Michelle Golden launches pricing consultancy for CPAs

Value-pricing thought leader Michelle Golden has launched Fore LLC to provide education and implementation consulting for CPAs looking to move away from the time-based billing model toward “advanced pricing.”

Michelle Golden of Fore LLC

“Alternative pricing has been a hot topic for decades, but uptake of non-time-based pricing approaches in the CPA profession was sluggish and limited to a handful of innovators. That’s changed,” said Golden. She noted a sharp rise in demand for value pricing among larger firms in the past year, driven in part by the ongoing automation of many traditional accounting tasks, and the move toward replacing compliance work with more value-added, consultative services.

“We've seen some unexpected advantages to pricing in advance,” Golden explained. “Fore’s Advanced Pricing Methods invoke mindset changes that lead to positive cultural shifts. The methods help CPAs who struggle to articulate their full impact in client problem-solving or who take their contributions for granted.”

“Advantages also include much richer conversations between the CPA and the customer,” she added. “When CPAs become more attuned what’s most valuable in buyers’ eyes, they do more of it—it becomes a terrific cycle. Among CPA firms who want to augment compliance by becoming stronger business advisors, managing partners say they see a pricing-model change as a crucial next step.”

A longtime consultant to the profession, Golden joined Top 100 Firm K-Coe Isom (then named Kennedy and Coe) as a partner and growth leader in 2013. It was one of the first large firms to adopt advanced pricing, and though Golden is leaving to start Fore LLC, K-Coe Isom will be one of her first clients.

“It’s not easy to step away from partnership at K·Coe Isom — I love this adventurous firm. Yet I’m also compelled to honor the strong calling I feel to do this work, at this time,” Golden told Accounting Today. “Being in-house with ‘skin in the game’ as we introduced different approaches permitted me to ‘feel’ our implementation challenges and successes firsthand. I’ll be forever grateful for the insights I’ve gained through this experience and for the opportunity to grow during my time in the firm. And I’m confident that K·Coe Isom will continue to excel and lead among its peers.”

Prior to joining K-Coe, Golden ran a growth, profitability and marketing consulting firm called Golden Practices for over a decade.

For more, visit the Fore LLC Web site.

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