How this retainer works
Most “monthly retainers” quietly turn into open-ended scope, with the agency rewarded for billable time and the operator paying for it. We run management as a bounded subscription: a fixed monthly cap, a fixed monthly deliverable, and the right to pause or cancel without a phone call.
Who it’s for
- Stores that already have an operations layer in place — built by us or built well by someone else.
- Operators who don’t want to hire a full-time ops engineer but need someone watching the system.
- Founders who want a calm, predictable line item — not a billing surprise.
What you actually get each month
Management is structured around a monthly cycle, not ad-hoc requests. Every month includes:
- Up to 8 hours of focused work on workflow tune-ups, cleanups, small additions, and incident response.
- A monthly review — what ran, what broke, what changed, what’s queued for next month.
- One scoped action list — the items we’ll work on next cycle, agreed up front.
- One business-day async response on Slack or email during business hours.
Examples of monthly work
- Fixing a broken integration after a vendor’s API change.
- Tuning a workflow that started misfiring on a new product type.
- Adding a small new automation under the cap (e.g. a new reporting digest).
- Updating prompts as the AI-assisted steps drift on real traffic.
- Reviewing the workflow inventory for things that should be retired.
- Helping a team member get up to speed on the operations layer.
How the cap works
Eight hours is enough for steady-state operation, not for a build. If a month genuinely needs more — a launch, a migration, a new flow — we either roll work into the next cycle or quote it as a small fixed-scope mini-engagement on top. We don’t silently exceed the cap. You always know what we worked on and how long it took.
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Up to 8 hours / month of focused work
- Workflow monitoring and tune-ups
- Monthly written review
- Async response within one business day
- Pause or cancel any month, no fee
Not included
- New large-scope builds (handled separately)
- Same-day or weekend response SLA
- Theme / storefront design
- Paid media or creative
- Unlimited Slack channel coverage
Pause, cancel, or take it in-house
Every workflow we run is documented in plain English. If you decide to bring this in-house or pause for a quarter, you don’t lose anything — the system is yours, and a competent ops hire can take over from the documentation alone.
A maintenance subscription with a clear monthly cap — predictable for you, focused for us.
