It takes something special to be in the Top 100 ProAdvisors. Some will say, "Murph, that sounds stuck-up to say someone must be special."
Well, perhaps the word special is the wrong term—maybe I mean niche.
When we talk about niche, we are really talking about a niche practice because that's what corresponds to our Niche Practice Categorical Award, which makes up one major aspect of our Top 100 Awards process.
So what do we mean when we use the term niche?
If you think about specialization, you are somewhat in the right frame of mind. But physicians specialize and we don't refer to them as having a niche practice. Niche practices tend to find a specific need, not just a specific characteristic like a specialization. And those needs tend to be unique and identifiable.
Moreover, from a practice standpoint, we hope a niche has not just a viable, but rewarding economic potential. The purpose of establishing a niche practice is to foster financial windfall associated with serving the clients who make up the niche.
It probably is far better to talk about a niche practice from a practice example standpoint than using theoretical concepts.
So let's look at a few practical examples—and what better practical examples than past recipients of Insightful Accountant's Niche Practice ProAdvisor Categorical Award?
Caren Schwartz
Starting in 2014, the Categorical Award for Niche Practice was awarded to Caren Schwartz. Caren already was a recognized expert among ProAdvisors for her work with law firms, having taught numerous sessions at both the Sleeter and Woodard events before being recognized by Insightful Accountant.
Caren worked with almost any system lawyers used for time-keeping and billing, and integrated those systems with QuickBooks (Desktop) at that time. She already was starting the plunge into cloud-based systems even as what we know as the QBO of today was beginning to emerge.
Caren has continued to expand her practice into an ever-growing number of cloud offerings that today's law firms find best fit their practice requirements while integrating with QuickBooks.
There is no doubt that she already had a substantial niche practice.
Gita Faust
Regarding property management and real estate accounting, Gita Faust is the expert's expert. That's why she received the Insightful Accountant's Categorical Award for Niche Practice in 2015.
Gita already was a nationally recognized consultant, educator, author and trainer on properly managing and accounting for any property and real estate aspect. For example, her book, "Commercial Property Management for Managers," which revolved around QuickBooks Desktop, was written to help property managers discover quick and easy solutions to their financial and property management needs.
That's just one of more than two dozen texts and workbooks Gita had developed surrounding her chosen niche. She already was rewriting many of her QB Desktop books for QuickBooks Online when she was notified of her award in 2015.
Her practice expanded into what many would refer to as a multi-focal brand, remaining true to the origins of property management and real estate—the core of her niche.
Diane Gilson
Diane Gilson is more than a job-costing advisor or QuickBooks construction specialist. She is a noted guru in everything related to the construction industry from a job costing and accounting standpoint. That's why she was the recipient of the Niche Practice Categorical Award in 2016.
Diane not only understands these areas down to the last detail, but she also possesses an unmistakable feel for these businesses and their numbers, both the obvious and hidden ones. This is an understanding that means the differences between helping make a business successful or leaving it to go by the wayside.
Diane has developed not only the processes and methodologies to help construction companies with their financial set-up (of QuickBooks Desktop or QBO), but with configuring it in such a way to access the vital information they need to improve their business in critical areas like sales, management and profitability.
In addition, she helps construction business owners, managers and personnel understand industry metrics and key performance indicators that can make a difference.
Diane also is a prolific writer/trainer, having developed instructional materials from which she provides the foundations of her niche practice to her chosen clientele. Her success in expanding all aspects of her practice was a large part of the caliber of the numbers supporting her ProAdvisor credentials in 2022, when she was recognized as Insightful Accountant's ProAdvisor of the Year.
About now, you might be thinking, "If you do something well, why do anything else?"
If you are inclined to think that way, you might be heading toward a niche practice of your own.
Once such ProAdvisor recipient of Insightful Accountant's Niche Practice Categorical Award is:
William English
You could say William English is an accountant, since he holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a focus on Accountancy. Or, you can say he must be a QuickBooks Guru since he worked for an extended period of time for Intuit Technical Support, beginning with the first DOS version.
But neither of that is William's niche. As it turns out, he was recruited by Intuit to transition to QuickBooks Point-of-Sale with its release of Version 2—and he has been working with QB-POS ever since.
By 2019 he was the master of all masters' of Point-of-Sale, after spending more than 20 years supporting clients using the software. That's one reason Insightful Accountant recognized him as our Niche Practice Categorical Award recipient that year.
William has authored numerous POS-related training manuals and content, and provided extensive instruction for the Sleeter and Woodard conferences for many years.
As with many of our other niche practice award recipients mentioned in this article, William has continued to expand his repertoire of point-of-sale solutions to meet his clientele's growing and sophisticated demands.
In my next installment, I will discuss a few additional Niche Category Award recipients. Next, we will look at how these exemplary (special) individuals fit the standard1 that is our Niche Practice Category for the Top 100 Awards.
If you intend to participate in this year's Top 100 Awards process, you don't want to miss this series.
Footnotes and Disclosures
1 - The Niche (Specialized Practice) ProAdvisor Category is based upon various scoring criteria relative to the category including training, certifications, years of experience, client reviews and peer evaluation (as evidenced by the contributory vote). Niche Award Recipients must demonstrate the skills, knowledge and abilities needed to master one or more QuickBooks products for the purpose of providing highly specialized (niche) ProAdvisor services on behalf of their clients in an area of specialization and related areas. The highest ranked applicant based upon the standard established by Insightful Accountant for the Niche (Specialized Practice) category shall be the recipient of the Categorical Award.
As used herein, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Point-of-sale and other QuickBooks products refer to one or more registered trademarks of Intuit Inc.; a NASDAQ publicly traded "INTU" corporation, headquartered in Mountain View, California (USA).
Any or all other trade names used herein, including any other vendor (app/software) products discussed within this article, may be registered, trademarked, or otherwise held by their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. They are referenced for informational and educational purposes only.
This is an editorial feature, not sponsored content. None of the vendors within this article have paid Insightful Accountant or the Author any form of remuneration to be included within this feature. This article is provided solely for informational and educational purposes.
The publication of this article does not represent any form of endorsement by either the Author or Insightful Accountant.
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