Do you pitch retainer agreements to your clients? In the Resourceful Designer Community Slack group, we have a channel called #Bragging-Rights. It’s a place where community members share their most recent wins. Things like Katie telling us her client approved the logo she asked us to critique a few weeks ago. Or Brian sharing the completion of a huge website project with an extremely tight deadline. Or Mike sharing yet another signed design proposal. Whether it’s landing a new client or having their design business showcased in a magazine, everyone in the Community is genuinely happy for the person sharing the good news. That’s what being part of a community is. But nothing seems to garner more congratulations than when someone says they’ve landed a new retainer client. We don’t even have to know the details. The fact that it’s a retainer client is huge and worth celebrating on its own. You see, having a client on retainer is considered the pinnacle of client acquisition. What is a retainer agreement? So what does having a client on retainer mean? It means guaranteed work. It means guaranteed income. It means a fixed schedule. And most importantly, it means better clients that you can create long-lasting relationships. A retainer means your client pays you in advance, regularly, in exchange for whatever work you outlined in the retainer agreement. You see. One of the drawbacks of being a freelance designer is the unpredictability of income. You don’t work a 9-5 at a set hourly rate. Nor are you working in a salaried position with a guaranteed income. There’s no predictable paycheck arriving on a fixed schedule. That’s one of the sacrifices we home-based designers make for the freedom of working for ourselves. But a retainer brings us closer to that predictable, guaranteed income. It creates a steady cash flow you can count on. This is great since you know how much money you are guaranteed every month, which helps with monthly expenses. Not only that. But a retainer helps provide both stability and consistency in your work instead of learning how to deal with new clients every project. It reduces the need to pitch and win new design projects constantly. On top of all that, Retainer agreements attract better clients and allow you to build a deeper relationship with them. Plus, clients treat designers they have on retainer with more respect and as an expert and professional. These clients understand the long-term benefit of working with you. They are not looking for the least expensive designer. No, they’re looking for someone who can consistently contribute to their business. They want an expert and are willing to invest in one. Another benefit of retainers is your schedule. In most cases, you know in advance how much work you will have from your retainer clients every month. This makes it much easier to plan your schedule. If you’re contracted to create a weekly blog post image and want to take a two-week vacation. You know in advance that you need to create three images the week before you leave. Knowing your schedule in advance allows you to manipulate it when needed. How does a retainer work? A retainer is a contract between you and a client that states the service or deliverable you will provide them regularly in exchange for how much. Most retainer agreements work monthly. A client pays you a fixed fee every month in exchange for what you provide to them. You can also have a yearly retainer payment where the client agrees to pay for the full year in advance. Or a lump-sum payment where the client pays you a certain amount, and you work it off or supply deliverables until the money runs out, at which time the agreement is ended or starts over. Retainer benefits to the client Why are retainer agreements appealing to clients? Oftentimes, retainers have built-in discounts that make them more appealing for the client. For example: If your rate is $100/hour, you might offer a retainer of $900 for 10 hours of work each month. Y