The retainer
One retainer. We agree on the scope in writing; the standing work runs on my agent fleet, and the judgment calls are mine.
the remit
The scope I run, in your words, agreed in week one.
The remit says what I run and what I don’t touch. We review it each quarter and amend it in writing; work outside it waits for the review.
The standing work in that scope runs on my agent fleet: monitoring, recurring reports, the decisions that don’t need a person every time. It’s documented, and I audit it weekly. How the setup runs is on How I run. What the fleet can’t do, I do myself.
the cadence
A fixed rhythm. We agree it and I keep to it.
- A weekly judgment session.Ninety minutes on the operating decisions in front of you.
- A shared channel.I answer the next business day.
- A monthly operating review.Ninety minutes on the numbers the remit names.
- A quarterly remit review.What ran, what changed.
You’re not paying by the hour; we agree the cadence and I keep to it. If you need more rhythm than that, we change the remit.
the lengths
A month, a quarter, or nine months.
The first month is the heavy one: the remit gets written and the standing work moves onto the fleet. By month nine your team is doing more of it and I’m reviewing. The rate drops with the length because the work gets lighter.
| Length | Monthly | Total | What it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | $6,000 | $6,000 | The pilot month. |
| 3 months | $5,500 | $16,500 | The heavy quarter, when the practice gets built. |
| 9 months | $5,000 | $45,000 | Most of a year, with the taper. |
A month is how most engagements start. You get the remit, the fleet on the standing work, and a real month of the operation running. If it isn’t working by day thirty, you stop.
the bounds
Five seats, a written scope, and terms that say what fractional means.
I run five seats at a time. That’s the number I can keep real judgment for, and the fleet is why five is possible at all. I onboard one seat at a time, so only one client is ever in its first months. When the seats are full, I give you a start date.
It’s a fractional seat. If the work outgrows it, you need a hire, and I’ll help write the spec.
You can stop whenever you like. Leave a nine-month at month four and the months you ran get billed at the three-month rate. After the term it renews monthly, thirty days’ notice either way.
How an engagement runs
The first three months are the dense ones: writing the remit, moving the work, standing up the practice. Then it tapers. Your team runs more of it; I review and stay close. One program at a time inside the remit, scoped to something that ships.
Terms
Set Earth Inc, invoiced monthly in advance, mutual NDA. You own everything built on your stack; I keep my methods and tooling. For early-stage work, I take equity. Reply to b@mcco.us and we put month one on the calendar.