Answering your whys about Retainers, Responsibilities, and Replacing teams
We do things a little differently at MBS so naturally, we get a lot of questions as to why.
Why do we no longer work on a retainer basis?
Why do we base our projects on responsibilities?
Why are we trying to replace your operations team?
(Quick spoiler alert for that last one…we aren’t. At all. If anything, we want you to keep and possibly grow your ops team).
So today, I’m going to answer all of these questions and explain why we operate how we do!
Why we no longer work on a retainer basis.
We used to work on a retainer basis, but we realized it didn’t really fit with what we were trying to do so we switched to the project way of working.
And in all honestly, it’s not that different to working on a retainer basis because you don’t get less time with us (often projects last 3 or 6 months, the same amount of time you’d probably have us on retainer for), we can just work more efficiently in this way. Focusing solely on the scope of the project and not stepping into the OBM role.
The truth is, if you’re you’re ready for someone to be in your business every day, you need an employee, not us. So by calling our work project work rather than retainer work, the distinction is clearer for both our clients and us!
There is definitely a stage in a business where having VAs and OBMs making up your core team makes sense…That’s when you hire the VA and OBMs on a retainer basis.
Then there’s a stage in a business where you need to prepare your business for employees or if you already have them, there comes a stage where you need to get everything set up so it’s sustainable so you don’t have a crazy turnover of employees…That’s when you hire us.
Essentially, the reason we don’t call our services ‘retainers’ comes down to the fact that our responsibilities are different from those who offer work on a retainer basis. This leads us nicely into answering the next question…
Why do we base our projects on responsibilities / what the hell does that mean?
The reason we base our work around responsibilities is that it reflects the difference between our work and the work that is the responsibility of your existing operations team members (if you have them).
The responsibility of your existing operations team members, whether they are VAs, OBMs, or ops managers, is to run, monitor, and keep track of your existing operations, making sure that everything is running smoothly. If they’re doing this, the chances are they don’t have the time, space or capacity to be thinking about future-proofing the operations for your business because they have to be so focused and on top of keeping the business running.
However, our responsibilities as a strategic thought partner or agency (depending on whatever capacity you work with us in), is to identify any problems that currently exist as well as any that may occur as your continue to grow.
It’s our responsibility to future-proof the operations of your business.
Why we aren’t trying to replace your operations team
Now we’ve established that our responsibilities when we work with you are different from the responsibilities of your existing operations team…I’m hoping you can see that we don’t want to replace them!
If anything, we’ll rely on them when we come in to help your business, especially during the first consultation stage as they’re the ones who are going to be aware of any ops problems that currently exist.
We want them to be on calls, be involved, and give us feedback as it helps us do our jobs better!
If you’re ready to level up your operation’s game in a way that facilitates sustainable growth throughout the new year, apply to work with us using the link below!