2012.

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