014: Niche Building 104: Spreading the Word about your Niche

Niche Building 104

Part 4 of 5 of the “Building a Niche” Mini-Series

This post is the fourth installment of five where we’re pulling the curtain back on exactly what we did to start an industry niche focused on construction and trades businesses.

So here we are – previously you’ve heard:

101:  Why/How We Decided to Niche

• Taking the plunge on nicheing
• Deciding on construction and trades

102:  How We Started a Niche (aside from just saying we had one)

• Finding a place that not only had our niche clients but also provided a great source of education on this industry
• Committing fully to getting in the room with people in the industry
• Focusing more on “getting smart” than on selling our services
• Using our website to prove we were serious about the niche

103:  What We Did WITHIN the Firm to Reinforce the Niche

• Designating certain Lanterns – and therefore the team within them – to be niche-specific
• Creating a “Construction Crew” to collaborate on niche-specific knowledge
• Finding colleagues also in our niche and collaborating with them on a monthly basis

Now it’s time to start having great conversations!

Create Your “Storyline”

Believe it or not, even after doing all of the work described in Part 3, we still had to work at what we’ll call “our storyline”.  This happened through our Construction Crew conversations, discovery calls with clients, reading articles, talking with Home Building Association (HBA) of Greater Portland members, thinking about how to word things on the website, etc.  The more we talked about the issues we were hearing about and how we might solve for them, a storyline started to appear, which goes something like this:

• We have chosen construction/trades clients for a reason
  
• We’ve identified our “ideal client profile” that will provide a BEST. EXPERIENCE. EVER. for our team and therefore a BEST. EXPERIENCE. EVER. for the client
  
• We believe that there is a hierarchy of services we offer but they form a pyramid:
  
  • the base of the pyramid is our Reflect on the Past package which ensure that you have books you BELIEVE – if a potential client hasn’t achieved this yet, this is where we start
    
  • The middle of the pyramid is our Focus on the Present package – once you have financials you believe (the base of the pyramid), you can start to focus on cashflow
    
  • The top of the pyramid is our Illuminate the Project package – once the base and the middle are in place, you can now focus at a project level and start getting real insights on how the business is running and what changes might be needed

• Let’s figure out where you are on the pyramid and therefore what package we should start with
  
• We understand typical pain points you may be facing – we have add ons for those if you want them

This storyline now dictates how your discovery process flows – this is what it meant for us:

1. “Flip the Switch” online survey
   This is the first step for any lead – it includes questions designed to flag someone that might be well outside our ideal client profile in terms of size, tech-savvy-ness, etc. as well as help determine where they are on the pyramid.  Any clearly non-ideal client profile leads are informed that we are not their BEST. EXPERIENCE. EVER. which saves time for everyone involved. 
   
2. “Dial it Up!” discovery conversation
   Those that might be a fit talk with a Luminary so that we can hear more and give them a chance to learn about Luma and our model.  This is also when we talk about any add ons that appeal to them.
   
3. Let’s Get Glowing”
   First, we perform a “Shine A Light” review – this “look under the hood” of your current books allows us to find anything lurking that will require cleanup and shows us what features are being used.
   
   Next, we present a “Glow Level” proposal that outlines the full scope of what we intend to provide for the investment you are making.
   
   And once an agreement is signed, our onboarding process begins which gets the new client comfortable with our online portal and lays out processes that that make them wonder why they didn’t do this sooner 🙂 

Pricing for a Niche

We’ve been hearing from industry leaders for several years that the deeper you niche, the higher your rates can go.  At first that sounded outrageous, but the more learning you do about your niche, the more you can truly talk your CLIENT’S language.  And the more you work with those clients, the more insight you gain.

Early on, we identified our three packages that fit for almost any client:

Reflect on the Past

Focus on the Present

Illuminate the Project

But the pricing for those packages starts to come into sharper focus when you know what businesses SHOULD look like based on their industry.  So we are now working on what the rate ranges should be for each package – and any tasks/services needed that other industries may not – that will make the most sense for the niche.

All in all, you could almost say that becoming a “generalist” bookkeeper is like attending college – you get a well-rounded education on the needs of businesses in general.  Nicheing, on the other hand, feels like getting a Masters degree in a specialty area which should make you all the more valuable to those niche clients and also give a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction to your team.

Next up:  Niche Building 105:  Being Brave

Wondering where your business falls on the pyramid; Reflect, Focus, or Illuminate?Luma Accounting, headquartered in Portland, Oregon and serving small businesses across the U.S., helps construction and trades companies identify what level of bookkeeping and accounting support makes the most sense right now. Contact us to start the conversation and see what your next level could look like.