The success of your BV firm depends on differentiation and the ability to develop untapped opportunities your competitors have not identified, according to Mel Abraham (Mel Abraham Inc.) and Rod Burkert (Burkert Valuation Advisors).

Useful tool: One way to get started is to use the “strategy canvas,” a tool developed by Blue Ocean Strategy. During a recent webinar, Today’s Leading Edge Tools for Practice Growth, Abraham and Burkert (who are co-founders of the Practice Builder Academy), illustrated the use of this tool to assess a BV firm/practitioner (see below). For example, this practitioner (the blue line) is more “niche known” than the competition, so this may represent a “blue ocean” where the practitioner will find less competition, and where the competition would not be as well educated in that niche. (A “blue ocean” is one with no red blood from a shark feeding frenzy.)

During the webinar, they offered the audience a free download of a strategy canvas template that can be used to help devise a plan to grow your practice. They’ve agreed to give access to BVWire readers, and you can download the template if you click here.