Three of my four retainer clients are now getting work that isn't in the agreement. Not dramatically — an extra Slack channel here, a Sunday night 'quick favour' there. I set the scope myself, so I can't even blame them for asking.
I tried adding a line about additional work being billed separately. I tried a weekly check-in so things wouldn't pile up between calls. Both slipped within a month because saying no in the moment feels like I'm being difficult.
I've got a contractor starting next week and I'm worried I'll hand her the same mess. What actually stops this — the contract, the call rhythm, or something else I'm not seeing?
CONTEXT AT PUBLICATION
What a useful answer should help achieve
A concrete mechanism for holding scope that doesn't depend on me being the bad guy in the moment
Already tried
Added a separate-billing clause to the agreement and introduced a weekly check-in call; both eroded within a month
Constraints and unknowns
One contractor starting next week and no capacity to police every client request myself
Operations Consultant · retainer consulting · Growing Team · This snapshot stays with the question when the author updates their profile.
Charge for the overflow. I put a three-hour monthly cap in my retainer and billed the overage at my hourly. Two clients left. The three who stayed cost me less effort than the two who didn't. Naming the cap in writing did most of the work — I stopped having to decide in the moment, the number decided for me. And I learned which clients were buying outcomes versus buying access.
Why the asker chose this: This is the one I am acting on — thank you.
What does your agreement actually say the client is buying? Mine names deliverables, not hours. Requests that don't match a deliverable get quoted. The awkwardness lasts one email.
You named the real issue yourself: saying no feels difficult in the moment. No contract fixes that.
0
Caleb OsborneEvent & Summit Producer · productised service
United States·Scaling·6d ago
Weekly call is the right instinct but it's doing the wrong job. It catches drift after it's happened. What worked for me was a change-order habit: anything new gets one line in a shared doc, and I reply with either a yes or a date. Sounds heavy for a small shop, but it took me about ten minutes a week and it stopped the Sunday-night favours cold. Doesn't help if you won't send the doc though.
