Anyone on retainer?

[Trojan]

I've been advised twice now to look at the retainer model for consultancy work and I admit it's very appealing.

Has anyone here worked on retainer? What kind of contract did you set up?

Al.

 

[TheMenace]

Usually fairly simple. You just dedicate X number of hours per month for your maintenance contract and charge accordingly; invoicing for extra hours on a monthly basis if required.

 

[davidbehan]

Yeah, I have a few clients on maintenance contracts. They get a set amount of hours per quarter for telephone and email support which I log and any meetings I need to attend. I provide a report on time spent at the end of the quarter. They get these hours at a reduced rate and anything over is at normal prices. Invoices go out quarterly in advance. Fairly straight forward really!

 

[Trojan]

I didn't think of it in terms of a maintenance contract, but that's very simililar to what I had in mind alright.

Cheers!

 

[mneylon]

We do the same with some of our clients, but in our case it's a more clearcut prepaid block of hours.

 

[the guru]

we put a few of our clients on a retainer, we sell blocks of hours at a specific rate and they use them up on different parts of their project.