Hi everyone,

I have a client that I've been doing projects for here and there. Recently we've discussed a possible retainer, but I'm not sure if a retainer will be the best solution. The customer is a musician and they want me to now start mailing out their cd orders. The problem is that the orders from month to month vary it could be anywhere from 10-200 cds. They're providing all the shipping supplies and a storage unit for the product. Should I charge hourly or per shipped cd? And if I charge per shipped cd, what is a decent rate? Can anyone help me with this?

All suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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Trena Stubbs of Apex Virtual Solutions
& Author of The Road to Going Virtual

Trena, what an amazing opportunity!

While I don't have an answer for you, if I were offerd the opportunity, I would consider the following:
1) If off site storage, how far for you to drive? How long would that take?
2) Postage would be additional, as would the drive to post office/FedEx/UPS if required (for me FedEX/UPS is a 45 min drive each way!)
3) Packing slips and labels?
4) Turn around time? Are you required to turn around in 24 hr or less?
5) How are the orders received, and how would you manage them?

A client I worked with used a fulfilment house (in the US) for his online store orders. The company stored the product, did the shipping, managed the orders, etc for $4.60 handling charge for the first item, then multiple items on the same order were added at a smaller handling charge. This was on top of the shipping charge if that helps.

Just some things to consider before quoting a price.

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Kathy Crofoot
http://www.kathycrofoot.com

Kathy has given you some great advice. You should ensure you come up with a consistent price as I'm sure they'll be including that in the cost to their clients. If I were doing it, I'd figure out how much time it takes to process the order, including as Kathy said, time to get the order to the courier, mailbox, etc. If I were doing it, I'd probably base it on my time because I'm usually by a mailbox at least once a day walking the dog and I'd just drop them in as part of the walk - or if it had to go by courier, again, not a huge deal for me because our local UPS store is up the road (a two minute drive, 20-30 minute walk) so it wouldn't be a huge deal to go in and drop off courier packages. I'd set up an account with FedEx or UPS or have them set the account up so that you're not dealing with the billing issue, so that all you are doing is dropping off or having them pick up at your place. I have a client an hour away from me but I have her weigh bills and FedEx number so if I have to ship something for her, I have everything I need right here.

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Julia

Have you consdiered charging a invetory or fullfilment price also? I would charge per cd and also your hourly rate for any time spent on the job itself. Better yet you are probably better charging a holding fee per month and then just bill for your hourly rate while working. you should have a per shipment minimum charge also. I would call around a few fullfilment places to see how they charge and determine your pricing from there (cheaper than the fullfilment places but not too cheap).

Also make sure you have some kind of contract that if you were to "god forbid: have a flood or fire that you are not liable for there product etc.

I hope I was helpful

Re liability for product due to flood or fire, that's why it's a good practice to have insurance on your business in your home.

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Julia

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I love this forum. You guys have definitely pointed me in the right direction, before I wasn't even sure where to start. I have now decided how I'm charging this client. After doing some research and reviewing the information posted in the forum I decided to charge a flat monthly base fee for the fulfillment service + a per item handling fee + postage + gas mileage. I didn't charge a storage fee because they're paying for it to be stored in a storage facility near my house.

Again thanks

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Trena Stubbs of Apex Virtual Solutions
& Author of The Road to Going Virtual

Kathy gave you a great response as did Julia. I would also do it this way. Let us know how it turns out.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better