For some businesses, the amount of creative work may vary significantly during the course of an average month. For these businesses, a creative retainer agreement may provide both the creative services you need and the cost-certainty that you want. If you’ve never considered a creative retainer agreement, here are a few reasons you may want to consider one.
3 Major Creative Retainer Agreement Advantages
The benefits of staff without the costs. A creative retainer agreement enables you to work with a single designer, who gets to know your business, your needs and your style. It allows you to put a designer on staff for a set number of hours per month without incurring the costs that go along with having an employee. With a creative retainer, the designer will supply his own workspace and materials. Additionally, you pay a flat hourly rate, without additional costs for benefits, taxes and other expenses associated with having a regular employee.
Relief for existing staff. For some businesses, a creative retainer agreement represents extra staff capacity when you need it. Depending upon the nature of your business, your creative needs may vary significantly from month to month. Even if you have a designer on staff, having extra capacity enables you to meet changes in your creative needs, and provide continuity of service when your in-house staff take vacations or become ill unexpectedly.
Cost certainty. For some businesses, cost certainty is important. With a creative retainer agreement, you not only have cost certainty, you exercise a high degree of control over how much you spend each month on creative services. You determine how many hours each month you want to reserve for creative services, and you pay for what you’ve reserved. If you discover that you need more hours (regularly or occasionally), you can work with your designer to secure additional hours of service at a predetermined rate. Having control over your creative costs means that you can plan for and manage your expenses in a way that makes sense for your business.
A creative retainer agreement is an innovative, cost-effective way to ensure that your business has the design services it needs. If you would like more information about a creative retainer agreement, or how your business can put a creative retainer agreement to work today, please contact our Creative Director, Dave Ramsell or give Dave a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation.
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