[Hidden-tech] Retainer Fees?

[Edbride-PR]

I generally ask for a 6-month commitment (preferring a year), and do a best estimate for total project work; then, I divide the anticipated effort by the number of months in the contract, multiply by the daily or hourly rate, and that's the monthly retainer. Clients understand that some months will be busier than others, but we both seem to appreciate the predictable cashflow.

In my business, PR consulting, most gigs have a lot of up-front work, and then taper off. So, the client is head of the game initially; after the product rollout, or whatever the project is, we go to a "maintenance" phase, the ongoing process of prospecting for editorial calendar opportunities.

Hope this helps,
Ed
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rachel Wilsey 
  To: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 5:38 PM
  Subject: [Hidden-tech] Retainer Fees?


    



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  Hello all,
  I am working with a new client that has lots of ongoing design work for me and I am trying to accurately balance what I expect to get in work from them with taking on new projects. Ideally I would like to work out a retainer fee so I know to set aside x-hours per month for them. Then I don't have to worry about taking on too much or too little additional work. 

  How are retainer fee's usually structured? Are they based straight off your hourly fee or do they tend to be discounted? Does anyone have a sample retainer contract they could send me. Also if we agree to x hours and then the work comes in at less then that, it seems to me that is their loss as I have already reserved that time for them (and not taken on other jobs), but is this how it is actually done? They were asking about hours rolling over into the next month etc.

  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
  Rachel Wilsey


  *********************************
  Rachel Wilsey Design & Marketing
  PO Box 1401
  Northampton, MA 01060
  413.358.0788
  RachelWilsey at gmail.com 


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