Mark Wickersham argues specialists earn more than generalists. His framework: pick a Sector (industry), Service (like tax planning), and Stage (business lifecycle). Narrow on one or more. Specialization increases perceived expertise and pulls clients from wider areas, not smaller ones.
Hi there, it's Mark Witcham here and today I want to share with you, how do you find your niche? And first, well, why is that important? Well, you probably heard many, many times that the specialist makes more money than the generalist. And that is absolutely true. I see many, many accounting professionals who specialize in a very narrow field, they make more money. Whereas, in contrast, firms that just take on anybody find themselves running ragged trying to deal with too many different types of client, too many different types of services, and they end up making less money and having less fun. So my big tip for you is you need to make sure you're really clear in your mind as to what is your niche, what is your ideal client profile? And what I want to share with you now is the three different types of niche to help you get some clarity in your mind. And they all begin with S. The first one is sector. Are there any particular sectors, in other words, trades, industries, professions that you particularly have an interest in and perhaps have already some clients in that sector? So that might be you want to specialise in, I don't know, doctors, dentists, the legal profession. It could be contractors, it could be the IT industry. What is the industry that you are most fascinated by? And you should build that into a niche. Alternatively, the second S is service. It may be that there's a particular aspect of what you do which is the most of interest to you, the one that you're most passionate about. So this might be. It could be tax planning, it could be business growth, it could be helping clients with their cloud accounting systems, what is it that you love to do? And once again, the more narrowly defined that is, the more you'll be seen as being the expert and ultimately you'll win more business. So if, for example, it's tax, try to be more specific. It may be. It's specifically corporate tax, it might be tax, it might be tax around inheritance tax. The more specific you are and the more you focus on that sector, that service industry type, the more you will become seen as the expert and the more you'll win extra business.
And the third possibility is the stage. In other words, think about the life cycle of a client, of a business. It might be that you happen to specialise and enjoy working with business startups and all the challenges that brings. It might be at the other end of the spectrum, you might like to prefer dealing with clients that are coming up to perhaps retirement age, they're looking to sell their business. Exit planning, there's wealth management. That could be an area of specialism.
And you don't have to restrict it to one of those three. You could further narrow it down by doing something across all those three. So it might be, for example, you decide you want to be known as the expert in the dental profession, but specifically tax planning for dentists. And it may be that you want to specialise in tax planning for dentists who are starting their career and looking to buy their first dental practice. If that's your niche, then that will open up opportunities. For example, you might be asked to go and speak at dental school, at universities, of people who will be about to launch their career in dentistry. And you are best placed to be the first person they think of when they're ready to take that plunge.
One of the things that people say to me though, Mark, if I specialize, I'm closing down the opportunity to work with all those other types of clients, I'm closing down my market.
Paradoxically, though, the opposite happens. The more narrowly focused you become, the more you specialize in a very narrow area, the more you become seen as the expert, and the more you are seen as the expert, the more people seek you out. Not just in your local area, people will travel further to come and work with you.
If you like that video, please click the like button below. So I know that this is valuable and if you'd like some more help with being seen as the expert and having people queuing up to want to work with you, I put a link below where you can click on it and find out more about my video training program. Becoming the sought after expert. Thank you and I'll see you again very soon.
Effective Pricing Training: Mastering Software Settings for Optimised Pricing
Can Pricing Be Done in Writing? How to Handle Value Conversations Without Calls
