First; here’s a question I’d love you to answer in your head before you read on: If a Lead VA is charging their clients £35 an hour, how much do you think she should be paying you as her associate?
None of what follows is written in exasperation. I write this from my own personal experience and how my own mindset was before I became a successful Virtual Assistant. I’m not being modest by inserting the word ‘successful’. I’ve included it because it’s important here. We MUST shift our mindset in order for our business to be successful and sustainable.
Okay, so when you’re an employee you just kind of adopt this disgruntled attitude because the company directors are earning thousands, millions perhaps, and you’re only getting £13 an hour as, let’s say – the media department’s PA.
The company’s annual profits have been published and you’re less than pleased to see they’re at £35 million because… you’re only getting £13 an hour!
I’d have been exactly the same when I was employed but now I’d look at it as ‘thank God they’re making profit. I should be okay for a job for another year, at least’.
Now, I don’t mean you should be grateful and never expect more, but we need to put things into perspective. Reminder; I didn’t consider any of this before becoming a business owner.
Yes, you are a vital cog in the wheel of your employers. You are instrumental in the company’s success. But you don’t run that company. You don’t have sleepless nights, you don’t worry whether that new service will sell, you don’t have to worry about constantly ensuring you’re attracting new buyers, you don’t have to worry about company reputation, you don’t have to worry about online trolls, you don’t worry that if you don’t make a profit you’ll have to destroy so many lives with redundancies!
You are important but without you, they would still succeed because of all the things they pay for, because of the knowledge from the top on how to run a business, because the management accountants are keeping investors happy, because HR are recruiting the right people into vital roles, because, because…
Let’s still pretend you’re the PA to the media department. You help run the diaries, organise meetings and take over so much to allow those you support to do what they’re best at.
- Dealing with the press enquiries
- Avoiding a negative story
- Training staff in how to do press interviews
- Trying to stay one step ahead of the press
- Finding the right journalists to promote their positive stories at just the right time
- Remaining Apolitical
- Scheduling launches with press
- Working with the marketing team to promote new services / products
- Working with the sales team to discuss how many need to be sold, how much needs to be spent on PR so the company doesn’t end up with no money
- Working with management accountants to ensure the costs involved with getting the new thing to market won’t mean sales figures have to be beyond achievable to make any money – a profit!
Without a profit there’s nothing to pay you with!
Past profit is needed to pay for your colleagues, to pay for the travel expenses of those that are going to pitch this new thing to the top companies to ensure that this new product sells properly so that profit bucket can increase again and the business is able to pay all its expenses, wages, bills.
That £35 million pound profit soon goes!
And there has to be a contingency for unavoidable world events which may impact the business; war, cargo ships being bombed, pandemics.
With a profit the company can invest in new things, in greater staff, in launching new products / services, in marketing to build their customer base.
Let’s also not forget the silent workers who keep a business going too. We’ve got HR who work with the legal team to produce contracts of employment, to ensure staff are working within UK law and also dealing with the most ridiculous situations: ‘I can’t sit next to Dave anymore he keeps stealing my stapler’.
And then you’ve got payroll who make sure that you’re getting paid every month without fail, who have also allowed for that week you had off ‘sick’. They have to work with HMRC, they have to keep up to date with all the laws and guidelines.
Then you’ve got the premises, the rates, rent, and that small team who have to make sure your mouse mat is set at the right temperature or that your chair isn’t giving you kidney failure.
There’s more…
You know yourself how much utilities are at the moment. Their utility bills aren’t going to be £300 a month! We’re talking thousands! Then does your company provide milk for your tea and coffee? How many times have you sat at your desk and eaten lunch before you actually take your lunch? You’re getting paid for that but the company isn’t getting anything out of you!
You may squirm and feel cheated that your employers have made £35 million in profit, but it’s essential to keep their investors happy, to keep the business going, to keep your job a little bit secure.
The management accountants – the ones who seem to never smile – use those profits to forecast for the next five / ten years to make sure that the company is investable, to ensure consumers / clients don’t go elsewhere, to stop people fearing the company will go bust and not want to work with them.
All of the above is what an established VA is doing to keep her business going and no one is paying her for that. When she’s doing her sales and marketing to attract the client enquiries, she’s not actually getting paid so it’s lost profit! These are all things she’s done since she started her business. It’s why she has a steady stream of enquiries.
As a VA gets to capacity she can either choose to decline working with new clients or, use her experience of converting enquiries like a boss and, give someone else the opportunity to work with the client as her associate, without many of the expenses and unpaid time commitment you’d have running your own business, without worrying about marketing, without worrying about constantly building an audience, without becoming a demon at converting potential clients.
It’s not until you’re running your own business, with your own clients and making a profit, that you realise the work that goes in to making it successful, you start to realise that your time is money – even putting the washing out, during your working day, is wasted time. And wasted time can never be clawed back unless you work extra hours.
There are contracts to pay for. The Lead VA can no longer run her business on the free software out there. She has to invest in the paid versions.
As her business grows she starts moving into VAT territory and then things get even more expensive. There’s more behind the scenes stuff to be done so she needs to take on her own subcontractors, retain an accountant. The list goes on.
Then we’ve got to appreciate the effectiveness of the Lead VAs marketing, her SEO, her reputation. These are all reasons why she’s able to offer these jobs.
Oh and then she’s processing your time sheet every month, paying extra insurance so you can work with her clients, she’s sending the invoice to the client, paying you, chasing the client for the money, paying for her invoicing software, juggling paying tax on unpaid invoices…
Can you do all of that? If so, then you don’t need associate work. You can go forth and get your own clients and charge them £30+ an hour.
Can you ask your Lead VA to increase your Associate rate?
It’s absolutely fine to ask if your Lead VA has any wiggle room to pay you more, but please remember you’re not an employee, you can leave at any time.
I’m writing this blog after seeing a comment online that blindsided me. A new VA said that associates were being exploited. I hope that the comment was made in error from not yet understanding why a business must make a healthy profit. It’s something we all learn about as time goes on.
What I can assure you is; since I entered the world of VA mentoring in 2018 I have championed, and pissed off many people with my firm stand, that we, as VAs and associates, get paid more than we think we’re worth.
Profit is essential in any business for it to be successful and sustainable. Once the mindset shift has been made, THAT is when you see VAs really start to take off.
After sharing all of that I wondered if I could ask again? If a Lead VA is charging their clients £35 an hour, how much do you think she should be paying you?
If you’re looking for Associate Virtual Assistant jobs this might be a useful read.