A client I've had since 2004 is not needing as much work this past year, so what has been a monthly income for the last 4 years is now being negotiated to an hourly rate. I've been very fortunate to have this client and happy to have good relationship with them since they were my first client ever, after design school. I would like to send them an email with my hourly rate (about $50-$60, now that I am more established). Please note that this client has a seasonal cycle, so most of the heavy work load is during the winter season.

Oh yes, please also note that during the time I've worked with them, I have ended up working alot more hours than the fixed monthly price without charging more since there are times were I've worked less and so on.

My question is: What is the best way to approach this since I feel like I've been downsized? Do I offer a retainer?

I posed this query to the FreshBooks Forum and hope that some of the advice there has been extremely helpful in this regard. And if people are interested, have a look here