I've worked on 2 week retainers initially. It's worth while with small and larger clients alike. It adds a air of security and relationship trust between you the client. Make it know upfront you work on a retainer though, obviously not after the fact. Individual clients not so much. Somewhat unrelated, but relative is a talk by Mike_FTW on payments --freelancing http://vimeo.com/22053820
How do your retainers work? My thought was to charge them some minimum number of hours a month that they'd pay regardless of use, but in exchange, I'd put their stuff on my pager, and make time to deal with it if they had an emergency.
I think it makes a lot of sense for SysAdmin type work; there are times when you really need me /right now/ - waiting for me to clear my schedule some time next week is not going to work.
I think maximum value would be achieved if I put your stuff on my pager. when something breaks, I go fix it and let you know what happened when you wake up; This is a lot of value for you, but for me to be effective at this, I need to know a lot about your systems, and as such, I'd want some sort of monthly money to pay to hold your system in my brain and my notes (and to answer my pager when it goes off at 6am.)
It seems to me like this sort of relationship would work best if it was very long term; you'd keep paying me the retainer until you can afford to hire your own SysAdmin.
I think you have the right idea. You're trading a minimum set of requirements for a better service. Your value added proposition is, availability. You'll always be on call if necessary. I typically ask for 20 hours a week minimum between 2 projects. This takes a little pressure off to spend time in the code base and iron things out. My contracts are typically 3-6months. Rates also vary between w-2 and corp-to-corp. Freelancing is a very inexpensive proposition when add up how much hiring and employing someone really costs. Hope that helps. Freelanceswitch.com is a great resource.
Comments
I've worked on 2 week retainers initially. It's worth while with small and larger clients alike. It adds a air of security and relationship trust between you the client. Make it know upfront you work on a retainer though, obviously not after the fact. Individual clients not so much. Somewhat unrelated, but relative is a talk by Mike_FTW on payments --freelancing http://vimeo.com/22053820
How do your retainers work? My thought was to charge them some minimum number of hours a month that they'd pay regardless of use, but in exchange, I'd put their stuff on my pager, and make time to deal with it if they had an emergency.
I think it makes a lot of sense for SysAdmin type work; there are times when you really need me /right now/ - waiting for me to clear my schedule some time next week is not going to work.
I think maximum value would be achieved if I put your stuff on my pager. when something breaks, I go fix it and let you know what happened when you wake up; This is a lot of value for you, but for me to be effective at this, I need to know a lot about your systems, and as such, I'd want some sort of monthly money to pay to hold your system in my brain and my notes (and to answer my pager when it goes off at 6am.)
It seems to me like this sort of relationship would work best if it was very long term; you'd keep paying me the retainer until you can afford to hire your own SysAdmin.
I think you have the right idea. You're trading a minimum set of requirements for a better service. Your value added proposition is, availability. You'll always be on call if necessary. I typically ask for 20 hours a week minimum between 2 projects. This takes a little pressure off to spend time in the code base and iron things out. My contracts are typically 3-6months. Rates also vary between w-2 and corp-to-corp. Freelancing is a very inexpensive proposition when add up how much hiring and employing someone really costs. Hope that helps. Freelanceswitch.com is a great resource.