Ask HN: Retainer ideas for a designer

A client of mine had a designer on a retainer. They're a mail order business and would sometimes get very last minute offers on ad space just as magazines were going to press - and the designer had to be available to crank out a print ad with their very latest offers at very short notice. Unfortunately they stopped print advertising in the end and he was let go.

They do send a lot of marketing emails but employ someone in-house to design those nowadays (who also handles the limited print ads that they still run).

I'm unclear what you are after - are you asking us to help justify charging them for nothing, just because you did work for them in the past? Like, a license fee for continuing to use your designs? Or are you asking what services could be provided on a monthly basis that don't require actual work?

We don’t charge a retainer, but do bill in advance. This can solve a lot of cash flow issues, and even out your billings. I’ve written about this approach here: http://www.erickarjaluoto.com/blog/how-we-fixed-our-studios-...

- "As a developer, one could host a webapp and charge for a retainer (with hardly any ongoing work)"

This is not really true. Depending on the stack / type of project, there is a number of things you do on regular basis to maintain a project. People are bad at technology and a lot of it for me is usually fixing human error (especially CMS driven projects).

Also, the one time something breaks and the developer has to spend time rectifying the issue is spread out as a cost across a number of payments.

Not just a rant - there is an answer in what I've said - value is offered as part of the retainer. Client receives the peace of mind they need and doesn't have to worry about having to find someone to fight fires, when they do eventually hit.

Find things that offer value, be it peace of mind or something else, and upsell towards the end of your projects.

You could partner with a developer and create some themes and sell them in theme marketplaces. That's one way designers can make scalable recurring revenue. Most of the customer support will be on the developer's side to solve bugs and installation problems.

There’s the opportunity for retainer for the possibility of additional work. (If they need you, you have taken that money in order to have availability for them.)

This question is confusing. It sounds like you just want money without providing value. I would worry less about that part. Figure out something you can actually provide first without thinking about the free money, maybe a-lot x hours a month for providing additional digital assets (you made their logo but if they need it in different sizes, colors, svg, included with a picture, facebook banner, google business, some advertisement, etc) that might have value if they can't do that themselves or don't have the time. It's almost always the later.

The key to getting a retainer irrespective of being a programmer, designer, or gardener is client selection. For a designer, one obvious route to passive income is licensing fees. But again, finding clients that will be happy to pay such fees is the bigger problem in a world where many people will assume they own the designer's design by virtue of commissioning the work.

Good luck.

A retainer is a liability on your books. When the relationship ends, you pay it back. The purpose is to give you the money needed to do what's necessary, basically prepaid work. Also, it should make it clear that the client's work is priority over work not yet contracted.

Anytime I've ever charged a retainer, it's been because there has been ongoing work and they've needed me to be available at short notice. A retainer acts as a little bonus to keep me from giving another gig higher priority.

I'd pay a designer for retainer. We have a designer we work with at the moment who is great and I have ongoing needs. Woudl be easier to send bits and pieces as we need them instead of batching.

Create visual assets that can be reused (templates, logos, icons, illustrations) and sell those on various marketplaces? Apply subscription model licensing to the designs you create for clients?

Are you talking about a royalty?

What’s in it for your clients?

Doing work rocks