kai779•24d ago

Used to think retainer clients were the only way to grow...

I was all about monthly retainers for like 3 years. Figured steady income was the whole point. Then I took on a project-based client last October for a $12k website build and realized we made more in 6 weeks than some retainer clients pay in 6 months. The freedom to stack projects without being on call constantly feels way better. Anyone else dump the retainer model for something else?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia38524d ago

Project stacking > being on call every single day.

janahenderson24d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I had a friend who tried the always-on-call thing for a while. She was a sysadmin for a small company and her phone literally buzzed every other night at 2 AM for some server hiccup. She got so burned out she started mixing up work alerts with her regular texts. One time she drove to the office in her pajamas because her phone dinged and it was just a pizza delivery confirmation. She quit after six months and now just does project work on her own timeline. Said her sleep schedule finally recovered after like a year.

evand6524d ago

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather take the steady on-call pay than juggle three deadlines at once trying to figure out which client is yelling loudest.