I have been consulting and coaching to the SME sector for over 22 years. We are also fortunate at MAUS because we interact with hundreds of business owners each month when we sell them a range of software. We therefore get a feel for what services they are demanding.

I have listed what I feel to be a number of highly demanded segment opportunities for your practice.

Hot Segments for Advisors & Accountants
Most accountants and experienced business people that find themselves setting up a practice would be comfortable in the following profitable segments:

1. Business Planning. This segment has and always will be profitable because Business Plans are deadline driven, ie financial institutions and even some government agencies demand that you have one. The segment itself is fairly flat (in terms of year on year growth) until you find a government grant scheme that helps to fund the business advisors’ expense. There are a number of grant schemes available at the moment.

 

2. Exit & Succession: This is a good growing segment because of the baby boomers. It is personally a passion of mine as I built MAUS originally and sold it to a multi-national for millions of dollars. So teaching business owners on how to prepare the business for a possible future sale can be very rewarding.

3. General Business Coaching as opposed to consulting. This is still a growing segment as business owners become more accustomed to the idea of having a business coach.

4. Training: There are some government grant programs available that will fund 100% of the training of employees. These segments can be highly profitable.

 

Hot Segments - For Specialists

If you have specialist skills then consulting or coaching in the following areas can be highly profitable:

 

OHS (Occupational Health & Safety)

Quality Assurance

Human Resources (more around meeting legislative requirements and avoiding unfair dismissal rather than general HR.)

Carbon transfer schemes and specific environmental compliance to legislation and credits.

Business Valuation

Web marketing (good growth but pricing at a premium level is a problem because of competition)

 

 

As mentioned I am passionate in the area of Exit & Succession. I was fortunate to have been one of the founding members of the Institute of Exit Advisors and the author of one of Australia’s first ever certificate courses the “Exit & Succession Planning” certificate. I was also the first Australian to officially receive formal qualifications in Exit Planning from one of the leading authorities in USA.
I thought it might be opportune to highlight some key facts on this segment.

 

Why is the “Exit & Succession” Segment Highly Profitable?

 

Consider this: seventeen per cent of small business owners are planning to leave their business in the next two years and 40 per cent are aiming to leave in five years. Whether you live in Australia, USA, Canada, NZ, the UK or South Africa the research is the same. There are a massive amount of business owners that will be looking to retire over the coming years.

30%-40% of small business owners in Australia are now over 50 years of age and this rate is increasing each year. In Canada it is estimated that within the next 15 years, more than half of the country’s current small business owners will retire. In the US in 2001, 77 million Americans were 50 and older (comprising 28% of the population). By 2020 that segment will be 36% of the population.

There is no doubt that, as the baby boomers near retirement and the average age of small business owners increases, the age-old laws of supply and demand will come into play. In such a crowded marketplace business owners will need to present their business in an appealing, professional manner to stand out from the competition and achieve the maximum return.
In Australia 66% of business owners plan to use their business as their primary source of retirement income; 43% aim to realise a lump sum benefit from the business; and 31% expect an income stream.

For these people selling the business in order to retire, it is of paramount importance that the sale price will allow them to retire comfortably and not compromise their quality of life.

 

Research shows 70% of businesses think succession and exit strategy planning is important but only 12% have a documented plan. Unsurprisingly, the main motivating factor for the creation of a plan is age. A major impediment to succession planning is that most entrepreneurs don’t understand the drivers that underpin the creation of an exit strategy. Selling a business is a marketing exercise that requires planning, preparation and a compelling pitch. An exit strategy needs to be achievable and have a realistic timeframe and measurable milestones.