The proposed channel scope fits only if its work stays within two delivery specialists’ shared calendar. This fictional remote US boutique sells service fees, with client advertising charges outside its revenue and expenses. In the January 2027–December 2029 forecast, a feasible workload still fails to cover the full paid operating structure.
Approve retainers against specialist time and fee contribution. Neither a promised marketing outcome nor unpaid director execution closes the modeled loss.
Which work draws on the specialist calendar?
SEO, paid media, social content, email and analytics share two paid delivery specialists. April sold time totals 176 specialist hours at the modeled 55% utilization. The owner-director and fractional operations support add management rather than another delivery team.
These are time allocations for agreed channel work, not client counts or promises of ranking and conversion gains. A client using several channels consumes several parts of the same pool.
| Channel service | Sold hours | Fee/hour | Agency revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | 52.8 | $150.00 | $7,920.00 |
| Paid media | 44 | $165.00 | $7,260.00 |
| Social content | 35.2 | $140.00 | $4,928.00 |
| Email work | 26.4 | $145.00 | $3,828.00 |
| Analytics | 17.6 | $175.00 | $3,080.00 |
What should the recurring fee cover?
Specify production tasks, reporting, access prerequisites, approval responsibility and revision boundaries. Separate setup from recurring maintenance when the effort differs. Otherwise the recurring fee may repeatedly fund unpriced onboarding or corrections.
External review and reporting are purchased direct services in this case; they do not create spare in-house capacity. If the director must routinely execute specialist work, log and allocate those hours before treating another retainer as deliverable.
Does a deliverable workload cover the company?
April agency revenue is $27,016.00. Direct costs are $1,891.12, and operating expenses are $31,408.39, leaving EBITDA of -$6,283.51. Calendar feasibility alone does not prove fee adequacy.
The director salary allowance is $8,333.33 before the illustrative employer allowance. Paid specialists, operations, internal tools and agency sales costs remain included. Operating-year 2027 net income is -$103,143.19; removing director pay would conceal a real economic commitment.
Why is the client media budget unavailable?
Clients pay advertising charges directly. Those amounts cannot be counted as agency collections or used to offset its payroll. No media inventory or resale margin is modeled.
Agency fees have a 15-day collection assumption. Operating-year 2027 cash flow is -$113,224.52. Proposed equity of $225,000.00 remains uncommitted; cash reaches $19,229.43. The case does not recover its initial project spending within the horizon.
Which evidence supports the next retainer?
Time a paid service cycle from access approval through production, reporting, corrections and acceptance. Compare the accepted fee with all paid effort and purchased services. Inspect deadline collisions across clients even when monthly hours fit.
Replace assumed sold utilization with approved scopes and measured work. Confirm collection terms without promising channel outcomes that this operational forecast does not model. Add a client only when the delivery calendar and compensated cost structure remain credible.
Make the next decision with your own evidence
Collect a paid channel-cycle time log and accepted scope, then test fee contribution and deadline load before adding a client.
Explore published business plan examples ↗ChannelLedger Digital is a fictional prelaunch scenario prepared with AI assistance. Inputs are illustrative; forecast results come from the matching saved financial model. Funding is proposed. The diagrams explain the case and do not depict actual premises, established demand or promised earnings. Replace the assumptions with evidence before committing.
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