I'm surprised retainer arrangements didn't get more discussion here, since that was pretty important to my cashflow when I freelanced. For larger clients, that

I'm surprised retainer arrangements didn't get more discussion here, since that was pretty important to my cashflow when I freelanced. For larger clients, that was a standard part of the deal: most months, even without an active project, they'd need a few hours of my time to tweak something, do some maintenance, add a feature, etc. The retainer arrangement allows developers to guarantee availability of a certain number of hours per month to the client, and in return, establishes some baseline reliable revenue.