Committee Education

Hi everyone - Ed and Ron have submitted a proposal.  The budget is another discussion - for now, I would love for you all to review it and post any feedback regarding its value.  Thanks! 

Summary: Threshold Collaboration Proposal

Purpose
90 Minds has the opportunity to partner with Threshold to provide strategic education and consulting for member firms. The focus is to help members evolve from hourly billing to more sustainable, value-based pricing and subscription business models.

Offerings & Engagement Options

• Monthly Investment:

  • $500/month (Foundation Focus)

  • $1,000/month (Expanded Access, includes ad placements and more frequent engagement)

• Educational Components:

  • Webinars – Quarterly ($500/month plan) or Monthly ($1,000/month plan)

  • Consulting Workshops –

    • Virtual: 10-week, biweekly sessions ($500 per person, 50/50 revenue split)

    • In-person: Pre-conference, full-day workshop ($1,000 per person, 50/50 revenue split after costs)

  • Survey Development & Analysis – Available under $1,000/month plan

• Member-Facing Topics:

  • Transitioning from hourly billing to value pricing

  • Advisory-led firm positioning

  • Customer-focused KPIs instead of timesheets

  • Project management for knowledge workers

  • After Action Reviews as a learning tool

  • Addressing burnout from fee-for-service models

Financial Considerations

• If Threshold secures separate consulting with a 90 Minds firm, 90 Minds' monthly fee is reduced by $250.

• Costs could be partially offset by shared workshop revenues.

Key Questions for the Committee

1. Do Threshold's offerings align with the professional development needs of 90 Minds members (particularly in pricing/business model transformation)?

2. Is there interest in embedding Threshold-led workshops into conference programming?

3. Should this be tested as a 6–12 month pilot before long-term commitment?

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Anne Sawyer
Executive Director
90 Minds Inc.
Sunset Beach CA
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Hmm.. this feels very familiar from Ron and Ed. Without going to far down a rabbit hole... I'll stick to answering the questions. :)

1. Do Threshold's offerings align with the professional development needs of 90 Minds members (particularly in pricing/business model transformation)? -- Answer: Honestly, I don't think they have as much value today versus when they began advocating this concept. Most members have either heard this conversation track in various forms over the years, and the demographic of those partners has slowly changed with M&A/consolidation activities within the partner ecosystem. Is there value? Yes. Is there value for our broader consultant and firm population? I don't believe so.

2. Is there interest in embedding Threshold-led workshops into conference programming? -- Answer: Maybe a workshop that provides a high-level roadmap that includes som best practices on where to start/how to convert. But even then I think it's a coin toss on the member population that would find it beneficial (consultants vs. firm partners/owners).

3. Should this be tested as a 6–12 month pilot before long-term commitment? -- Answer: I'm not against this if others are for it, but my gut answer is "no." Unless the pilot is deeply discounted... then that might be a pilot worth doing simply for risk/reward; however, I wouldn't want to see money going toward this when there are other conversations that are taking more priority right now (e.g., Sage doubling down again on Intacct migrations from Sage 100/300/etc., AI inclusion and usefullness with respect to Sage 100, etc.).

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Best Regards,

Basil Malik
President/CEO
e: basil@malik-inc.com
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Basil really nailed this response. I wouldn't oppose to testing this out, but I agree with his comment that a discount is needed. 

OR

We could present this to our members to see if there is any interest to having this as a benefit. While it does not interest me personally, there might be some interest from the community. Maybe a temperature check would be a good starting place?

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Tina Meacham
RKL eSolutions, LLC
AZ
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My response is short and to the point.  I got off of the Ed and Ron Kool-Aid awhile back. They discuss and deliver the same message on repeat mode.  I do not find value in their presentations anymore.  Value would probably only come to those who have not heard them before and how many 90 Minds members would that be?  

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[Michele] [Herzog] [CPA,CITP, CGMA]
[Overland Park] [KS]
[816-520-1365]
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-24-2025 18:58
From: Tina Meacham
Subject: Threshold Collaboration Proposal

Basil really nailed this response. I wouldn't oppose to testing this out, but I agree with his comment that a discount is needed. 

OR

We could present this to our members to see if there is any interest to having this as a benefit. While it does not interest me personally, there might be some interest from the community. Maybe a temperature check would be a good starting place?

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Tina Meacham
RKL eSolutions, LLC
AZ
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I agree with Basil, Tina and Michele, and I think this statement from Basil sums up my thoughts on this: "Is there value for our broader consultant and firm population? I don't believe so."  Michele is absolutely right about, "They discuss and deliver the same message on repeat mode."  This is where I think they lost most people - for many years it was the same message over and over, and it simply grew stale with very little adoption because anyone who tried to implement the value price conversation with customers kept running into the same roadblock.  At least, this was my experience.  We can all agree that the value of something is X (even if X is an arbitrary guesstimate), but customers want to pay as little as possible regardless of X.  This is where these conversations always hit a wall.

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Brian Kelly
Accounting Systems, Inc. (ASI)
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