What I Would Do Differently If I Started My CAS Firm Today

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I recently met with a friend who is a college coach and wants to start his own consulting business. He asked me what I would do again and what I would do differently if I were starting over.

A lot of my answer was similar to what I have written about before. I would still start by getting clear on why I was building the business, what kind of work I actually wanted to do, and what role I wanted to have one, three, and five years from now.

Those questions matter because it is easy to build a business that looks successful from the outside but creates a job you do not actually want.

That was part of the advantage of starting my firm from scratch. I had worked in enough accounting firms to know I wanted to focus on advisory work. I did not want to buy a book of business filled with tax and audit work I would eventually try to get rid of. Starting from zero was harder, but it gave me the chance to be more intentional about what I was building.

I still believe all of that. But there is one thing I would add now that I did not fully understand when I wrote about starting a firm before.

I would share the journey much earlier.

The lesson I learned from Burning Sage

My business partner and I are building a glamping property called Burning Sage.

We are not close to opening yet, but we started sharing the process online before the business was ready.

That has already led to hundreds of followers. People have reached out asking about future offerings, jobs, and investing.

The business is not open, but the audience is already forming. That experience changed how I think about building a business.

Most professionals wait until everything is ready before they start talking about it. They want the offer finalized, the website finished, the branding complete, and the operation running before they put themselves out there.

I probably would have done the same thing with my firm if I were starting again. Now, I would do the opposite. I would start sharing the journey while I was still figuring things out.

That does not mean pretending to have all the answers. It means talking honestly about what you are building, why you are building it, what you are learning, and what problems you are trying to solve. People get to see how you think before they ever have a reason to buy from you.

By the time the offer is ready, you are not introducing it to a room full of strangers. You are introducing it to people who have already followed the process and understand what you care about.

For my friend, that could mean sharing what he has learned from coaching, his approach to leadership, the patterns he sees in college athletics, and the problems he believes he can help solve through consulting.

He does not need a perfect content plan. He needs to start giving people a reason to understand how he thinks.

He already knew his why

The most refreshing part of the conversation was that he already knew why he wanted to start the business. He wants more freedom to spend time with his kids.

A lot of people start businesses because they want more money, are tired of their jobs, or see an opportunity. Those can all be valid reasons, but they do not always help you design the business.

A clear why does. If freedom is the goal, then every major decision has to be tested against it.

Will this offer create more freedom, or just a different kind of demanding job?

Will the business depend entirely on his time?

Will growth make his life better, or simply make him busier?

This is why I think knowing your why is more practical than it sounds. It helps you decide what to build, what to avoid, and what kind of business model actually supports the life you want.

Fixed fee is a start, not the finish

He had also already figured out that hourly pricing was not the answer. That was good to hear.

If the goal is more freedom, replacing a coaching schedule with a calendar full of hourly consulting calls is not much of an improvement.

He knew a fixed fee was the better direction, but he was not sure exactly how to get there, so I shared the same pricing progression I went through.

I started with hourly billing in accounting firms. Then I moved to fixed fees that were still mostly based on estimated hours. Eventually, I began thinking more about value and what the client was actually buying.

That distinction matters because fixed fee and value pricing are not the same thing.

You can estimate the hours, multiply them by a rate, add a cushion, and call it a fixed fee. That solves the surprise invoice problem, but it still ties the price to effort.

Value pricing starts somewhere else. It starts with understanding the problem, the desired outcome, the cost of doing nothing, the urgency, and the alternatives available to the client.

What is the problem worth solving?

What changes if the client gets the result?

What would they have to spend, build, or hire if they did not work with you?

How quickly do they need the answer?

That is the approach I shared with him. Set a minimum price. Ask a lot of questions. Understand the value. Then present options that allow the client to choose the level of help they want.

He does not need to have the perfect pricing model on day one. But he does need to avoid building a business where every dollar of revenue depends on another hour of his time.

Final takeaway

If I were starting my CAS firm again, I would still spend time clarifying my why, the kind of work I wanted to do, and the role I wanted to have in the business.

But I would also start sharing the journey much earlier.

Burning Sage taught me that people do not need to wait until a business is finished to become interested in it. They can follow the build, connect with the story, and raise their hand before the doors ever open.

That is how I’d start building my CAS firm today.

Build around the life you want.

Price around the value you create.

And start telling the story before everything is ready.

Thanks for reading, Luke Templin!