Nobody cancels a retainer in a busy month. They cancel after a quiet one, so this page is about the quiet ones.

The right to interrupt — Mostly what you're buying. A question answered the same afternoon instead of after a procurement exercise, and it only has any value if nobody has to weigh up whether to use it
Somebody who already has the context — Half the cost of any outside help is the fortnight of explaining. A quiet month is a month where that fortnight is already paid for and doesn't have to happen again
The things that didn't happen — Genuinely hard to see, and I won't pretend otherwise. A hire not made, a system not bought, a direction not taken for three months. Nobody invoices for those and nobody thanks you for them either
Reading, on your behalf — Contracts, board papers, a competitor's launch, somebody else's proposal. Twenty minutes each, most weeks, and it is the least visible work I do
And sometimes the answer is none of that — One quiet month is normal and two is common. What matters is what happens after three, which is the next line and is not left to either of us to raise
Three quiet months and I move you down a tier — Without being asked and without a conversation about it first. It costs me money, it is the only version of this I'd buy myself, and it is in the agreement rather than promised on a page

Inside those hours — A question gets an answer the same day, even where the answer is "give me until tomorrow, this deserves longer than I have now". A holding reply is not a failure; silence is
Outside them — The phone is on for genuinely urgent things, and the definition of urgent is yours rather than mine. In practice it gets used about twice a year, which is roughly the right number
Friday afternoons and August — Both are honestly slower and both are on this page rather than discovered in month four. Anything that can't wait is still fine; the reading just backs up

Day 1 — the read-in — Everything you'd give a new senior hire, handed over at once and unsummarised. Raw and long beats tidy and short, and tidying it up for my benefit wastes your week rather than mine
Week 1 — six conversations — Thirty minutes each with the people whose work the advice will land on. Nothing from them is reported back individually, and that is said to them at the start
Week 2 — the note — Two pages: what I think is actually going on, what I think you're wrong about, and what I don't yet understand. Written early on purpose, because fresh eyes last about a fortnight and then they're gone
Week 3 — the first argument — Ninety minutes on that note, with disagreement expected. Several of these have ended with the note being wrong, and week three is the cheapest possible moment for that
Week 4 — how we'll actually work — Which channel, what response time, what needs a meeting and what plainly doesn't. Written down, because retainers rot when this is left to habit
Day 30 — a real option to stop — No second month unless you want one, and no fee for deciding that. The first month is the only genuinely comparable thing you'll ever get, and it should be possible to buy just that

There is no unlimited tier — "Unlimited" means one of two things: nobody uses it, or somebody does and the quality quietly drops to match the price. Both are bad, and only one of them is visible to you
It isn't cover for a role you haven't filled — An advisor cannot do the job of the person you haven't hired. Where that is what's needed, the honest advice is to spend this money on the hire and call me afterwards
It isn't billed by the hour — No meter, no timesheet, and therefore no reason to hesitate before sending a question. Removing that hesitation is the entire point of a fixed monthly
It doesn't renew quietly — Annually, with a real conversation, and the conversation includes whether it should stop. A renewal that happens by default is a renewal nobody chose
I won't take equity instead — It changes what advice I'd give, and leaves you with no way of telling whether it did
The handover is written as we go — Not at the end. If this stops you get a current document, rather than one assembled in a fortnight by somebody with one foot out of the door

Move between them freely — Up with a month's notice, down with none at all. Down is the direction that has to be frictionless or the whole promise above is decoration
No minimum term — Thirty days' notice either way, no exit fee, nothing to cancel through a portal. A retainer held in place by paperwork isn't a retainer, it's a subscription somebody forgot about
What isn't included at any tier — Doing the work. This is advice, argument and a second opinion — where a project is genuinely needed it gets scoped and priced on its own, or handed to somebody better at it
Smaller organisations — Ask about Light at a lower number. There's no application and no means test, just a straightforward conversation about what's affordable