Hiring on a retainer
The key to any successful professional relationship is trust. To trust a graphic designer to create work you are happy with, you need time to get to know each other and build the relationship. Employing a designer can be a long process. From sifting through hundreds of CV’s to narrowing your search and interviews you can never be 100% sure you will find the right person.
Additionally, you may be a small business and you may not have the facilities to have an in-house designer, or you may only need someone on a part-time basis. You have enough on-going work you need doing but you need your designer to turn it around pretty quick at an affordable price.
There is an alternative
A retainer may not be suitable for all businesses but for some a retainer is a cost effective way for small and mid-sized businesses and organisations to access services of a graphic design professional without the cost of hiring a full-time employee. It offers the perfect way to get a regular recurring graphic design service for a set amount of priority hours each month specifically towards your projects.
A retainer is a fee that is usually pre-paid for a pre-determined amount of time or work set 3, 6, 12 or longer month terms. Mostly, a percentage of a retainer is paid up-front and some unused hours can roll over to the following month.
A client and designer may decide on a retainer for almost any type of project. Some common types include working on social media artwork design, email marketing design, website design and content updates, newsletter marketing, working on any long-term project such as newsletter or brochure design, video editing, and other marketing and in-house documents.
• Benefits for the client
• Guaranteed hours of work, often given priority over other non-retainer clients
• A discounted daily rate compared to normal freelance fees
• Simplified accounting, paying a set amount each week or month
• Established long-term relationship
• Savings made compared to hiring and employing and in-house graphic designer
• Ending the working relationship is much easier
Could a retainer work for you?
Send me a message expressing your interest in becoming a retainer client and tell me a bit more about your business and design needs. I will assess the work and needs and let you know if the retainer contract would be beneficial to you.