Consultant flags niche market opportunity

Smithink director David Smith believes smaller accounting firms looking to change their business strategy in the new year should consider business advisory services targeting a niche client market.

“Clients would love to have an adviser who is an expert in their industry and can provide a high level of insight about how if they are an operator in that particular industry they may be able to achieve better results,” said Mr Smith.

“The firms that I am seeing with a lot of success are those that have targeted particular industries and then developed the high degree of skill to be able to provide high quality advice to players in that industry so I do think that's an opportunity but it requires a fair degree of focus and effort from firms to be successful.

“You can't just put up your shingle and say you're an expert without actually developing all of the skills behind it.”

While there are already accounting firms operating in niche markets, Mr Smith believes there is still an opportunity on the horizon as numbers are currently low.

It wouldn't matter what market you're in, I think you would find there are some accountants specialising in that market [already] but there are opportunities for more accountants to do so,” added Mr Smith.

“You can take the aged care industry as one example, there's accounting firms that specialise in musicians and theatrical performers, or people who specialise in pharmacy and retail so all of those are great niches and whilst I don't think there is a glaring gap here, I do think the profession could support more firms specialising in industries because the number that do it is relatively small.”