← Tools Free Tool

Payment Model Comparison

You built the machine and you run it. Now the client asks how you'd like to be paid. Most operators answer with whatever they were paid last time: a retainer, or a commission rate somebody else set.

This tool puts three answers side by side for the same system: a flat monthly fee, a straight share of the revenue it produces, and a modest base plus a smaller share. Enter what the system brings in, and it shows what the client pays you under each, what the client keeps, and the revenue at which one model overtakes another.

Your numbers
One system, three ways to be paid
It opens on the made-up client from Chapter 13 of The Un-Agency. Replace any number with your own.
Revenue through the system
Flat monthly fee
Revenue share
Base plus a share

The flat fee defaults to the same $3,000 as the base, so you can see what the share adds on top. Leave the baseline at zero for a share of everything the system produces. If you're paid on the lift, enter what the client earned before the system ran; the share then applies only above it, and the revenue you enter above should be the client's total after.

What you earn, year one and year two
ModelYear one, a monthYear two, a monthTwo years

"Client keeps" is the revenue through the system minus what they pay you, before their own costs.

Across a range of months
What you earn at each level of monthly revenue

Slow months sit on the left, good ones on the right. Hover or tap the chart to read a month.

Flat fee Revenue share Base plus a share
Where they cross
    Show the numbers as a table
    Revenue per monthFlat feeRevenue shareBase plus share

    The underlined figure in each row is the model that pays you most at that level.

    Reading the result
    Flat fee — Simple, predictable and easy for a client to budget. If the machine doubles the client's revenue, your fee doesn't move. The book uses it as a floor under something variable, or for a paid diagnostic: a door, not a destination.
    Revenue share — A percentage of the revenue flowing through the system you built and run. Its most useful early form is a share of the lift, so the client risks nothing and you're paid only for what you added. The way it fails: a flat split that felt fair early feels unfair at scale, so add a review clause or a tiered version.
    Base plus a share — A hybrid, and the shape most lasting arrangements end up in. The base lets you keep a vendor bench and an operations person reliably; the share keeps you aligned with growth. Keep the base modest and the share meaningful. A base that grows while the share shrinks turns you back into an agency.

    The book lists six more models this tool doesn't chart, because they don't reduce to one line: commission, tiered share, backend share, equity, licensing and performance bonus. Match the model to where the relationship is now, not to your preference.

    A matrix of the nine payment models against five moments in a client relationship, with each model's most common failure. Flat fee fits any stage, as a floor under a share or for the paid diagnostic, and caps you at the value of your time while the build keeps earning. Commission fits a new client, and pays on the smallest check while loose tracking invites attribution fights. Revenue share fits a new client, as a share of the lift, and a client with ninety days of results, and fails when a flat split that felt fair early feels unfair at scale. Tiered share fits a load-bearing client and fails when there are too many tiers for the client to check the report. Backend share fits a load-bearing client and fails through attribution disputes years in and quiet scope growth. Equity fits a client where you are the growth engine and is illiquid, taxing and paperwork-heavy, needing a lawyer every time. Licensing fits when others want your method and can fall under franchise rules. Performance bonus fits a client who wants a predictable cost with a reward for results, and fails by measuring the wrong thing. Hybrid fits a client with ninety days of results and a load-bearing client, and fails when a growing base and shrinking share turn you back into an agency. Most lasting arrangements end up as a hybrid, a modest base plus a share; pick the model for where the relationship is now.
    From The Un-Agency

    This calculator follows Chapter 13, "Nine Ways to Get Paid," and Appendix A of The Un-Agency: A Services Operator's Playbook by Bill Eisenhauer. The book's illustration: a system producing around $30,000 a month in its first year and $45,000 in its second. A straight 20 percent share pays about $6,000 and then $9,000 a month; a $3,000 base plus 12 percent pays about $6,600 and then $8,400. Over two years the totals land close together. The difference is the floor: under the hybrid, a slow month never drops you below $3,000.

    These numbers are illustrations of a structure, not expectations. Your results depend on the client, the market and the work, and many arrangements produce much less. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice. Any revenue share, bonus or equity deal needs a written agreement before work starts, covering what counts as revenue, how a sale is attributed, the rate, the baseline if you're paid on lift, reporting, your right to see the numbers and how it ends. Revenue shares are taxable and have reporting consequences for both sides; ask a tax adviser.

    ← Back to Tools