I was just curious to find out if VA's generally set a minimum number of months for a retainer agreement. For example, do you set 3 months, 6 months, etc per 30 day retainer?

Thanks!
-Ro

I set a 6 month retainer limit and if hours not used within that time they are forfeited.

Cheers

Fiona

I am new to this, but I have found the best way is to check out other VA websites and see what others are offering.

I do my retainers on a monthly basis. This offers the client some flexibility should their budget run short or their needs temporarily change.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Like Lily, I do mine on a monthly basis with any unused hours rolling over to the next month. This means clients aren't tied into a long contract and there's flexibility if they find they need to increase or reduce their hours.

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Valerie - Smart VA
Virtual Assistant Support

This is how I do it:

The first 3 months is month to month on a trial retainer agreement, hours roll over etc, and starting with a basic number of hours (10 for example).

Then, after the 3 months is up, I offer a new agreement - hours are set and adjusted quarterly. I believe it's in my own and my client's best interests to know each month how much availability I have, so "locking" x number of hours for 3 months helps minimize wild fluctuations that make it hard to estimate.

It allows me to plan my time and allocate it accordingly so that when time crunches or emergencies (or even short term increases) do arise, I'm better able to deal with them.

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Crystal Coleman, The Northern Edge

I like that idea so many want to 'try'

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Virtually Yours (Assistance) helping businesses increase their ROI by handling those essential tasks that don't make money

Crystal that's a really good way to do it. I like the 3 month trial agreement. Thanks for sharing.

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Jennifer Hansen
http://www.tangled-webb.com

Does anybody have a pricing model for retainer services?

Ex: X amt for certain services

Just trying to get an idea of what is charged

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Virtually Yours (Assistance) helping businesses increase their ROI by handling those essential tasks that don't make money

I charge x dollars for different services. I have one client who buys blocks of time every month and another who I bill every two weeks. One client buys x amount of hours every month and we use that time for the same services each month. She pays one flat hourly rate for all the work we do. For the client I bill every 2 weeks, we have an agreement that I can't go over x amount of hours in that 2 week time-frame. She uses several different services and so we agree that one service will be x hours per week and another service will be x hours per week. Each service has different rates. It sounds confusing but it really isn't. We've been working this way for 3 years and we use Freshbooks to keep track of time and tasks.

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)