I remember telling a friend who was doing work for me that I charge a retainer with unlimited hours for clients. Her eyes got huge and she said, “You must get taken advantage of a lot.” The answer is simply that I don’t. Do I sometimes tiptoe into scope creep? Yes, but I’m able to get myself right back out of it with some firm and plain language.

So how I do charge clients a retainer with unlimited hours and why is it successful for me? Let’s talk about it.

It’s not really unlimited hours

During the prospect process, I get to know as much as I can about the client. I get an idea of how much work they expect, how much their audience participates as well their size and what kind of client they will be. I also get to know their events the best I can, so I know how often I can expect extra hours. Based on all of the information I gather, I can come up with an estimated amount of hours per month to base my fee on.

Is it a fool proof system? No. But I’ve been doing this long enough that I can get a pretty good idea of how many hours a client will take. If you’re just getting started doing this, you will underestimate, so you may want to consider adding a few hours onto your estimation.

And then just watch how the hours accumulate over the stretch of the contract. You can negotiate your future fee based on real numbers. The best case scenario is that you overestimated and you can keep your fee the same. But if it’s the first time trying the unlimited hours scenario, more than likely you will have to ask for a higher fee. This is tough and that’s why you should always round up to give a little padding to your fee.

All of this to say that unlimited hours does not mean we don’t track the hours used.

Clients feel freer

I think one of the greatest parts of charging a retainer with unlimited time is the freedom it gives my clients. One of my clients actually said to me, “I can really ask you any question I want, and it doesn’t count against me!” Completely true. So clients do tend to ask questions, which leads to a more educated client in the long run. That’s a client who will advocate for you during budget time.

But also, they don’t feel like they have to use their monthly allotted time. So in a lot of cases, I don’t have irrelevant meetings or any expectation to use up the hours they technically have. Client communication is more focused because of this. 

The amount of flexibility works really well for clients. Some months they’ll need me a lot, and I’ll be there. Some months they won’t need me as much, and I can keep working more in the background for them. Everything averages out and nobody has to explain a larger amount of hours some months.  

Flexibility for the consultant

Look, I do track my hours for clients, but I don’t always track them closely. When I’m doing a quick check-in while I’m on the go, it’s easier to just do the check-in and not track the time it took me to do that check-in. It also provides the flexibility for bulk check-ins for clients, instead of focusing in on one at a time. Everyone gets the service that they need. And there’s no need to track it separately. That’s a big win on my end.

I also don’t have to negotiate for every single thing I want to do. If I have an idea that doesn’t necessarily fit the scope, I can look at hours we have for that month and whether it might fit in. Maybe we do less of one task and experiment with something new. I can let the client know my thoughts, and usually they are game. That leaves so much more time for experimentation. And I’m not as preoccupied with administrative tasks.

Does it always work that smoothly? No. There are times where I do have to negotiate an extra fee. But there is some flexibility where it doesn’t have to be every single time we do something new. That’s huge for both me and the client, since it saves time for both of us.

A retainer isn’t foolproof

Tracking time closely does something very important: It alerts you to when a client is consistently over time and allows you to give them warnings that they will have to pay you more if this continues.

A retainer with unlimited hours doesn’t do that. You can easily get taken advantage of by clients if you don’t have strict boundaries.

I will say it’s rare because for the most part, I’ve done enough vetting through the prospect process. But sometimes someone gets through or a client contact changes after a contract is signed. I’ve had clients think that they work for them all day, every day. In these cases, I point to our contract and confirm my boundaries. That’s usually enough to help us figure out how to work with each other.

There is that extremely rare case where that’s not enough. I’ve had one in all the years I’ve worked in social media, and they had to be fired. Remember that working with you, especially with a retainer that includes unlimited hours, is a privilege. When that privilege is abused, it’s time to move on.

Have you ever tried working with a retainer that includes unlimited hours? How did it work for you?