Why Ad Hoc Work Can Be Better Than Retainers

You’ll hear this advice a lot as a freelancer: land a few big retainers and you’re set. You’ll only need to manage a few clients and your income will be more stable.

While true, retainer arrangements have a lot of drawbacks unless you have an absolutely perfect client.

Rather than chase the big retainer, freelancers should embrace the idea of ad hoc work. If you manage your clients well, you’ll actually have more freedom and stability than a retainer arrangement offers.

Retainers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be

As a freelance writer, 75% of my work is ad hoc: clients make requests on an as-needed basis and we negotiate a due date. And I always have plenty of work.

This began out of necessity: I was a new freelancer and couldn’t afford to say no to work. So I said “yes” to everything. I quickly realized that I could have a full roster of clients built on a bunch of small arrangements, rather than a few big retainers.

Retainers are a hard sell.

Unless you’re a very well-established freelancer with a glittering portfolio, it can be hard to convince a client to sign a retainer agreement. They don’t trust you yet.

They may ask for a test assignment or want to work with you for a month before agreeing to a six-month arrangement. And meanwhile, you may be passing on other work on the possibility of taking on this retainer.

Retainer deliverables can be tricky.

Let’s say you promise a client four deliverables per month. And the client only approves three ideas. What happens to the fourth? Do you deliver five the following month?

Retainers often have a rollover problem. Between client approvals and your own schedule (like taking a vacation), it’s hard to make sure your client is getting everything they’ve paid for.

Losing a retainer is hard.

As much as retainers seem like stable income, losing a retainer can be a huge blow. And it may have nothing to do with your work, but the client’s budget or needs change.

You’ll find yourself scrambling to land a new retainer so you don’t have a gap in your income. And you may not have been focused on marketing yourself at all while your plate was full.

You can’t break up with a retainer client.

The client that seemed great when you initially signed an agreement might turn out to be a nightmare. And if you have a retainer, you’re stuck. You have to deal with that terrible client for the duration of the agreement.

One of the great things about freelancing is control over your work. Ad hoc work allows you to drop a client at any time.

A few things to keep in mind with ad hoc work

I usually have around 12–15 clients at any given time. Some send me work very regularly (even though the agreements are ad hoc) and some send me very occasional projects. Personally, I like the variety.

When something new comes in, I let the client know the earliest date I can deliver and make sure that will meet their needs (it usually does). I’m typically booked out at least 1–2 weeks.

You have to be really good at project management.

Retainers require some project management, but retainers require more. You’ll be juggling more client communications, more due dates, and more project nuances.

For example, as a writer, I have to pay attention to each client’s style guide. I use Trello to manage deliverables and put a link to the client’s style guide when new work comes in. But if I were only managing two or three clients with retainers, it would be less to keep track of.

You need to market yourself more.

Because clients can come and go more freely, you need to constantly be thinking about bringing in new clients. The upside to this is that it becomes a built-in part of your workweek.

Think of the freelancer who takes on big retainers, loses a client, and then shows up on LinkedIn once every six months to say, “Hey, I’m open to new work!”

Whereas I’m always on the lookout for new opportunities. I’ll take meetings with anyone that reaches out (provided it’s the type of work I want to do). I stay active on LinkedIn since it’s my main source for potential clients.

It can be more unpredictable.

Yes, ad hoc deliverables can mean that your income isn’t steady from one month to the next.

This was the case when I first started freelancing. My income was wildly unpredictable. But I learned to squirrel money away in the good months to offset the bad months.

Now I’m in a position with enough clients that I sometimes have to turn work away. If a client needs a deliverable by a certain date, I might be booked. That’s the trade-off they have to understand when they’re signing an ad hoc agreement instead of a retainer.

Ad hoc work has amazing benefits

One of the biggest benefits to ad hoc is that you can sign new clients all the time (if they’re a good fit). Just make sure they understand that your availability depends on what other clients assign you. This becomes intrinsic motivation: if they want you to do the work, they need to get their requests in early.

You’ll also be able to add a huge variety of work to your portfolio. Working on the same type of project month after month with a retainer client can be boring. Variety is the spice of life and with ad hoc assignments, you’ll always be working on something new.

If the idea of ad hoc work makes you nervous, consider a combo. You can add some stability with one or two retainers and let the rest be ad hoc. But I consider my ad hoc work to be less risky than losing a big retainer because I always have enough clients to fill my days.

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