Agency retainer
An agency retainer is a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope of ongoing work, priced from delivery cost rather than from market rate. The price floor is the fully-burdened monthly cost of delivering that scope divided by target gross margin, and 50% is the reasonable floor for that margin.
The fee and the scope are one object. A retainer whose scope is written as outcomes with no hour estimate behind it is a price set before the cost was known, which is something you only find out once delivery starts.
Retainers drift below their floor through accommodation rather than through any single decision, so each account needs a margin check every quarter, with the effective hourly rate compared against blended cost.
How Hydra uses it
Hydra re-prices an existing retainer with 90 days' notice and a reason tied to scope, and re-scopes before re-pricing wherever the relationship can carry it.
Related terms
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