Most people who reach out to Spruce Crestpath have a specific project in mind: a strategic plan, an org redesign, a decision they need help thinking through. That is the right starting point for many engagements. But there is a second model, the retained advisory relationship, that suits a different kind of need. Understanding the difference will help you decide which one is actually useful for your situation.
What a project engagement is good for ¶
A project engagement has a defined scope, a defined deliverable, and a defined end date. It is the right model when the problem has a shape: when you can say, with reasonable precision, what you need to know or decide by when. Strategic planning, organisational design, a specific market entry decision, these are problems with enough definition to scope as a project. The value of the project model is clarity: both parties know what they are working toward and when it will be done.
What a retained advisory relationship is good for ¶
A retained advisory relationship is the right model when the problems are continuous and unpredictable. Founders and senior leaders face strategic questions every week that do not fit neatly into a project scope. Should we make this hire now or wait? Is this the right moment to raise prices? How do we handle this situation with a key client? These questions benefit from a thinking partner who knows the business well enough to give a useful answer in a short conversation, without needing to be briefed from scratch each time.
The value of accumulated context ¶
The thing that makes a retained advisory relationship valuable over time is context. After six months of working together, an adviser knows what decisions you made and why, what you were worried about that did not materialise, what you were not worried about that did. That context makes every subsequent conversation more useful. It is the difference between a doctor who has your full medical history and one who is seeing you for the first time. The second can still be helpful. The first is considerably more so.
How to decide which model fits your situation ¶
The simplest test is this: can you define the problem clearly enough to scope it as a project? If yes, a project engagement is probably the right starting point. If the answer is that you have a general sense that something needs attention but you are not sure exactly what, or if the challenges you face are ongoing rather than episodic, a retained advisory relationship is worth considering. Many clients start with a project and move into a retained relationship once the project is complete. The two models are not mutually exclusive.
If you are unsure which model fits your current situation, the most useful thing is a short conversation. The 30-minute introductory call is designed exactly for that: to work out what kind of help, if any, would be genuinely useful, and what form it should take.