At the end of the day the 35 spreadsheets represent an workflow that your generic app will likely not automate, it's also not an empty market as every region have 5+ companies selling the magic silver bullet for mid-sized company bookkeeping, and all of them have an high degree of lock-in and cannot simply export it's data in an rigidly standardized format.
The experienced small company manager know that an experienced bookkeeper can make the administration spreedsheetwork be an low frustration experience, and that the previous software vendor could not deliver the same.
This is part of knowing the niche. The "app" doesn't need to be generic, or an app at all. Add-ons for existing industry software, integrations between industry software and generic inventory management app, etc. are all ways to provide immense value.
>> not an empty market
Yes, but they are often flooded with generic apps. "Inventory management for SMBs" because there isn't anything more specific. Until a company is large (enterprisey) enough to bake their home-made solution.
>> experienced bookkeeper can make the administration spreedsheetwork be an low frustration experience Not always. Definitely not true for our last two bookkeeping hires in the last 6 years. Part of it will always be a slog and as the load gets higher, sometimes the right answer is "hire another bookkeeper".
Hadn't heard of it, I will check it out, thanks!
There is space for both viewpoints.
>> Specific Region - the US.
>> Specific Supply Chain - consisting for 100s of companies
In my metro area alone (not in the top 20), there are hundreds of one type of company, not counting the others in the supply chain.
Catering to a niche like that, i.e. building software where the customer base < 1000 companies is still a potential multi-million dollar software business.
You are absolutely right, if you niche too far down, you'll get stuck customizing for each customer and that may not be worth it.
This is true for large, enterprisey companies. But I'm talking about companies in $7-15M range who have bookkeepers downloading 35 excels each month and then run their custom Excel process to enter into a basic ERP system, so they can send out emails to each of the 35 employees to collect receipts. That kind of thing is so prevalent and accepted, the biggest hurdle here is convincing that there is a better way rather than "hire another bookkeeper".