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Suggestions for short-term recurring income

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:49 pm
by allspiritseve
Basically I work with three other guys, and we are all paid on a per-project basis. Which of course means money ends up coming all at once or not at all. We've got some plans for some recurring income in the long-term, but I probably won't be able to devote much time to that until I'm home for the summer. Cash is really tight for all of us right now, and it's tough to pay the bills when you never know when that paycheck is gonna roll in.

So I just figured I'd ask, I know it's a long shot, but does anyone have any suggestions for recurring income that won't take a summer of developing to get rolling? Basically, I just want something to kind of even out the pay so I can take care of bills in between projects. All ideas are welcome.

Re: Suggestions for short-term recurring income

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:50 am
by matthijs
Have you thought about having service contracts for maintenance of websites/ webapps (you build)? Say a couple of hours a month for a website. If a client wants support it's in that support contract. If more then the amount of hours negotiated is being used, you bill that separately, or you deduct it from another months' hours.

I always thought clients wouldn't want this because of the recurring costs, but they actually ask for it sometimes, because that way they are certain of a certain amount of service and they also have a stable set of costs instead of irregular bills.

Re: Suggestions for short-term recurring income

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:22 am
by josh
I second what matt said, this lady I used to sell with called it her "retainer". Some clients will pay a significant amount if you're doing ongoing work. Of course the average over time they have to be saving money ( or at least you'd think ) for it to be worth it on their end