A restaurant owner looks at four bookkeeping websites. All four describe reliable, friendly support for small businesses. None of them mention takings, staff tips, wastage, supplier credit notes or the fact that his month ends on a Sunday.
He picks the cheapest, because nothing else distinguished them.
Why generic pages lose
Because every practice makes the same claims. Reliable, friendly, local and experienced describe everybody, so the only remaining variable is price.
What specificity does instead
A page that names the actual problems of a trade tells a business owner that somebody understands it. That is worth considerably more than a lower monthly fee.
Trades and construction
Subcontractor arrangements, retentions, applications for payment, materials on account and jobs that span periods. Builders assume a bookkeeper will not understand any of it.
Hospitality
Daily takings, tips and service charges, stock and wastage, suppliers on weekly credit and trading patterns that do not match calendar months.
Ecommerce
Marketplace settlements, payment processor fees, returns, multi currency sales, stock held elsewhere and platform fees deducted before money arrives, which is the world in how chatbots answer is this in stock instantly territory for their operations generally.
Professional services
Work in progress, billing on account, disbursements and the distinction between what has been earned and what has been invoiced.
Salons and personal services
Card takings, commission arrangements, chair rental, retail alongside services and a high volume of small transactions.
Property and landlords
Income per property, agent statements, deductible and non deductible costs, mortgages and the need for figures per unit rather than in total.
Charities and nonprofits
Restricted funds, grant reporting, donations and the reporting a board actually needs. It is specialist work and generalists frequently decline it.
Transport and logistics
Fuel, vehicle costs, driver hours, tolls and a great many small receipts collected in cabs over several weeks. Operators want somebody who understands that the paperwork arrives in a carrier bag on a Friday rather than in a tidy monthly upload.
Agriculture and rural businesses
Seasonal income, grants and subsidies, diversified activities on one holding and assets that behave differently from a laptop. It is a distinct world and a practice that names it stands out immediately in a rural area.
Write a page for each trade you serve
Three or four paragraphs naming the specific issues, what you do about them and what it costs. It is the highest converting content a practice can publish.
Name the software each trade uses
Because trade specific systems exist and a practice that supports them is immediately more useful, which is the ground in software and handover questions when switching bookkeepers.
Say what you do not serve
Sectors outside your experience, with an honest referral. It makes the specialisms credible and costs you nothing you would have enjoyed.
Price by trade where it differs
Because transaction volumes and complexity differ enormously, which belongs with monthly bookkeeping package questions.
Answer trade specific questions at any hour
Because business owners do their admin in the evening, which is also where trade customers ask about accounts, as in trade account applications that stall and answering service area questions.
Getting started
Publish a page per trade naming the specific problems, the software and the price, then answer sector questions at any hour. SpideyChat for accountants and bookkeepers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.