Daily Rate to Monthly Retainer

**Jeebo72** · 15 December 2009, 11:45

I think they are looking to hold onto you without you doing much work???Therefore they may be looking to pay a lot less than your current dailly rate. Otherwise they would just contract you for 3 months.

**StellaFan** · 15 December 2009, 11:55

Originally posted by Jeebo72 View Post

I think they are looking to hold onto you without you doing much work???Therefore they may be looking to pay a lot less than your current dailly rate. Otherwise they would just contract you for 3 months.

yeah that's how I interpreted it. They want to effectively pay you to be available should they need anything. If they do specify some work within that period then presumably they will then pay the difference.

All depends on how the market is for OP I suppose

**Pondlife** · 15 December 2009, 13:21

Offer to sell them 5, 10, 15, 20 days paid in advance work that they can call off as they need, subject to a mutually agreeable SLA.

If you don't do x days work you're up on the deal, if they want to buy more days they can subject to your availability.

**mudskipper** · 15 December 2009, 13:39

It depends what they need- if they want you to be 100% available, then they need to pay accordingly. I work two paid days a week, and I get a small retainer which gives them a 'best endeavours' response if they have an urgent problem. This doesn't prevent me taking other work or going out and just means that if they need to call me on a day I'm not working, there's an arrangement in place and if I'm able to help I will. Any time actually spent working or fixing stuff is chargeable, or becomes one of my two days. We've been in the arrangement 3 months, and they've only called twice, so it's working from my point of view!

**simes** · 15 December 2009, 13:45

Is your daily rate currently above market value? If so, maybe a reduction is appropriate to whatever Is the accepted rate.

If it is At current market value, then probably no reduction necessary...

**ptben** · 15 December 2009, 15:08

Thanks for the replys

I reckon I'm at market rate so will price up for 20 working days and go with that. The client did mention that if they don't fill the 20 days then it is there loss so I assume from that I get paid for 20 and they are supposed to fill them

**TheCyclingProgrammer** · 15 December 2009, 15:13

Originally posted by ptben View Post

Thanks for the replys

I reckon I'm at market rate so will price up for 20 working days and go with that. The client did mention that if they don't fill the 20 days then it is there loss so I assume from that I get paid for 20 and they are supposed to fill them

Thats generally the idea of a retainer; they are paying you to guarantee your availability for the month, regardless of whether you actually do any work (otherwise you'd be guaranteeing time that you won't necessarily get paid at the expense of doing paid work for another client).

You may want to offer a slight discount on the basis that you may not always be working; it depends how generous you are and how much the client is willing to pay. Obviously if you end up working every day at a discounted rate, you lose out. If you work half the time, you win even if you give them a discount. Either way its a guaranteed one off payment. Swings and roundabouts.

If I knew I'd probably only be working 50-75% of the time, I'd be inclined to give them 15% discount on my normal rate for the sake of a fixed months income (assuming I didn't have another source of work for that month). You have to make a judgement call on how much work you think you'll need to do.

**Mozart** · 22 December 2009, 16:00

I assume you are working through an agency. Is it possible that they are wanting to get rid of the agency and use you directly and thereby making a saving on agency costs? They may be using semantics to get around agency clauses that prohibit them taking you on a contract basis possibly?

Daily Rate to Monthly Retainer