Marketing is one of the biggest question marks a small business owner faces. Sometimes, you need to move quickly to take advantage of an opportunity, but having marketing and graphic design support on staff may be an expense that most small businesses can’t afford. A creative retainer may provide the solution to this problem.
Can your business use a creative retainer?
The decision to hire someone on staff is a balance of affordability and work volume. Some small businesses (or new startups) may not have the resources to hire a permanent staff person, or they may not have a large enough volume of work to justify adding a person to the payroll. That’s where the creative retainer comes in.
A creative retainer agreement enables a business to commit to a particular number of hours of design services per month or year. The creative retainer agreement is flexible, so if you need a designer to work on a large project, you can add hours to your commitment. At the same time, it gives you a high degree of cost certainty when it comes to paying for creative services.
A creative retainer puts a graphic designer on call for your business for a guaranteed minimum number of hours per month. This is ideal for businesses with a consistent volume of work. It’s also a great solution for businesses with a highly variable amount of design work.
A creative retainer isn’t just for small businesses, however. Larger businesses with in-house design staffs can also use the creative retainer to augment their existing capacity. When internal demand for design services increases beyond the capacity of your in-house staff, your business can send overflow work to the designer on retainer. It allows you to meet your internal productivity metrics without overwhelming your in-house team. It also ensures that potentially important projects and projects with short deadlines receive the creative attention they deserve without compromising other projects and deadlines.
Grantstreet Creative is an independent graphic design and marketing support firm located in Dover, OH. Grantstreet Creative delivers an exceptional range of services that are uniquely tailored to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.
If you would like more information about a creative retainer and how you can put one to work for your business, 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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