Why is it that the legal and medical professions seem to have such a proliferation of niches and specialties, while the accounting profession in general professes it’s ability to handle everything?

I know there are dozens of credentials that branch out claiming to be specialties, such as the Certified Internal Auditor, the Certified Fraud Examiner, the Enrolled Agent, the Certified Management Accountant, to name just a few. But few, other than maybe the Enrolled Agent and the Certified Fraud Examiner seem to have gathered any real traction in the mind of buyers of services.

In the news recently I was reminded of how varied niches can be for your practice and for your practice building arsenal when I stumbled across the story about Mantyhose and their introduction into the United states.

I guess most men didn’t know they needed a male version of pantyhose. They probably have trouble picturing themselves wearing a lovely dove-gray pair of Mantyhose under their jeans.

But, it’s here, whether we like it or not, and it highlights how unique and specific the particular niche you select can be. Your biggest hurdle is going to be deciding if there are enough potential fees to be generated in the market you want to serve.

I’m starting to become a blog-a-holic I think. Wandering around seeing what all the accounting guru’s are writing about. Yesterday I was reading Marty Koenig’s blog and it set me to thinking.

Marty is a freelance CFO for small firms who can’t afford a full-time CFO. He steps in and manages the in-house accounting duties, leaving the year-end work to the outside accountant. You know, the taxes and any legal reporting that require an attest function. All of his work is done on premises and with the firms tools and systems.

Sounds like a cool gig to me.

Yesterday in my post about What Do You Write Abut Part #2, I talked about a preacher by the name of Chuck Warnock at a small church in Chatham, Virginia., and his blog post “It’s Like Herding Pigs.”

In his post, Doug talks about a lady by the name of Mary Haugh who actually needed to herd pigs after her husband had suffered debilitating heart attacks and was no longer able to herd them into the barn.

Mary’s husband was a pig farmer, and like many other pig farmers, he used a “longboard” to squeeze the pigs in to the barn. Longboards were typically used by farmers in their neighborhood because pigs, being ornery and interested only in their self interests, didn’t react positively to things like cattle prods and other forms of aggressive manipulation.

If you haven’t read yesterday’s post What Do You Write About? Part #1, then click here and read it first. We’ll be continuing from the point where that post ended.

Meaning, you’ll now have a listing of results that show all the blogs Google thinks you want to know about, who have recently written on the subject you entered in the search box. Your next step is to start going through them one by one and scanning them to see what is being written on your topic.

Article, report and whitepaper writing continue to lead the pack as things you can write to generate interest in your practice and establish your credentials as an authority figure. What is always hard is developing a list of topics to write on developing those ideas into a topic.

In either an earlier post or an email to the members of the Instant Practice Builder (http://instantpracticebuilder.com), I mentioned that one of the best ways to develop subject matter is to make a note of the question a client has when they call you and find an angle to turn that question and your answer into an article or report.

As most of my regular readers know, I’m an old, tired and ugly retired accountant. This internet blogging thing is sort of new to me, so I wander around looking for the wisdom of the gurus and try to distill some of it every now and then into something that will make me look brilliant and worthy of being listened to.

So, earlier today I was checking out the competition … you know, all the other blogs on how to market bookkeeping, accounting and tax services that I could find, and I stumbled across Ric Willmot’s blog ( http://www.ricwillmot.com/ ) and was struck by his quote from Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo who said that he expected to find 6,000 people crazy enough to buy a Ferrari in 2009.

Have you ever stopped to think about where you make your money? Do you sell consulting services, or are you in the product business? Do you really know?

Of course you can look at your sales register and identify the categories your revenues are allocated to … X% here, Y% there, and so on. But stop for a moment and think about a couple of things. what does the man with the hot dog cart need? He needs a horde of hungry hot dog aficionados. What does the guy who goes into the store looking for a shovel want? He wants a hole. Have you ever thought that maybe there should be a way to categorize your sales by needs fulfilled rather than item or service?

One of the worries that most new bookkeepers and accountants have when they start trying to start a speaking program as part of their practice building is how to get speaking engagements.

Unlike making a cold sales call, making a cold call on an organization or club is a piece of cake. Most all activity directors or meeting coordinators are starved for ideas about what to do or present at their next meeting. Think about it, they’re human just like you and they’re limited by their exposure and experience.

You, on the other hand, are not trying to “get something form them,” you are solving the problem of what to do at the next luncheon or dinner meeting.

Today is the first day of 2009 and here I finally join in with most every other guru wannabe and make the obligatory first of the year post. Ain’t it great?

For the past few days I have been getting organized. My next task is to set some goals, and start acquiring members, so I can afford to hire coders to complete some of the projects for the members. Being retired means I don’t need a lot of cash to live on and can afford to plow most of it back into the membership, but it also means I can’t do a lot of spending from my own resources because at this stage in life I want to hang onto what I set aside. Sort of a “Catch-22″ type situation.

So, as of today, I have committed to a daily blog post of some sort, an article or two about the membership site, and a few other things to let people know about the site. Pretty much using the online version of what I espouse for local practitioners.