Let’s be honest, you started working as a Virtual Assistant to make money so that you have a level of income that gives you the freedom to leave your 9-5 and live life on your own terms, right?
That’s absolutely possible.
But how do you set your rates as a Virtual Assistant to enable you to do that?
What pricing structure will enable you to do that?
If you price yourself too high, you could put off potential clients. On the other hand, if you price yourself too low, you’ll have to work way too many hours to reach your income goals. The fast road to burnout.
Here’s my simple advice – charge the industry average.
The current average hourly rate for a UK Virtual Assistant is £30.
I know it can feel tempting to go below that so that you look more appealing to potential clients, but we’re not washing powder. We’re providing a service and undercutting the competition can actually be detrimental. Apart from pissing off your fellow VAs, you’ll make your services less appealing to high-quality clients because they’ll question why you’re cheaper. What’s the catch? They’ll probably end up assuming your services are lower quality and / or wonder whether you’re working under the radar of HMRC!
So let’s work out how much to charge as a Virtual Assistant:
Identifying Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Your pricing is not the key selling point that will get potential clients wanting to work with you. I can’t stress that enough, so I’ll say it again in bold: Your pricing is not the key selling point that will get potential clients wanting to work with you. Neither is the number of hours it takes you to complete a task. Because if a potential client doesn’t need what you’re offering it’s irrelevant what the price is, right? So, both of these are secondary considerations. What really matters to your clients is the value you provide. What do they get out of working with you? What change do you make to their business, their life?
You can make it easy for clients to say yes to your pricing by establishing and communicating your unique value proposition (UVP). I don’t mean niching down to something overly specific like making dinner reservations for plumbers with electric vans within a 10 mile radius of your home who are allergic to peanuts.
Your UVP is essentially, how your services create positive outcomes for your clients and the consequences of those outcomes. For example, say you offer email support. The positive change here is that the potential client does not need to keep checking their emails throughout their working day and getting distracted.
As I state in my books, it takes on average 23 minutes to get back into a task once you’ve been sidetracked. Add those 23 minutes up over a day for a client who charges his clients £150 an hour – while you’re charging £30 an hour – and the client is saving a LOT of money, staying focused, has one less thing on their to-do list, knows their own clients are attended to… I could go on. But basically, your cost is kind of irrelevant because of all the other benefits your service here brings.
Pricing Models for Virtual Assistants
Hourly Rate (ad hoc)
Most VAs start out by charging an hourly rate. It is flexible in that you can come up with custom quotes for each client and each project. However, it relies on you being able to predict how long it will take you – which I can help you with in my blog How to calculate how long tasks take as a Virtual Assistant. Equating your pricing to the hours you work and not the value you provide does put a limit on your earning potential – as I am sure you’ve worked out.
You only have so many hours in any given week, and as I said above, you started this business so you don’t have to work all the hours God sends.
Remember, if you’re unsure how many hours you will need to work to bring what you need into your home, charging £30 an hour, then use my free Virtual Assistant income calculator here.
If you find you’re working / going to be working more hours than you’d like then you might want to consider packaging your services:
Packaging Your Virtual Assistant Services
Packaging your services allows you to charge a set rate for a certain set of tasks. You get to set the parameters for how you work with clients and highlight the services you like to do.
There’s no need for time tracking sheets (woohoo) and no question about what the final invoice will be (easier to convert clients when they know what the end cost will be).
Also, you have the chance to earn more in less time!
With packages, you set your price according to the maximum number of hours it could take you to complete the task, plus some other factors which I cover in my packages course, to cover your basis.
You charge a much higher rate for packages, work less and, as you become familiar with a client’s business, you’ll get quicker at the task, so you work even fewer hours at the same rate!
You may want to start by charging an hourly rate as you figure out how long it takes you to do tasks and the services you’d like to focus on. Then you can move to a package model as you gain more experience and regular clients. Or, use the formula in my blog – mentioned above – on how to calculate how long tasks will take.
When I introduced packages into my business, my income soared and my conversion rate was 90% from enquiry. Packages are such a great incentive for business owners for the positives mentioned above.
Retainers
This is when you come to an agreement with a client to allocate a certain number of hours for a client in your diary every month so you can complete tasks for them.
This pricing model is preferred by many VAs because they know what their income will be every month, but there are three very important things to consider with retainers as a Virtual Assistant:
- Most clients like to start working with you ad hoc so do not charge less per hour for retainers otherwise you’ll start earning less money working the same hours. And then have to work more hours to make up the loss! The incentive to your clients is that they’ve secured your time and your turnaround time will be quicker.
- If your client doesn’t have any money or doesn’t want to work with you anymore because you’re not doing a great job they can simply stop working with you. You may well have 1 or 3 months notice in your terms of business but it’ll cost you a lot more to take that to court to enforce. So avoid seeing retainers are the safer option and still offer ad hoc and packages
- Be careful not to allow any retainer clients to take up more than 20% of your time, or your income. If you lost them you’re up that British river they dumped sewage in without a wet suit.
This is just me being cautious because I have built my business to avoid bouts of famine, but when there’s no hiccups, retainers are great because they give you regular work and can make your income more predictable. Also, you get to foster a long-term relationship with the client, better understanding their business so you can better serve them and make an even greater impact.
Avoid trying to push potential clients onto retainers as it’s very off putting and daunting for someone who hasn’t worked with a Virtual Assistant before.
What if Someone Questions Your Pricing?
You need to be confident in your pricing so you can communicate it to your clients. Discounts benefit no one but the client and this is your business. You’re supposed to be making a living.
Be transparent about your pricing from the go. You wouldn’t want to be about to get started with a client and then find out they’re not happy with your pricing. You could even be losing clients without realising it. Some people won’t reach out if they can’t find your pricing. Which is another reason I say that you need a website.
If you have to come up with a custom quote, ask as many questions as you need to get the full scope of the project. Be okay to give yourself time to get back to the potential client with the quote so you don’t undercharge when under pressure.
Stand by your worth. If they want to negotiate it’s a massive red flag that they don’t understand how business works and probably aren’t making enough money in their own business to afford you long term anyway.
Always document your pricing with payment terms in a written contract. I use and recommend KoffeeKlatch for the VA Terms of Business. Use discount code CATH10 for 10% off.
The pricing model you use and how you communicate the outcome of working with you, through your marketing and content, to potential clients will make it easier to attract and convert potential clients.