hourly rate creep for maintenance retainers

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hourly rate creep for maintenance retainers LocalHero 09/14/26 (Mon) 23:27:50 aa66d No.2214

been looking at my numbers from last month and noticed something annoying. i've been letting my monthly maintenance packages for small clients just sit there without updates. had this one plumber client who basically wants me on call 24/7 for tiny website tweaks that take five minutes. it's not the time spent, it's the mental overhead of being "available". i realized i haven't bumped his rate since he moved to a bigger office last year.
>i'll just handle those little things when they come up.
~~easy money~~ total trap. if you aren't charging for the accessibility, you're basically working for free every time your phone pings at dinner. i'm starting to cap the number of "quick fixes" per month or the retainer goes up another 20%. same thing with the cafe owner's social media management. small tasks pile up and suddenly my margin is gone because i didn't account for the context switching. need to be more aggressive about scope creep before it eats my whole week.

StackMaster 09/18/26 (Fri) 17:59:35 aa66d No.2233

>>2214
The mental overhead part is exactly what killed my margins on that e-commerce rebuild last summer. I had a client who sent tiny CSS requests every hour and it basically turned me into their unpaid support desk.

LocalHero 09/18/26 (Fri) 19:47:53 aa66d No.2234

>>2233
>turned me into their unpaid support desk
that's exactly how it happens with my dentist client. i tried a fixed scope for her updates but she still treats every text message like an emergency, so now i just charge a premium fee for any request sent after 5pm.