Retainer Information

If you are looking for ongoing support, consider hiring Banner CES on a monthly retainer.

Why should we pay a retainer?

This allows me to guarantee a minimum number of hours of support for your program each month. It also makes your budgeting easier. You need additional support, and it may be easier for you to justify keeping a freelancer on retainer for a few hours each month than adding another FTE.

What’s the minimum?

Whatever you need it to be, but not less than one (1) hour per month.

How much does it cost?

That depends on what ongoing service you anticipate needing. Your retainer will be unique to your needs. If you would like me to spend one hour every month cleaning up duplicates in your database, your retainer would be $30/month. If you anticipate needing me to spend four hours reviewing your activity files every month, your retainer would be $180/month. You may have a mix of needs, in which case we’ll start by talking about your needs and make a determination of the average hourly rate from there.

How does it work?

I’ll schedule time specifically for your organization each month. The exact schedule will depend on what support you need and the number of hours in your retainer agreement.

As far as the actual work is concerned, I’ll keep track of my time and the rate per service provided to your program.

What if there’s more work than hours in the agreement?

Once the work done equals the amount of money in your retainer, I will contact you. The advantage of a retainer is that it makes budgeting easier, and I know that you might not have more in your budget than what is provided in the retainer. You can decide whether to have me continue working on the project at that time, whether someone on your staff can take it over, or whether it can wait until the following month when the next retainer payment goes into effect.

What if there isn’t enough work for the number of hours retained?

Each month, 50% of the amount of your original agreement will roll over to the next month, not to exceed an equivalent of eight (8) hours. If your agreement is for four (4) hours, a maximum of two (2) hours can roll over to the next month. If your agreement is for twenty (20) hours, a maximum of eight (8) hours can roll over to the next month.

How does all of this work when the retainer is based on an average hourly rate?

Spreadsheets! At least that’s the short answer.

The long answer is that I will keep track of my time and apply the appropriate hourly rate based on the service provided. The big difference is that I will be providing work at multiple price points, so your retainer will spend differently than if all work is at the same price point. The hourly rate that can roll over from one month to the next is the average rate set when your agreement was created. But mainly it means detailed time tracking on my end to make sure the work provided is accounted for properly, thus the short answer of “Spreadsheets!”

For example:

What if we need support not in the original agreement?

The retainer agreement is based on the expectation of work to be done but is accounted for based on the work that is actually done. You can spend your retainer on any services provided by Banner CES no matter what your original plan was when the retainer agreement was created. If you hired Banner CES on retainer because you needed regular assistance proofreading your conference materials and are now up for reaccreditation and would like help with a mock survey, you can use your retainer to cover part or all of the mock survey.

For example: You have a $450 retainer for 10 hours of activity file review and proofreading of conference materials each month. It’s February, and your accreditation interview is in March, and you’d really like to have practice session before the real thing happens. A mock survey generally requires 2-3 hours of work, so you can use your $450 retainer to cover the $200-$300 of a mock survey, leaving $50-$150 for other work that month.

I have more questions. Can we talk about this?

Of course! Fill out the contact form, and we can schedule a phone or video meeting to go over your needs and budget constraints.