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Why does nobody talk about the difference between a monthly retainer and a project fee for keeping design clients around?
I run a small design shop out of my spare room in Tucson and for the first two years I did almost everything as one-off projects. A client would come in, I would quote them a logo or a website refresh, they would pay, and then they would disappear into the desert forever. I would spend maybe 10 hours a week on sales calls trying to replace them and it was killing me. Then in January I switched three of my oldest clients over to a monthly retainer of $650 each and the whole thing changed. I suddenly had $1,950 coming in on the first of every month before I even opened my laptop, and I stopped panicking about where the next job was coming from. But here is the weird part, the work I do for them now is way more boring. It is small stuff like tweaking a banner or fixing a font that they could honestly do themselves. Still, they pay it every month without blinking because they know I will handle it in 24 hours. I think the retainer works not because of the money but because it turns me from a vendor into a subscription they forget to cancel. Has anyone else made this switch and had a client push back hard when you tried to move them off hourly? I want to know how you pitched it without sounding like a gym membership.
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jamesc791d ago
That line about turning into a subscription they forget to cancel is painfully true. I had a client once keep paying a small monthly fee for eight months just because I fixed their email signature in April and they figured I might be useful later. Pitching it to hourly folks is rough though, the ones who bill by the clock hear "retainer" and picture a gym contract they can never escape.
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