Hollinden

There is a meaningful difference between a firm that does concentrated work in an industry and a firm that has built a defensible position in it.

A genuine specialty practice has documented systems designed around the niche, staff trained in it with bench depth that is not dependent on a single partner, a referral network mapped to the specific vertical, and a market presence that makes the expertise visible before a prospect initiates contact. Firms that have claimed a specialty without building that infrastructure tend to discover the distinction quickly when a sophisticated client or referral source examines it closely.

According to https://hubs.ly/Q04jrrXz0's State of the Profession data, firms with clearly defined target markets grow 23 percent faster than generalists. That differential compounds. The practical question worth putting to your leadership team: where is your firm already billing above its average rate, and what does that reveal about where the real specialty lives?

We wrote about what it takes to formalize that position and build the platform around it.

https://hubs.ly/Q04jrplM0"

"Do you use AI?" used to be a curiosity question. It is becoming a client evaluation question.

The firms that handle it well are not the ones with the most sophisticated tools. They are the ones who have thought through what they use, where it adds value, and how to say that clearly without overpromising.

Mid-market and regional firms have genuine advantages that large platforms cannot replicate: senior attention, long-standing relationships, and local context that a global platform cannot systematize.

Those advantages deserve to be named and positioned deliberately - not left implicit and unspoken.

What does your firm say when the technology question comes up?

Tax season gives you a rare look inside your clients' businesses. Cash flow gaps. Structures that no longer fit. Succession questions nobody has answered.

In most firms, those observations get noted and forgotten because there is no time to act during busy season.

May and June are the time to close that loop. A direct, specific outreach to your top 20 clients - not a pitch, just a check-in - opens advisory conversations that never happen on their own.

The insight is already there. The only missing piece is the follow-through.

What advisory opportunities did this tax season surface for your firm?