Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / How Marketing Freelancers Escape the Feast-or-Famine Cycle
Transcript
- Lucas: If you are a marketing freelancer, you know that one month you are drowning in work and the next month you are checking your email every thirty seconds hoping a client needs something. Luna: I have been there. It is exhausting. And it makes it really hard to plan anything long term. Lucas: So today I want to talk about how a marketing freelancer I know — let us call her Sarah — broke out of that feast or famine cycle by switching to monthly retainers. And she did it without losing income. Luna: Okay, I am curious. Because the common fear is that retainers mean you are leaving money on the table compared to project rates. Lucas: Exactly. But Sarah found the opposite. She was a graphic designer who did a lot of social media graphics and email templates. Her typical month was around eight thousand dollars gross, but it was lumpy. One month she would bill twelve thousand, the next maybe four thousand. Luna: And that variance is stressful. You never know if the next twelve-thousand month is coming. Lucas: Right. So she decided to approach her five best recurring clients and propose a monthly retainer. She offered them a flat rate of two thousand dollars per month for a set package — say, ten social graphics and two email templates. That was slightly less than what she would have charged if they bought those items piecemeal. But it was guaranteed. Luna: So she traded a bit of upside for stability. Lucas: Exactly. She signed three of those five clients. That gave her six thousand dollars in predictable revenue every month. Then she kept one-off projects from other clients on top. Her average month ended up being around eighty-five hundred dollars — actually higher than before, because she stopped having those slow months where she made almost nothing. Luna: So the stability itself drove more income. Lucas: That is the counterintuitive part. Her total annual income went up, but more importantly, she knew every month that at least six thousand dollars was coming in. That changes how you negotiate, how you invest in tools, how you sleep at night. Luna: Yeah, that peace of mind is huge. Lucas: And here is something that might surprise you — the clients actually preferred the retainer model too. One of them told Sarah that having a fixed monthly cost made it easier for them to budget. They did not have to approve each small invoice separately. Luna: That makes sense. A predictable expense is easier to justify than a variable one. Lucas: And it builds a deeper relationship. When a client commits to a retainer, they are not just buying deliverables — they are buying a relationship. Sarah started getting pulled into strategy conversations. She became more of a partner than a vendor. Luna: That is a huge upgrade in terms of job satisfaction and career growth. Lucas: Look, this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me glad we can have these conversations without ads interrupting. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — and that is literally what funds making this many of these episodes. It keeps the conversation focused on what actually works. Luna: Totally. It is listener supported, and that means we can dig into real tactics like Sarah's retainer model without having to pitch anything. Lucas: So back to Sarah. Once she had three retainer clients, she realized she needed to systematize her delivery. She created templates and a shared calendar so clients knew exactly when to expect deliverables. That reduced the back and forth and made the retainer feel valuable to both sides. Luna: She basically built a mini agency process for herself. Lucas: Exactly. And she started tracking her time to make sure she was not over-delivering. The fear with retainers is you end up working way more hours than you planned. So she set a cap of about fifteen hours per month per retainer client. If they needed more, she would discuss a higher retainer or a separate project fee. Luna: That boundary is important. Otherwise you can end up resenting the client. Lucas: Right. And it also helps in the initial pitch. When Sarah approached a client, she did not just say, 'Hey, want to go on retainer?' She came with a specific proposal. She said, 'I noticed you typically spend about two thousand dollars a month on graphics. I can offer you a retainer for the same amount, but you get priority scheduling and a fixed monthly scope.' Luna: So she made it a no-brainer. Same money, more predictability, better service. Lucas: And she framed it as a way to help them. Not as a way to lock them in. That is key. She said, 'This will help you budget better and ensure you never have to wait for me when you have a last-minute request.' Luna: That is a much easier conversation than asking for a retainer out of the blue. Lucas: I think the lesson here is that retainers are not just for big agencies. Any freelancer with repeat work can shift at least part of their income to a retainer model. The hard part is starting the conversation. Luna: And knowing which clients to ask. Not every client will say yes. Lucas: Right. Sarah targeted clients who had been working with her for at least six months and who had a consistent pattern of monthly work. That gave her confidence they would see the value. Luna: And if they said no, she did not lose the client. She just kept working project-by-project. Lucas: Exactly. Three out of five said yes. That is a sixty percent conversion rate. And the two that said no still gave her occasional projects. Luna: So there was no downside. Just potential upside. Lucas: I think that is the big takeaway. Retainers are lower risk than people assume. You are not asking for a long-term contract. Most of Sarah's retainers were month to month with a thirty-day cancellation notice. That gave the client an out, but in practice, no one has cancelled. Luna: Once people experience the convenience, they stay. Lucas: And that is the flywheel. Predictable income lets you invest in your business. Sarah used her stable base to take an advanced UX design course. That led to higher-value projects and eventually a rate increase on her retainers. Luna: So the stability fed into growth. Lucas: Absolutely. And I think that is the real story. The feast or famine cycle is not just stressful — it holds your career back because you are always in survival mode. Retainers free up mental bandwidth to think strategically. Luna: For anyone listening who wants to try this, what is the first step? Lucas: I would say look at your last six months of invoices. Identify the clients who send you work every month or every other month. Then calculate their average monthly spend. That is your starting point for a retainer proposal. Luna: And then have the conversation. It does not have to be a big formal presentation. Lucas: No. Just a simple email or a conversation after a project. Say, 'I have been thinking about how to serve you better, and I want to propose something.' That is all it takes. Luna: I love that. A low-pressure offer that actually benefits both sides. Lucas: That is the sweet spot. Marketing freelancers are marketers themselves — we should be good at framing value. This is just applying that skill to our own business. Luna: Good point. And it is a skill that compounds. Once you have a retainer structure, you can scale it. Lucas: Exactly. Sarah now has four retainer clients and only takes one-off projects when they are especially interesting or high-paying. Her income is more stable than many full-time jobs. Luna: That is the dream, right? The freedom of freelancing without the financial roller coaster. Lucas: It is achievable. It just takes a deliberate shift. And the best time to start is when you have a little momentum — not when you are desperate. Luna: And if you are in that slow month right now, maybe this is the push to start planning. Lucas: Yeah. Use the quiet time to prepare your proposals. Because the feast will come again, and when it does, you want to be ready to convert it into something steadier.