In this short business tip, Mike Michalowicz (author of Profit First) explains why accounting professionals should focus on extremely narrow market segments rather than broad categories. He defines a true niche as a specific client type with a recurring, consistent need that the accountant can reliably solve. Using a doctor analogy, he contrasts general practitioners—who attract many low‑price, low‑effort clients—with specialists—who attract clients willing to travel far and pay premium fees for critical, specialized services. Michalowicz argues that accountants who become specialists can command higher fees, face little competition, and achieve rapid growth. He offers a practical roadmap: choose an industry that most accountants ignore (e.g., tire repair shops, mechanics, Perl developers), research how many accountants already serve that niche, and look for related professional associations. By becoming the go‑to accounting expert for that community—through meetings, podcasts, blogs, and other outreach—the accountant can position themselves as the sole specialist, set premium rates, and grow quickly.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First, and I've teamed up with Intuitive Accountant to bring you this tip. The riches are in the niches. Too many accounting professionals believe that a niche is any entrepreneur, any business owner in any category that needs service. That is definitely not a niche. If you target small and medium-sized businesses, that is definitely not a niche. Anything that's broad and has varying needs is It's not a niche. The definition of a niche is a specific client category that has a recurring need that you can fix consistently. In fact, it's niche focus that brings about rapid growth. The parallel I like to share is with doctors. There's general practitioners and there are specialists. If you and I had a conversation about a need to go to the doctor for maybe something as simple as a skin rash, and I said, "You know, where I am in northern New Jersey, in the Boonton area, there is this great doctor. His name is Seth Levy. He's fantastic. He's a great general practitioner. I highly recommend him to check out your little rash." Unless you live in the Boonton area, which I suspect you don't, you would laugh at me. That is absurd for you to drive so far to see a general practitioner. The rule of the general practitioner is the general practitioner attracts general clients with general needs. And that generally won't go to an extraordinary effort to acquire that service. The discussion around specialists is radically different. Say for example you and I are having a conversation again, but this time you talk about a scare you had with your heart. And I say, "You know, I actually recently had a heart attack. I found the world's best specialist right here in the Boonton, New Jersey area. His name is Dr. Seth Levy, and he's a phenomenal doctor. He knows everything about the hearts. He can do pre-diagnostics and heart surgery if that's necessary." I highly recommend him. In this circumstance, I suspect you'd be willing to travel the extra distance. In fact, people travel the globe to work with the world's best specialists when their life is on the line. The lesson from specialists is this: specialized doctors attract special customers with special needs that will make an extraordinary effort to acquire those services. Well, this lesson isn't just true for doctors. It's also true for your business. You can be a generalist and attract the general audience with general needs that will generally push you down in price because they just want something convenient and cheap. Or you can be a specialist, so targeted in a category that when a client has a very specific need and they see— and their life, business life depends on it, they will seek out the use of a specialist, and that specialist can be you. Start targeting on a very specific customer. My tip, the easiest way to start is pick the industry. What industry can you cater to that accounting professionals typically don't? What industry can you pick? Could it be tire repair? Could it be mechanics? Could it be software developers that use Perl as the language? Pick a very specific category and do some research. See first how many accounting professionals are already competing for that niche. You won't be— I would be surprised if you find many competitors, usually 1, maybe 2, if any, are in that category. So by default, when you target that category, when you start catering to it, you're one of the top 1, 2, or 3 from day 1. But the second benefit, or the second way of approaching this, is to identify if there's an association affiliated with this niche. You see, if there's a tire repair association or a Perl programming language association That means that organization, that community believes there's enough knowledge that needs to be shared that they have formed a group to share information, and you could be the expert in accounting or bookkeeping in that category, attending those meetings or putting yourself in front of their community through podcasts and blogs and so forth. The lesson is real simple here: pick a niche, a very narrow niche, cater to it better than anyone else does. You'll be the only one in your profession doing it, and you'll be the only one seen as a specialist, and that means you'll be dictating a significant premium and growing pretty fast too.
