Retainer discussion
public
group: Consulting and Business
jaykali@drupal.org - Fri, 2008-08-01 01:53
I would like to open up a discussion on retainers for drupal web developers. I started the conversation on drupal.org here: http://drupal.org/node/286539 and I would like to continue that here.
As a drupal consultant or as a client hiring drupal developers/designers/etc, what are your thoughts on retainers?
Definition
A retainer for what purpose? How do you define retainer? etc. etc. etc.
Generally, I charge a retainer if there is no scoped project plan. This is valid for short term contracts, general system architecture, support, and similar items where it is tough to know an exact scope of work. I still try and say "this will take about 40 - 60 hours over the next three months -- pay me a retainer for 50% and we'll discuss and/or re-scope once we cover that many hours".
Perhaps you'd like to start by saying what YOUR definition of a retainer is, and under what circumstances you think it makes sense.
What type of retainer
Good question, Boris. I think of a "retainer fee" as being a fee paid by the client in order to retain the services, i.e. availability of, the supplier. This means the supplier in turn guarantees some level of availability, whether or not the client actually makes use of your services during the period. That agreement may or may not include any actual work done, but usually includes some level. So it's like "insurance" for the client, simply to know that they can get you when they need you (you won't be 100% tied up on other projects, on holiday for a month, etc.)
That's obviously not the same as your use of the expression, and I suspect it's not what jaykali originally meant, which seemed more about support and maintenance/upgrade fees. So I guess we should be talking about "ongoing fees" rather than "retainer fees", or be more specific (support, upgrades, etc.)
A real example of my definition of the term, some years ago I paid a solicitor a 100 pounds per month "retainer fee" so that I could phone them up ad hoc for business legal advice (we were a UK Ltd company.) Some months I phoned them several times, other months I didn't phone them at all. Annoyingly, every time I asked anything more than a fairly simple question they said something like "we will have to investigate, and that won't be covered by your retainer fee." After a year I ended the arrangement as I didn't think it was good value for money.
Very interesting
I agree with your definition of the retainer fee. I am not talking ab retainers for support/maintenance though the retainer would include some support. I would use the retainer as a way of offering availability for X/hours a month for new development. For businesses that hire freelancers its up in the air each project as to whether or not that developer/designer is going to be available. We experience this a lot with contracting out design work. And so for businesses like a web shop that have a constant flow of work coming in they could hire a developer on retainer for 20/40/X hrs a month, not have to pay payroll taxes, etc the kind of things they would have to do for hiring an employee but have more stability than just hiring freelancers.
Retainer as a mechanism for connectedness
Most websites are drive by shootings. Fixed fee jobs encourage rushing to consensus so you can get on to the next fixed free job.
In the past year there have been 6 minor upgrades to Drupal 5.x, a major upgrade to 6.x and three upgrades to 6.x. The typical client is not willing nor able to undertake this work.
Retainer may convey merely availability of service. Clearly every Drupal website deserves a few minutes of attention periodically. My guess is that requires a minimum of 15 minutes attention per month on average. That is more than mere availability.
The most favorable scenario is one in which the service provider and the client enjoy a relationship throughout the life of the website. Most providers will need compensation to provide a suitable level and wuality of attention.
How much?
I'm still trying to get to grips with "market rates" for various types of Drupal related work. Whatever you're standard hourly rate, I guess the retainer rate needs to be less. And maybe your rate for additional work (not covered by the retainer) should be lower for customers who are on a retainer. To try to turn this in to something a bit more "marketing" oriented:
Standard Service Plan
Ad hoc rate for support, etc: $90/hr
Gold Service Plan
Monthly fee $299 (includes up to 4 hours free assistance)
Ad hoc rate for additional support, etc: only $75/hr
I'm not suggesting those names are necessarily good!
I guess it all depends
Depends on supply/demand, your experience, etc.
My plan is to charge $50/hr ad hoc rate and as low as $40/hr for retainer agreements based on how many hours they sign up for. Supporting applications will vary from site to site. Some sites require more attention. I'm not talking ab a retainer just for support. Support is often involved bc if you did the development of a site for a client and you have an ongoing relationship with that client, you are probably the first one they call when something breaks.
You might consider just including the emergency rates in the plan. So you make yourself up available up to X hrs/month for emergency 24/7 support and you build that into the rate.
If "emergency support" ends up being something clients really are looking for that is something I will consider but my plan right now is just $X/hr for X hrs/mo of development. Any additional hours are billed at the standard rate of X/hr.