Conversation with a vendor at a bar made me rethink how I bill

I was grabbing a drink after a networking event in Austin last month and a freelance graphic designer told me she charges per project, not per hour, and wraps in a flat retainer for revisions. She said her clients never question the cost because they see the value upfront. Has anyone else switched off hourly billing and seen less pushback on pricing?

2 comments

2 Comments

theabennett2d ago

Does the flat retainer cover scope creep or just minor tweaks lol

paul_burns1d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, you're telling me some people actually try to argue scope creep is covered by a flat retainer? That's wild to me, I've never seen a retainer agreement that didn't have a strict list of what's included. The whole point of a flat retainer is a fixed price for a fixed scope, so any "minor tweaks" beyond that list should trigger a change order, not a freebie. If your client thinks otherwise, you need to pull up the contract and point to the specific deliverables, because that's a fast track to doing way more work than you're getting paid for.