I'll first start off by saying I do offer retainers. I have clients that use retainers and clients that prefer PAYG. Both are fine with me and I can keep my rate higher with PAYG since I give retainer discounts. Therefore, I make more money. I will have my PAYG clients sign a work agreement.

One of my steady PAYG clients would probably benefit from a retainer plan to save himself some money but he's working on a tight budget and prefers to PAYG. If he's experiencing a particularly tight month he just let's me know and requests a fewer number of hours. I try to be accommodating and work with him. His total project scope will probably be completed in about a year so I know that I'll have steady work but just not formalized into a retainer.

Also, my retainer clients give first dibbs on my time and schedule openings. I fill in my work week with PAYG clients who are aware of this. Everybody seems happy and I can usually accommodate each one's project needs. I'm been fortunate to only have a tight timing schedule come up once.

~Ruth

I completely agree with your client - as a professional assistant, we provide our clients with the peace of mind that we are accessible when they need us. However, we can't wait around the house 24 hours a day waiting for them to need us without being compensated - right?

I've been struggling with the appropriate time and amount that I should expect a client to pay the retainer. On one hand, I'm trying to build a client base and need to gain the confidence in my work. However, on the other hand, not being paid up front seems to defeat the purpose. Any comments?

Wow, what a great thread.
I was thinking of charging by the hour, now I'm not so sure.

Margret

I haven't read through the whole thread and so I apologize if I'm repeating, but a retainer at least provides some level of guarantee that you will have consistent income in the coming months. I've compromised with new clients and let them do a 3 month retainer since neither of us know if the relationship will work out.. but typically its 6 months.

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

Couldn't you also do a hybrid of hours and retainers (like so many VAs seem to do anyhow). Just tell your current clients that you're offering a new retainer option and give them the option of taking it or not. If there already pretty much giving you a certain number of hours per month anyhow, it may even be worth it to them because they'll get a bit of a discount. If their just shy of a retainer, they may decide to go ahead and up it and receive a discount. And, if they like things just the way they are, then so be it. You can offer the retainer discounts to new clients.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase

If you want to charge a retainer but feel a bit guilty about being paid for unused hours, you could always find ways to fill it. Especially, if it's only an hour or two. Assuming by this time you've got a pretty good idea about the client's inner workings, you could use this time by identifying ways you could help them further but haven't been asked to do so yet. For instance, I've learned quite a lot about what blogs can do for a business by "listening" to you guys to know that they can be great marketing tools. You could take a couple of hours to put a presentation together explaining what a blog is and how you think one could really help your client...blah, blah, blah. You wouldn't invoice the client for this "extra work" of course because, even if it fit inside of the hours they already paid for, it may still look like you were charging them for something they didn't ask for. Rather, present it as something "above and beyond" that you put together especially for that client. Even if they decided not to take advantage of whatever you presented, it'll make them feel special and impress on them the fact that you're more than just "hired help". It may also make you feel less guilty about the unused hours because you were able to fill them with something for that client.

Also, if you know that this client will be around for a while and you're getting near the end of the month 3 or 4 hours short of the retainer, you could just let the customer know so that they can give you some more assignments that maybe they were waiting to pass along during the next month. I would imagine that, if a client retains you for so many hours per month, you'll be working on some everyday activities that are ongoing with no clear ending so, you could probably just keep on gettin on until you run out of hours.

My plan is to offer a hybrid to meet my clients' preferences. If they have me on a 20 hour retainer, for instance, and I'm constantly going over, I may suggest that we move them up to the next retainer package to ensure that the time is blocked off for them. Likewise, if the consistently fall below the 20 hours (more than just an hour or two), I may suggest that we cut their retainer back to the lower tier. They may end up paying a little more per hour but at least they won't be paying for a whole lot of unused hours.

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase

Thats great advice, I have retainers set up and if any potential clients question the usage, I'll keep your comments in mind. I also am willing to customize retainers for clients with specific tasks that I will be dealing with on a daily or weekly basis.

This is a great thread. I was thinking of charging a flat fee whenever possible. Any ideas on if that would work on a retainer basis? I'm talking about working with attorneys. So this would be repeat work (hopefully).

I would think that offering retainer services to law offices would be a good thing since they often work on retainer as well and fully understand the concept and need (from a client's point of view).

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase

Hey guys, quick question.
It seems like everybody does their retainer packages a little different. I guess it's just personal preference. Can someone give me an example of what the "tiers" are on your retainer packages and how each tier is discounted.
I'm always looking for better ways to run my business. The way I do it now is at the beginning of the month my clients give me an estimate of how many hours they need to reserve for the month and they pay me 50% of it up front. The rest of the invoice is paid in the middle of the month.
I only do retainer packages for 30 days at a time because I like having a little more freedom to take vacation and have personal time. I would feel kinda trapped with a 3 month retainer but that's just me.So far this has been working fine for me but I'm curious to see how you guys to your tier packages.

Thanks in advance.