When I started my own firm, I found myself doing it all — audits, tax returns, bookkeeping. It wasn’t long before I felt stretched too thin and overwhelmed. I was juggling too many different types of work, and it wasn’t sustainable. Over time, it was leading to burnout, capacity issues, and feeling that the business was running me instead of the other way around.
Sound familiar? It’s a situation that’s common in many small firms. Practitioners are incredibly capable, but many default to saying yes to everything. When firms specialize, however, they intentionally narrow their focus, allowing them to provide more value to clients and feel more connected to their work.
Smart steps to specialization
Creating a niche in your firm is about identifying your opportunities and deciding what changes will work for you. The following tips may help you discover and develop your particular focus.
Step back — even briefly — to reflect on what’s working and what’s not.
For Chris Picciurro, executive officer and co-founder of the 12-person Integrated CPA Group, that meant identifying what kind of work he loved best. “Let your best client pick your next client,” he said. That means considering which clients are the most profitable, represent the strongest and most satisfying relationships, have the greatest opportunity to grow, and provide the most professional satisfaction.
Review your base.
It’s also important to understand your current client and service mix. Doing an overview of my clients was eye‑opening: the majority were nonprofits. That wasn’t something I had intentionally planned; it had happened organically. Use AI or other technology to help you examine client types, services provided, profitability, and patterns you may not be aware of. You might discover that you already have a niche without having intentionally chosen one.
Take your time.
Don’t worry if you don’t see a clear answer right away. Your assessment may lead you to a new niche, but it may also simply help you identify the services you want to specialize in or define what your ideal client looks like. Either way, it gives you clarity going forward — clarity that allows you to be more intentional and more selective about clients.
Think less about perfection and more about progress.
You don’t have to have everything figured out to take a step forward. Whether it’s narrowing your focus, investing in technology, or rethinking services, small changes can have a big impact. Picciurro’s firm started slowly, taking a measured approach to identifying which clients to keep and which to refer elsewhere.
Remember that choosing a niche isn’t about closing doors — it’s about opening the right ones.
When you focus, you start to see opportunities everywhere, referrals increase, and before you know it, you have more work than you even need. This is because having a greater depth of knowledge in a particular field makes your services more valuable, and desirable, to clients who want or need a higher degree of expertise. A generalist is unlikely to provide the confidence a specialist can when applying nuanced guidance in complex practice areas.
For me, it was also about moving from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance. When you’re operating from scarcity, you tend to say yes to everything because you’re afraid the work will dry up. But once you shift to an abundance mindset, you find plenty of work and plenty of clients. Choosing a niche didn’t limit my firm — it helped it grow with purpose.
Keep in mind that relationships still matter — deeply.
Strong client relationships, clear communication, and trust are differentiators for small firms, especially in a world that’s becoming more automated. As AI replaces or supplements more routine finance and accounting processes, clients will want the reassurance that a person they know and trust is still in the loop, applying judgment and discernment. And while AI may be able to provide decent answers to general questions, it can’t replace an expert’s knowledge of complicated practice areas, the related legal and regulatory landscape, or the ability to troubleshoot unusual circumstances. The connections you’ve made, and that you will make as you grow your niche, will drive continued success.
Communicate your focus.
Specializing allowed me to brand myself as a nonprofit expert, and that reputation started to spread within the nonprofit community. At Picciurro’s firm, his URL — realestateCPA.guru — is one way he sets himself apart as an authority. “That tells people everything they need to know,” he said. To add value for clients while showcasing his expertise, he attends real estate–related conferences and has created content for continuing education programs that his realtor and property manager clients can use to meet National Association of Realtors requirements.
Spring into action
Busy season is an excellent time to consider a niche because it provides you with data, experiences, and insight you don’t have at other times of the year. Using that information intentionally — rather than just jumping into the next cycle — can be a powerful step toward building a more focused, sustainable, and fulfilling firm.
At the same time, remember that you’re not alone. You have a community of clients and referral sources to help you move forward and fellow CPAs who can offer advice in networking groups.
Related resources:
CPAs can turn to these tools in building their niches:
PCPS Client Disengagement and Termination Letter (download)
Right-Sizing Your Client Base (article)
Client Evaluation Tool (download)
Good Fit Client Tool (download)
Client Termination Practitioner Checklist and Notification Letter (download)
SFP 87: “A Revolution in ‘Right-Sizing’ a Client Base” (podcast)
Stephanie Otero, CPA, is the Association’s Vice President — Small Firm Advocate. Have questions for Stephanie? Contact her directly at stephanie.otero@aicpa-cima.com. To stay ahead on issues affecting CPA firms, the PCPS Small Firm Success Series offers strategies on staffing, technology, compliance, and practice management. The series is free to AICPA members and provides CPE.
We welcome your suggestions and feedback on how the AICPA can better support small firms.