𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗤𝗢𝗧𝗪: 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗹𝘆, 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁, 𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿?

🔥

"Get on retainers" is the advice everybody repeats. Recurring revenue, predictable cash, sleep at night.

Fine. Now go look at how you actually bill.

Most of us never picked a model. We inherited one. The first client asked what you charge, you answered with a number and either "per hour" or "for the whole thing" attached to it, and ten clients later that is the business.

Here's the thing. That accident sets your ceiling. Hourly caps you at the hours you can stay awake for. Project pricing pays well and then goes quiet, so one month is feast and the next is panic. Retainers smooth the month out and hand the client a cancel button they can press on a bad week.

Run your own numbers. Forty billable hours at $75 is $3,000. One $3,000 project is the same month with no cap on the hour. A $1,500 retainer is half that, every month, until it isn't.

Scroll the feed and you only get one of those stories. Screenshots of signed retainers. Nobody posts the retainer that got cancelled in month three, or admits they are still billing $45 an hour in year two.

So I want to break that pattern today.

No "it's a mix." No "it depends on the client." Both of those are free to say. One answer, then tell me why you landed there.

𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐥𝐲, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫? 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐭.

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𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗤𝗢𝗧𝗪: 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗹𝘆, 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁, 𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿?