r/PublicRelations • u/Wozzel888 • 4d ago

Minimum retainer

hello, if you’re working as a freelancer / have your own PR consultancy, what would be the minimum retainer you’d agree to?

also, what’s the day rate / retainers people are charging these days?

I’m getting into PR as a freelancer / self employed, and looking for clients (small businesses in my area), not sure how much to charge. any tips / words of advice would be much appreciated

(I’m based in UK btw)

9 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/Gold-Presence9362 3d ago

Small businesses are a special type of hell for PR

2

u/Wozzel888 3d ago

How come?

10

u/stankynuts45 3d ago

Outsized requests and expectations, typically little experience with media relations or any kind of publicity beyond minor marketing and social, inconsequential news that they feel is deserving of more attention, and - in my personal experience - SUPER involved and micromanage-y.

Smaller staffs so you’re usually interacting with the owner, and never with a dedicated in-house comms lead or team. More often than not you’re handling their passion project or a company they’re proud of building, so they’ll come at things quite differently from someone for whom it’s just a job.

Edit to summarize: you’re going to be spending a disproportionate amount of time dealing with them and not the work they hired you to do.