Virtual Assistant Rates – What’s Fair And How To Pick?
When you start your new virtual assistant business one of the first things you have to decide is your rate. How much will you charge for your services? Will you charge an hourly rate or a set fee for tasks? Will you work on a rolling retainer or a non-rolling retainer? As you’re choosing how much you will charge there are a few things to consider that can make or break you when deciding on your rates.
Business Owner vs. Employee -- Now that you’re a business owner and not an employee you must put yourself into a business owner mindset. As a business owner you have expenses that you do not have as an employee. You will pay your own taxes, and your own expenses and your fee must take this into consideration.
Quality over Quantity -- When you set your rates consider that it is better to have fewer clients of quality than many clients who are, well, cheap. There is no other way to say it but some people will use you and they don’t care if you earn a profit or not. But you know, we are all like that, we all often take the cheapest item over the best made item. Don’t cheapen yourself or your services by under charging.
Your Worth -- What are you really worth? What kind of experience do you have? What is your educational level? What are your skills? What expertise do you offer? In addition, how much do you need to earn to at least keep up with your current hourly rate at your job?
Your Expenses -- How much does it cost you to just exist and pay your bills each month for your business? Even if you haven’t started yet you have expenses. Some possible expenses are your phone bill, your Internet connection, credit card payments for technology and software. Monthly fees for cloud computing, and other fees directly related to having your business.
Billable Hours Available -- Another consideration is how many billable hours you have to work with? As a business owner you don’t have 40 hours a week if you plan to work a normal 8 to 5 day. Some of your daily “work” hours will be taken up with your own business tasks and needs to be considered.
Desired Lifestyle -- Yes, you actually should consider what your desired lifestyle is when you’re setting your rates. How much do you need to live the way you want to live? If your experience and skills don’t quite match up to that desire yet, you can lower it a bit, but you must at least meet your current living expenses.
Once you’ve taken everything into consideration you can come up with an hourly fee. You don’t have to charge an hourly fee, but you can then come up with charges for packages. Simply divide your desired total income by the number of hours you have to work to come up with an hourly fee. Then you can also devise a fee schedule based on tasks performed rather than hourly.
