Niche Building 101
Part 1 of 5 of the “Building a Niche” Mini-Series
We touched on “To Niche or Not to Niche…” in our #8 post but we’re ready to draw back the curtain on EVERYTHING related to nicheing! This post is the first installment of five where we’re giving a behind-the-scenes view of exactly what we did to start an industry niche focused on construction and trades businesses.
As a firm providing bookkeeping and accounting services, we’ve seen how powerful specialization can be for both our team and our clients.
Why Niche at All?
If you are a firm owner – particularly in bookkeeping/accounting – you may have heard A LOT of discussion about “nicheing” and maybe you’ve toyed with some of the same questions that we had…
- If we niche, won’t that make it harder to find clients?
- Won’t that mean turning business away?
- We love getting to see all kinds of different industries and sizes of clients – what if we get bored?
- And most importantly, Is it pronounced “nitch-ing” (U.S. version) or “neesh-ing” (Canadian version)?
In the end, we decided to believe in the supposed magic of nicheing because the idea of knowing something REALLY WELL would allow us to not only know specific pain points across virtually all of the clients in the niche, but also know how to FIX them even before we talk to them.
How Do You Choose a Niche?
There is a lot of advice about how to choose a niche but for us, the decision happened pretty organically. One day late in 2024, Heather suddenly said, “We should niche in construction and trades.” That was the spark that started a flame that has turned into a bit of a bonfire (in a great way).
There were several things that made construction/trades a great niche for us:
- Luma had years of experience with construction and trades businesses
Kim and Heather had been supporting these clients before the merger into Luma. We had seen a lot of the unique requirements of these industries – and we’d seen a lot of examples of the way businesses probably SHOULDN’T do things 🙂 Not only did we know we could serve the specific needs of these businesses, we ENJOYED it. - Buildings/homes – and the labor that produces them – cannot be offshored
The U.S. economy has shifted dramatically over the past few decades – we don’t “build things” domestically the way we used to. So many of the products we buy are manufactured overseas and the workers for many professional services industries – including accounting – are also now sourced overseas as a way for businesses to cut costs and increase margins.
But importing homes/buildings into the U.S. isn’t feasible. Plumbing problems can’t be solved by someone halfway around the world. Electrical systems, roads, roofs, framing – these require skilled people, on-site, doing real work. At Luma, we’ve made the intentional decision to operate with a 100% U.S.-based team, and we love supporting businesses that do the same. Luma Accounting, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, serves small businesses across the United States, and choosing construction and trades as our niche wasn’t just strategic – it truly aligned with our values. - AI isn’t going to build you a home. Or install new wiring and fixtures.
At Luma, we are all about innovation, including using AI wherever it might take over lower level tasks to allow our team to focus on higher-level value and advisory. AI is disrupting virtually every industry and construction/trades are going to find ways to employ it to work smarter and more efficiently – but it should be a long time (if ever) before it’s able to take over the role of contractors.
And here’s what came to light as we talked with construction/trades clients over the years:
- Most, if not all, business owners got started by doing a trade
- Few have any formal business training – they’re typically figuring out how to run a business on their own, on-the-fly
- ALL of them hate “accounting speak”
We have felt a really high level of satisfaction when helping these business owners not just survive, but THRIVE by taking something they hate – but really need – off their plate.
So now, we’ve made the decision to niche. Clients are just going to magically start showing up, right??
Next up: Niche Building 102 – Where do we start??
If you run a construction or trades business and need reliable bookkeeping or accounting services, we’d love to talk. Learn more about our services here: https://lumaaccounting.com/industry/construction-trades/
