Retainer Work

[Denny]

Fractions aren't a problem for my mighty Windows calculator .

So if it's £45/hr say, then that's about £200 per month for up to 5 hours. Whereas working full time at the same rate is going to be nearly £7K per month.

Is it worth it? Or am I misunderstanding what you're doing?

In my case the retainer is much, much lower than the rates an IT contractor service agreement contractor might charge. It's a very easy admin event management job that doesn't require full managerial skills I normally offer for high daily rates. I can do it upside down in my sleep if I want to.

The reason I am interested in doing it is because it could lead to much better work for more realistic fees for proper work and just adds to my existing private client base. This is something I am keen to build on so I can break my ties with EBs over time. At the moment, I am still overly reliant on EB sourced contract work for my main bread and butter. Therefore, the benefits are more residual than financially beneficial for this job and only provides a useful lump of cash between assignments when no other work is available, but is a mere drop in the ocean ratewise during assignments commanding my usual daily rates which are pretty typically what an IT contractor would make at seniorish level. Therefore, it certainly isn't worth turning down proper contract work just to do this. It has to work around it, not substitute it.

[Fran]

Fractions aren't a problem for my mighty Windows calculator .

So if it's £45/hr say, then that's about £200 per month for up to 5 hours. Whereas working full time at the same rate is going to be nearly £7K per month.

Is it worth it? Or am I misunderstanding what you're doing?

Very true, and I have thought the same myself. When I started contracting it was a stop gap to pay the bills whilst I built up a developement business (hense this contract and others), however, I'm really enjoying contracting. Need to make up my mind, but I don't mind the extra work and pocket money, and still haven't given up on the original plan.

One thing I missed from my orginal post. Make sure you add a clause that any work over the agreed number of hours is done at your discretion and at a premium rate.

[Denny]

Thanks everyone on this thread for your input.

You rock!

[VectraMan]

Very true, and I have thought the same myself. When I started contracting it was a stop gap to pay the bills whilst I built up a developement business (hense this contract and others), however, I'm really enjoying contracting. Need to make up my mind, but I don't mind the extra work and pocket money, and still haven't given up on the original plan.

I had that intention too, but contracting seemed too easy a way to make a decent amount of money. I now have a plan B which gets me a small cut of the revenue of a product I help to develop and maintain. I'm quite keen on that as the income isn't proportional to the amount of work (I see that as the main problem with contracting), and in theory will keep coming even if I don't or can't work. It's only got me about £400pm so far, but hopefully will grow, so I can understand wanting to do something relatively low paid in order to build something for the future.

It would be nice to have the plan B plus a support agreement bringing in enough to cover basic living expenses, and then the contract money I can blow on sweets whenever I want.

[Fran]

It would be nice to have the plan B plus a support agreement bringing in enough to cover basic living expenses, and then the contract money I can blow on sweets whenever I want.

Moam is my favorite!

[beaker]

Hi Denny, retainers are very common in the advertising industry. My current client is retained by its own clients (typically large UK companies or multinationals). They in turn retain the resources of other companies using this approach as well. They both use the "use it or lose it" model explained by XLMonkey.

What tends to happen is you will negotiate time to be retained every month (eg 3 days) and you will bill for that amount - usually invoiced at end of month. If they use up their 3 days you tell them immediately and then say you will need to charge them on a t+m basis for the rest of the work that month. At the end of each month you report on how much of your time you actually spent.

Over time you will review the monthly retainer (monthly, quarterly or annually, whatever feels right) and may agree on more or less days.

Remember what you are doing is blocking out time for them and not scheduling other work so you can guarantee you are available for them. If they just want use you ad-hoc, then they will need to accept the risk that you may not be available for them.

This is a good Plan B because it provides a steady income, which makes it easier to take someone else on to do the job eventually.

Best of luck anyway. Let us know how you get on.