Hello! I am just starting out and wondering how to bill my client using a monthly retainer. I have my hourly rate but am still confused on how to charge a monthly retainer. Should it be a percentage off? Should it be per service or general?

Everything else seems to be falling into place except the billing issues which I can't resolve objectively. Please Help...

Hi William,
Most time people will charge for a set package of hours with a slight discount off the hourly rate like 5%. So if you had a 10 hour retainer package, then you would charge $XXX which is maybe like $2 off your regular hourly rate. Typically, most VAs will require that retainer fees are paid up prior to work beginning...so you charge them at the beginning of the month before work starts. Another option is to ask for a 50% deposit prior to work starting. As a good business practice, it's just a good idea to get some form of payment up front.

Thanks Kimberly! Should I make a separate contract for both the hourly rate and the retainer or should I just make the contract all inclusive?

Personally, if they are getting charged by the hour, then in my biz, they are considered a per project client which has it's own contract. For on-going monthly assistance, then I have the retainer agreement with the different levels of retainer hours listed as check box and I simply mark the number of hours agreed upon. Although, if it's a ongoing client who doesn't want to commit to a certain number of hours and just get charged the hourly rate, I'll usually just modify the retainer agreement to reflect that. Hope that helps.

It does, thanks for taking the time to get back to me.

Your info on retainers is helpful as I am just starting out. Trying to figure out contracts etc.... Much appreciated!

Your post was very helpful, I had the exact same question about the retainer fee, I was completely lost about how to do it but now I understand. thanks

I am new also and am working on billing and contract issues. I am planning to have an hourly rate and three monthly packages. Each package will include a discount off my hourly rate based on the number of hours.

I was thinking of doing two separate contracts -- one for my hourly clients and one for my monthly retainer clients.

The billing and contract issues (as well as finding the right theme for my website) have been the most time consuming items in starting up my business. Once I have these squared away, I will feel much better.

Good luck

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Debbie Burtaine
www.virtualtaskmaster.com

I agree with the Kimberly. When developing your retainer packages, it is important to give them a little discount so they are more inclined to go with the retainer. In our business, we find it is nice to have retainers because they are billed up front and we always know they will use us. The hourly clients we have don't always use us every month.

Also, in addition to retainer rates and hourly packages you can offer blocks of time. This is nice for clients that aren't sure how many hours they will be using per month. How it works is they buy a block of time from you and then once that time block is up they buy another. It's another alternative, but one that works.We always get the question "how much time do you think I'll use per month?" and it can be a nice offering if you are new and aren't sure.

Hope that helps!

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Lauren & Melanie - VaVa Virtual Assistants www.VaVaVirtual.com

I disagree with offering discounts on retainer rates as an incentive. Here's a blog post that I recently wrote on the subject http://bit.ly/Y4OlC4. I would love to hear what other VA's think about this topic.

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Margaret